AUSTIN, Texas — A group of community advocates put the Austin City Council on trial on Saturday evening – unofficially.
Grassroots Leadership, the Austin DSA and the Austin Liberation Youth Movement gathered outside the Austin City Hall plaza starting at 6 p.m. on Saturday. The plaza was set up like a courtroom, with banners listing the "charges and evidence" against the council.
"Austin City Council is being accused of being complicit in police violence, community displacement, anti-immigrant practices and chronically underfunding the Austin Public Health Department," a press release for the demonstration said.
Organizers started showing up at City Hall around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday.
"What we have here are judges and people that are providing evidence that are directly impacted by all of these negative policies. So what we have is a space that isn't limited to one minute every Thursday, if you can call in, for a City Council meeting," said Rebecca Sanchez of Grassroots Leadership. "We have a space where people can make their own testimony, can make their own voices heard about the needs."
The event was presided by judges that have been directly impacted by such complicity of violence on part of the Austin City Council and will offer testimony as evidence, organizers said.
"Our goal is to recognize that City Council and APD are institutions that are never going to actually serve the interest of any people in Austin," said Aaron Booe, an organizer of the Austin Liberation Youth Movement.
Booe also served as the judge who presided over the charge for community displacement, which he said has particularly affected East Austin.
"They're always going to represent the interest of a private minority, and so it's critical that we start building grassroots movements from the bottom up rather than relying on top-down institutions to give us the voice that we deserve," Booe said.
The City Council is set to vote on the upcoming budget – which includes proposed cuts to the Austin Police Department – next week.
PEOPLE ARE ALSO READING: