Movement for Black Lives Statement on Biden’s Budget
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2022
CONTACT: m4bl@berlinrosen.com
Movement for Black Lives Statement on Biden’s Budget
After President Biden released his budget, allocating almost $32 billion to fund law enforcement and $367 million for police reform and other racial justice efforts, the Movement for Black Lives issued the following statement:
“The federal budget President Biden released today shows a blatant disregard for his promises to Black people, masked as an effort to decrease crime. Despite the reality that more police do not translate to safer communities, the President is fine risking even more lives by expanding the excessive, brutal, and discriminatory police presence in Black communities.
The overreliance and investments in law enforcement is a pattern. When Black communities advocate for change — like an end to police brutality, better economic conditions, and affordable housing — the state intervenes with the same racist, dysfunctional, and violent policies and budget priorities that got us here in the first place. Instead of taking real action and investing in Black communities to repair systemic harms he promised to address if we elected him, Biden is handing almost $32 billion to an already bloated and overfunded policing system that threatens Black people every day.
Some call U.S. presidents the leaders of the free world, but U.S. presidents have been the leaders of the most incarcerated population the world has ever seen. To change that we need visionary leadership and moral courage. Instead of giving us that, President Biden is reverting to old messages and cheap shots against a movement that is calling him to respond to this crisis at home. He is cowering. This budget is cowardly.
We don’t need any more broken promises that amount to nothing. If Joe Biden is interested in reviving his presidency, he needs to move in a different direction. Middle-of-the-road reforms will not solve the problem and are an affront to the base that got him in office. It’s time for a new approach that centers the people in public safety, not overfunding police. What we need is a vision of community safety that works for everyone — not just an elite few.”
The Movement for Black Lives is a national network of more than 150 leaders and organizations creating a broad political home for Black people to learn, organize and take action. M4BL includes activists, organizers, academics, lawyers, educators, health workers, artists and more, all unified in a radical vision for Black liberation and working for equity, justice and healing.
