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From:jim lawrence <br />To:publiccomment <br />Subject:Fixin" San Mateo County <br />Date:Monday, May 12, 2025 5:00:00 PM <br />You don't often get email from jtlawrence94404@yahoo.com. Learn why this is important <br />Subject: Public Comment against Item 6B, May 12 agenda (Tasers) <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 <br />Item 6B from the agenda and schedule a study session at a later date to <br />look at whether it is appropriate for the Redwood City Police Department <br />to use Tasers at all. <br /> Approximately 64,400 of Redwood City's residents are people of color. <br />That number represents the 64,400 of Redwood City’s residents who are <br />at risk of being tased and potentially seriously injured or even murdered by <br />these deadly weapons. Until a study session is complete, the City should <br />not purchase upgraded Tasers at the taxpayers’ expense. These are not <br />nonlethal tools, as their manufacturers may have you believe; they are <br />deadly weapons.. On October 3,2018, Chinedu Okobi died tragically at the <br />hands of San Mateo County deputies, who deployed Tasers several times <br />in response to a non-violent interaction on El Camino Real in Millbrae. <br /> Fixin’ San Mateo County was born out of that tragic event. That death <br />cost San Mateo County taxpayers $4.5 million, in addition to causing his <br />family irreparable harm that will impact that lineage forever. Fixin’ San <br />Mateo County is dedicated to ensuring that all residents of San Mateo <br />County are treated with equity and dignity, and that we do not have <br />another senseless death like Chinedu’s. <br /> <br />Redwood City police deployed Tasers 91 times between 2015–2020, <br />representing over a quarter of all use-of-force incidents. In 2018, <br />Redwood City police officers deployed Tasers 2–3 times against Ramzi <br />Saad during a domestic violence call on Lanyard Drive. The 55-year-old, <br />who had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, became unresponsive in <br />post-deployment and died at a hospital. <br />Last summer Redwood City projected a budget gap of $3.9 Million over