Holding banners that read “Treatment, not Trauma,” about 100 youth protesters filled the lobby of City Hall on Friday to increase mental health clinics in the city’s poorer neighborhoods and pay police officers. asked to reduce
Protesters ask voters in four constituencies, the 20th, 33rd and 6th districts, if mental health clinics, which were closed in 2012 by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel, should be reopened this November. was focused on questions about voting for. .
The protest comes as the city council considers Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s proposed $16.4 billion budget for 2023. This includes his $100 million increase in the Chicago Police Department. The funds will be used, among other things, to replace his new police helicopters and other aging CPD vehicles.
Asha Lansby-Spawn, an activist for the Treatment, Not Trauma campaign, said in conversations with people in Chicago’s predominantly black and brown community that they didn’t necessarily want more police. .
“When people talk about why they want more police, it really is a problem in our community and the police are one of the only real options being presented.” Ransby Spawn said.
Carlos Reyes, a sixth grader at Brighton Park Elementary School, said money was wasted on the police.
“There’s not a lot of violence in mental health clinics,” Reyes said.
Asha Edwards, a student at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said: The police are not trained mental health professionals and are happy to take control of the situation through violence, but it simply doesn’t work and makes us even more stressed.
Edwards had a “terrible” experience calling the police for help.
“They asked us if we wanted to prosecute my loved one. We didn’t,” Edwards said. “Another time, I was escorted to the hospital by the police. It was humiliating to be put in the backseat of a patrol car by uniformed police with guns. To hear you say, “Patient or Suspect?”
