Imagine Black Featured in Portland Mercury

In the most recent Portland Mercury, Imagine Black was mentioned in FUNDING: Following the investments and cuts to local police work— an article focused on the progress Portland has made on police reform over the past year.

Portland Mercury noted that The beginning of last year’s protests coincided with City Council’s deliberations on the city budget, a vote that determines Portland Police Bureau's (PPB) funding for the year. Of the nearly 800 people who signed up to testify on the city budget in June 2020, the majority of them echoed a request to cut the police bureau’s budget by $50 million. That request was the brainchild of two local social justice organizations, Unite Oregon and Imagine Black (previously the Portland African American Leadership Forum [PAALF]). The organizations envisioned that $50 million being reinvested into community programs to address systemic social issues which police are often called on to resolve.

Despite sustained pressure, City Council shaved a still-significant $15 million off of PPB’s proposed budget for the coming fiscal year, effectively ending three contentious PPB programs in the process: the Gun Violence Reduction Team (GVRT), the School Resource Officers (SRO) department, and PPB’s participation in TriMet’s transit police unit. The budget rerouted $4.8 million of PPB dollars to the Portland Street Response pilot, a program that sends trained mental health workers to respond to certain 911 calls instead of police. Wheeler said the budget reflected the call to “reimagine policing” heard by Portland activists.

Read the full feature here.