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From:Beverly Morgan <br />To:publiccomment <br />Subject:Subject: Public Comment against Item 6B, May 12 agenda (Tasers) <br />Date:Sunday, May 11, 2025 12:32:17 PM <br />You don't often get email from bevie.lou@gmail.com. Learn why this is important <br />Dear Mayor Martínez Saballos, Vice Mayor Eakin, and Council members: <br />I am writing on behalf of Fixin’ San Mateo County to ask you to remove Item <br />6B from the agenda and schedule a study session at a later date to look at <br />whether it is appropriate for the Redwood City Police Department to use <br />Tasers at all. <br />Approximately 64,400 of Redwood City's residents are people of color. That <br />number represents the 64,400 of Redwood City’s residents who are at risk <br />of being tased and potentially seriously injured or even murdered by these <br />deadly weapons. Until a study session is complete, the City should not <br />purchase upgraded Tasers at the taxpayers’ expense. These <br />are not nonlethal tools, as their manufacturers may have you believe; they <br />are deadly weapons.. On October 3,2018, Chinedu Okobi died tragically at <br />the hands of San Mateo County deputies, who deployed Tasers several <br />times in response to a non-violent interaction on El Camino Real in <br />Millbrae. <br />Fixin’ San Mateo County was born out of that tragic event. That death cost <br />San Mateo County taxpayers $4.5 million, in addition to causing his family <br />irreparable harm that will impact that lineage forever. Fixin’ San Mateo <br />County is dedicated to ensuring that all residents of San Mateo County are <br />treated with equity and dignity, and that we do not have another senseless <br />death like Chinedu’s. <br />Redwood City police deployed Tasers 91 times between 2015–2020, <br />representing over a quarter of all use-of-force incidents. In 2018, Redwood <br />City police officers deployed Tasers 2–3 times against Ramzi Saad during a <br />domestic violence call on Lanyard Drive. The 55-year-old, who had <br />schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, became unresponsive in post- <br />deployment and died at a hospital. <br />Last summer Redwood City projected a budget gap of $3.9 Million over the