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From: Paul Nauert <br />To: PublicComment; GRP -City Council; Council -Diane Howard; Council -Shelly Masur; Council -Alicia Aguirre; Council - <br />Ian Bain; Council -Janet Borgens; Council-Giselle Hale; Council -Diana Reddv <br />Subject: Re: Item 9.A: Petition and Comments of 875+ people calling to defund the RWC police <br />Date: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 11:26:40 AM <br />Dear Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council Members, <br />I hope this email finds you well and your loved ones in continued health as the pandemic <br />accelerates again in the Bay Area. I'm writing again in the light of recent events, your actions, <br />and media reporting relevant to the conversation last month. <br />Almost certainly, you have seen the recent KTVU reporting on the systemic culture of racism, <br />sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semitism as well as unchecked abuse of power that has <br />permeated the Redwood City Police Department for years. If not, here is the <br />link: httns://www.ktvu.com/news/the-dilemma-of-the-good-con-callinL-out-wronadoina-can- <br />end-an-officers-career. As a tax payer, homeowner, voter, and married gay resident of <br />Redwood City with non-white family members, I urge you to read it carefully. <br />The data gathered in this report, reflecting discussions with 16 sources and many individuals <br />who had worked on the force, validates overwhelming many of the concerns raised by <br />hundreds of community members last month when we called for defunding the police and <br />shifting resources to other areas of community need. Your actions and choices over the past <br />month indicate that you did not listen to (or, even worse, have chosen to ignore) the <br />outpouring of community support in meetings in June as well as other venues (such as the <br />petition with over 875 signatures that I attached in my earlier note on this thread). On the June <br />22 city council meeting, which I attended and spoke at, 100% of community comments were <br />in support of defunding the police and/or enacting major, material reforms. Instead, you voted <br />unanimously and without qualification on a budget that increased funding for racist, sexist, <br />and homophobic police while failing to address concrete, urgent community needs. These <br />needs are deepening again as the pandemic surges again in Northern California. Meanwhile, <br />the failure of city officials over the last several weeks to protect the Black Lives Matter street <br />text downtown indicates a continued lack of understanding among this city's leadership about <br />what is at stake in this moment for our community and the most vulnerable among us. <br />The listening sessions announced recently are not sufficient to address the systemic issues <br />facing our community and policing -- nor are any of the minor, almost completely symbolic <br />steps you took after the June 22 meeting (such as signing the Mayor's Pledge). In my view, the <br />pattern of your actions have not instilled sufficient trust that listening sessions without <br />mechanisms for accountability on elected decision -makers will lead to any material change. <br />Waiting until the October budget review for taking action to defund the police or enact <br />changes is also insufficient -- clearly city leadership is already years too late in checking the <br />power abuses and toxic culture of Redwood City police. <br />Our community is at risk every day that the police are not defunded and major changes <br />enacted. The police are not protecting us at a time of immense vulnerability and suffering for <br />our community. In fact, the police have been adding to this suffering. <br />Given the (again) deepening crisis of the pandemic and the concerns about policing in our <br />community that have been underlined with tragic, painful -to -read detail in the KTVU <br />reporting, what material action as our elected officials will you be taking now to address the <br />