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Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 112 No. 52 Two Sections
DECEMBER 29, 2021 - JANUARY 4, 2022
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Pittsburgh City Council bans traffic stops for minor offenses Councilman Burgess, others say police traffic stops disproportionately target African Americans by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
Just in time for the new year, Pittsburgh City Council voted nearly unanimously in favor of doing away with minor traffic stops by the city’s police officers. The vote on Tuesday, Dec. 28, was 8-1—all but Councilman Anthony Coghill voting in favor of the legislation. Pittsburgh Police officers on patrol can no longer pull people over for violations such as a taillight or headlight that’s not working, an expired registration sticker that’s fewer than two months expired, or a license plate not properly mounted. It’s unclear if there are other minor traffic offenses for which officers can no longer pull drivers over.
It was longtime Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess who initially introduced the legislation, pointing to chilling data showing just how disproportionate the numbers are when it comes to Blacks being pulled over by police in Pittsburgh. In 2020, there were 4,650 Black motorists pulled over, 137 more than White motorists (4,513). Reverend Burgess said the numbers were staggering, considering Pittsburgh has a Black population that’s three times less than its White population. “African Americans are three times more likely to be stopped by police than other brothers and sisters, and that creates a chilling effect in the African American community,” Rev. Burgess said to KDKA-TV in a November
REVEREND RICKY BURGESS, the Pittsburgh Councilman who introduced the legislation. interview. In early November, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney signed the “Driving Equity Act,” making Philadelphia the first large
PPS Board votes to raise taxes on city residents by Oliver Morrison Public Source
The Pittsburgh Public Schools board voted Wednesday, Dec. 22, to increase property taxes by 3 percent, which will bring in an estimated $5.3 million next year in additional revenue. The tax increase will cost residents $30 on every $100,000 of assessed value on their property. The district is currently facing a $56 million budget deficit, and the only major options for closing the gap that have recently been discussed by the board are raising taxes, laying off staff and closing schools. The majority of the budget deficit comes from a combination of shrinking enrollment and increased spending during former Superintendent Dr. Anthony Hamlet’s administration, including payroll for more than 150 additional staff. The district is also spending more on teacher pension costs and increased charter school enrollment, trends that
predate Dr. Hamlet’s tenure. Ronald Joseph, the district’s chief financial officer, said at the Dec. 8 budget meeting that he had drawn up some “really doomsday nuclear option items” where whole programs and whole departments might have to be cut in future budgets to close the district’s large deficit. The district is spending COVID relief money to cover part of its current deficit but has said it won’t be able to pass a balanced budget in 2023 without more revenue or decreased spending. The district plans to hold meetings in the coming year to try to make “thoughtful” changes rather than rushing them through, Joseph said. “We basically have a year to stabilize, then we have to start the first wave of major cuts,” said Joseph at the Dec. 8 budget meeting. The tax narrowly passed, with five members voting in favor and four members voting against. The five members who voted in favor of the new tax plan
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were all endorsed by the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers. Board member Bill Gallagher was the only board member endorsed by the teacher’s union who voted against the plan. Board member Pam Harbin gave a lengthy speech in favor of the vote, saying that the tax increase represented the equivalent of 37 teachers or 85 paraprofessionals and that there were no other realistic options for raising revenue this year. “I know it may seem counterintuitive at a time where there are places where things could be cut and we could do things differently,” she said. “But this is the option for now, we don’t have any other options on the table.” Gallagher was joined in his no vote by three board members who were supported by the Black Women for a Better Education (BWFBE) Political Action Committee, which supported candidates who wanted to remove Dr. Hamlet. None of the board members who voted no spoke at the meeting but at previous meetings those board members said the district needed to show a willingness to cut spending before burdening taxpayers with SEE TAXES A5
city to ban low-level traffic stops. The ban goes into effect in January 2022. Pittsburgh’s low-level traffic stops ban goes into effect in April 2022, giving
officers time to transition into fully implementing the ban. It also gives members of the public time to discuss with City Council any concerns about the bill, and it allows for incoming mayor Ed Gainey and his administration a chance to place their input. In Philadelphia, the Driving Equity Act will allow for officers to place tickets on a vehicle’s windshield or mailed to the home address on file. It’s unclear if Pittsburgh’s legislation will allow for city officers to do the same. In an October blog post on the Vera Institute of Justice website, authors Akhi Johnson and Erica Bryant applauded this new movement by local agencies to eliminate traffic stops for low-level offenses. “When police stop people for things like broken taillights or dark window tinting, it creates unnecessary opportunities for deadly encounters. The list of people killed after police detained them for trivial reasons is far too long—and continues to grow,” the authors wrote. That list includes high-profile incidents involving people like Sandra Bland, the Black woman
in Texas who was originally pulled over for failing to put on her turn signal. And Philando Castile, the Black man in Minnesota who was the passenger in a car pulled over for a non-functioning brake light. And Daunte Wright, another Black man in Minnesota pulled over for having an expired registration sticker. All three of those African Americans are no longer living. Without police pulling them over for those secondary violations, they likely would be alive today. Pittsburgh has become the latest city to try to lessen encounters between police and the public—with the “public” oftentimes being African Americans who are unfairly targeted. “Non-public safety stops create unnecessary points of contact with a criminal legal system that causes far too much unnecessary trauma and harm, particularly for Black people,” Johnson and Bryant wrote for the Vera Institute of Justice. “These stops allow bias, are dangerous, and don’t make us safer. Eliminating them across the country is a major step toward building a criminal legal system that delivers justice for all.”
CHRISTMAS WITH S.A.L.T. PITTSBURGH
KIDS RECEIVED CHRISTMAS GIFTS thanks to Save A Life Today Pittsburgh, during an event at PPG Paints Arena, Dec. 19. See more photos on Page A4. (Photo by J.L. Martello)