![]() ![]() In the fight over the Raleigh police budget, there were two camps. Buffkin said the pay raises for law enforcement “don’t meet the needs of the moment.” Council members David Cox and Patrick Buffkin were the two dissenters.Ĭox said the budget didn’t do enough for public safety workers and spent too much on projects like the new city hall and community engagement bus. They passed the city’s $1.1 billion budget Monday, complete with the funding increase for RPD, in a 6-2 vote despite vehement protest from community activists and police officers. The sincere plea from Williams and her daughter didn’t change the minds of council members, though. Williams’s one minute of speaking time quickly ran out, but her daughter got the last word before the two departed council chambers: “I want to be safe,” the girl, wearing a pink scrunchie in her hair, said. “As this body increases the police budget by the millions year after year, it becomes apparent that the city council members have a high tolerance for police violence and a reckless disregard for the safety of me and my loved ones,” Williams continued. As a Black woman, it is extremely painful to see the unwarranted vendetta police have against Black and brown people.” “Murder and violence against my community is common for the Raleigh PD. “In the last five years, the Raleigh Police Department has brutalized hundreds of people,” Williams said. ![]() Nique Williams carried her young daughter in her arms as she waited to give her two cents on the city’s annual budget. | Photo by Brett VillenaĪt a public hearing last week, a young Black mother was among more than 30 people who stood in line at the podium to protest a nearly $8 million budget increase proposed for the Raleigh Police Department.
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