October 30, 2023
To: San Jose City Council
From: Silicon Valley De-Bug
Re: Opposition of Purchase of Military Grade Weapons for SJPD to be Used Against Our Community/Your Constituents (Oct.31
st Council Mtg Item 2.8)
Hello Council,
We are writing to call on you to stop the process of purchasing new military grade weaponry for the San Jose Police Department to use against our community members and your constituents.
Namely, the department is asking for public resources to be used for the purchase of 40 mm Launchers and Unmanned Ariel Systems.
The purchase of these weapons is redundant and excessive as they already have stockpiles of each, flies in the face of the transparency called for through AB481, and most importantly only increases the dangers of police violence imposed on our community. As such, we are asking you to remove this item from the consent calendar and no longer entertain this purposeless request. If you feel a discussion is necessary, we call on you to then take this item off the consent calendar, and allow for a public and transparent discussion on the issue.
What is perhaps most absurd about this request for funding is that the department already has each of the items they are asking for. In their memo, they state that they already have 148 40mm launchers, then write that the purchase will increase their stockpile to 168 launchers. There has been no analysis conducted, offered, or even requested by the City Council as to the impact of the usage of the currently owned launchers. How can a department ask for more of a weapon without reporting on what it is doing with their current inventory? The same dynamic occurs with the request of the Unmanned Ariel Systems. They already have 22 Unmanned Ariel Systems, and in this memo are asking for 12 more. The City has done no analysis or disclosure about the usage of the currently owned UAS’s. For the city council to even consider such as request without any due diligence would be irresponsible.
For this memo to be discussed on consent calendar completely contradicts the spirit of AB481, which calls on law enforcement agencies to report and obtain publicly disclosed approval from city governing bodies. The purpose of the law is to allow for open and public discussions around what previously had been weaponry purchased behind closed doors. The law is the state’s response to alarming police violence used against communities in California who were protesting in the wake
of George Floyd’s killing. San Jose police violence against protesters - mainly young people of color - was one of the worst in the country, resulting in national news coverage, serious injuries, numerous civil rights lawsuits, and settlements.
As such, we call on the San Jose City Council to reject this request from the SJPD, and at the minimum, take this discussion off of the consent calendar, which is an inappropriate place to have what should be a public debate.
Sincerely,
Charisse Domingo, SV De-Bug
Liz Gonzalez, SV De-Bug
Chandra Jacquez, SV De-Bug
Raj Jayadev, SV De-Bug