Editor’s Note: Oakland Voices received this statement from Change Consulting, on behalf of Urban Peace Movement.
Urban Peace Movement stands with Oakland voters in their overwhelming support for Measure NN. We all deserve to feel safe, and we know that the safest communities are the most resourced communities.
By passing Measure NN, Oakland voters affirmed their commitment to building a city where community-based organizations like Urban Peace Movement (UPM) can continue providing essential violence prevention and trauma healing support to our most vulnerable residents.
Urban Peace Movement
By passing Measure NN, Oakland voters affirmed their commitment to building a city where community-based organizations like Urban Peace Movement (UPM) can continue providing essential violence prevention and trauma healing support to our most vulnerable residents. This work includes large-scale community events like Town Up Tuesday and Scratch and Fade, as well as trauma-informed healing efforts like connecting people to individual counseling, group healing circles, and community commemorations.
However, while we celebrate this local victory, we are deeply disheartened by the passage of California’s Proposition 36. This measure, funded by powerful police associations and major corporations such as Target, Walmart, and Home Depot, presents a significant setback to meaningful safety solutions.
To truly address crime, addiction, and poverty, we must move beyond failed punitive approaches.
Urban Peace Movement
Prop 36’s so-called “solutions” are a thinly veiled attempt to profit off incarceration rather than prioritize true community safety. Private prison interests and corporate backers stand to gain while our communities lose vital prevention programs and essential care. This regressive measure will incarcerate more of our people, strip over $100 million a year from safety and care programs, and push us backward into failed War on Drugs-era policies.
To truly address crime, addiction, and poverty, we must move beyond failed punitive approaches.
We will continue to call for increased investment in crime prevention, access to drug treatment, mental health services, good-paying jobs, affordable housing, and poverty alleviation. These proven, short and long term solutions are what truly heal and protect our communities.
Despite this setback at the state level, our work does not stop here. After decades of fighting to undo the damage caused by the War on Drugs and tough-on-crime policies, we will continue to build with our community and partners for an Oakland and California that heals instead of hurts, rehabilitates instead of punishes, and invests in people—not corporations or institutions that benefit from locking our communities behind bars.
We are committed to the ongoing struggle for a safer, healthier, and more equitable society for all.
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