DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan
Did You Know that our City Council is quaking in their shoes at the accusations more fitting to places like Baltimore, Seattle or Los Angeles? This is Santa Barbara. Will we now be on our own with City Council de-funding the police department? They tell us all the big cities are doing it. With less police presence, we could actually become like these big cities. Is this what we want?
Regarding equality/equity during public comment: A speaker asked why no public input was allowed in drafting the resolution condemning police brutality and declaring racism a public health crisis in Santa Barbara. When questioned by the public speaker, Council member Oscar Gutierrez admonished her, insisting that the protest May 31 at the Courthouse WAS the public comment. However, this shut out any dissenting public comment on a very important issue.
At Tuesday’s City Council Meeting, Council member Mike Jordan wanted the word “urge” in the BLM’s Resolution changed to something stronger. With indignation, Council member Alejandra Gutierrez and Mayor Cathy Murrillo exclaimed it wasn’t possible as these were the exact words BLM dictated (to the rest of us). Who, when, what, why, where was this document constructed? Again this demonstrates to the public their fear and their compliance with the demands of BLM. They are acting not from a position of strength but out of reaction.
During the public comment portion of this City Council meeting, a resident, Mr. Israel, informed the council that one of the two BLM spokespersons responsible for dictating the city’s Racial Resolution was photographed as a participant in an anti-Semitic rally in Los Angeles. Mayor Murrillo insisted the resolution was not penned by BLM but by Healing Justice. Yet when the City Clerk read the BLM Resolution, the mayor stopped her and said, “Wait, that is where we are changing the name.” The mayor insisted the two spokespersons changed from BLM to Healing Justice (P.S. Healing Justice is all of four weeks old.)
Mr. Israel’s concerns were discounted and brushed aside. He is, after all, the wrong color.
If the actions of the Santa Barbara Police Department warrant a resolution condemning police brutality and declaring racism a public health crisis, why is their behavior so reprehensible; that it is described as “snickers and glares”? Here in the city at Santa Barbara and Figueroa streets, as the Black BLM protesters lay on the ground and said they were terrified as they looked up and saw the face of “white supremacy.”
There were non-white officers among the group. Does this mean, if one isn’t black, everyone else is a racist and guilty of white supremacy? Remember this lament comes from the generation that was reared on the idea that “NO” is a relative term. Any authority, not just the police, is not their forte.
Just because there’s a resolution condemning police brutality in SB does not mean it even exists here. By declaring this resolution, it implies that indication.
We watched in horror the footage of the respectful and stalwart police officers who protected our nation’s capital as they stood their ground for us. The college kids — pretty girls and boys — stood with alcohol- and drug-addled street people as they screamed at the officers and banged on their face shields.
They yelled in their faces with accusations of murder and bellowed that police brutality is the systemic problem. This is how the perpetually “offended” communicate.
If you aren’t in lock step with their vision, their command of the English language is so limited they can only blurt out “racism,” just as their professors have schooled them.
The BLM movement demonizes our history and culture, our art and religion, basically those principles that we built and by which we live. We are being subjected to a bunch of brainwashed college kids who are admittedly trained by Marxist professors and act under the cover of the BLM, which is directed and funded by the DNC.
We need real leaders and stakeholders in the city to come together, and do something about this feckless group of elected officials, who allow a purported 1.3 % of the population to make demands of the city; while the council and mayor are acquiescing to the detriment of the other 98.7 percent. We vote too, you know.
Bonnie Donovan writes the “Did You Know?” column in conjunction with a bipartisan group of local citizens. It appears Sundays on the Voices page.
