A RESOLUTION reaffirming Seattle’s values of inclusion, respect, and justice, and the City’s commitment toward actions to reinforce these values; and calling on President-elect Donald Trump to condemn recent attacks and hate speech that perpetuate religious persecution, racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia.
Agenda item eight, Resolution 317 24 reaffirming Seattle values of inclusion, respect and justice and the city's commitment toward actions to reinforce these values. In calling on President elect Donald Trump to condemn recent attacks and hate speech that perpetuate religious persecution, racism, sexism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia and xenophobia. Thank you, Councilmember. Where at worst cast member? Herbold I'm thinking, whereas all the time. I get from. My book, in my book. You get Lisa and I'm mixed up all the time because we're both redheads. I'd like to first thank Councilmember Gonzalez, who joined me in co-sponsoring this resolution, as well as Mayor Murry in the development of it, and the organization's one America Allyship and the Gender Justice League for making specific suggestions for language to include in the resolution . Since the election, there have been numerous accounts, both locally and nationally reported to police on social media and to advocacy organizations of hate targeted at Muslims, Sikhs, Arabs, Jews, Latinos, African-Americans, Asian women, people with disabilities, immigrants, refugees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community members. These incidents are extremely concerning for residents of Seattle. We are a diverse city. 34% of our residents are people of color, and 19% of our residents are foreign born. There are 129 languages spoken in Seattle schools. Our values include being an open and inclusive city for all of our residents. And these incidents are particularly troubling to those of us who work to govern our city, because we recognize that Seattle and our country was was founded by by immigrants who were fleeing religious persecution, who enshrined freedom of religion as one of our nation's fundamental legal and ethical principles. And we want to be able to say affirmatively that this election does not prompt or encourage or sanction any notion that the Constitution and laws of the United States in the state of Washington, the charter and laws of our city, would support in any way any acts of hate. Specifically, the resolution condemns hateful speech and violent action. It calls on the president elect to condemn recent attacks and hate speech, encourages the president elect to revoke any potential cabinet appointments of individuals connected to advancing hate and petitions. The United States Senate in his confirmation process to oppose the nomination of those candidates. The Senate finds to have advance racism, religious oppression, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or bigotry. Lastly, the resolution states our commitment on the part of the Council and the mayor to implement measures to make it easier for people to report incidents of bias motivated threats , harassment and violence to ensure that our city continues to be an inclusive, respectful and just city. And we've already heard just last week, on Thursday from the police department that they're very responsive to to the requests from my office to make their malicious harassment slash bias crimes website, which which already exists to make it more high profile and easier to understand as a place to report hate crimes. And translating the page into multiple language as well. So I thank the Seattle Police Department for their responsiveness to this the need for this work. Thank you, Councilmember Herbold. Any comments on this resolution? Katherine Johnson. Just briefly, I want to say how I think how important this statement is for us at this time. In shortly after the election, presidential election in the university district, we saw white supremacist posters go up on telephone poles. We started seeing hate crimes on the University of Washington campus. We ourselves are not immune from the terror that is sweeping the country. And I think it's really important for us to recognize that we need to call out not only the president for his actions and condoning or being silent on on actions that have clearly been taken by others in his name. But we also, I think, need to reinforce our commitment as a city to making sure that we are a safe place for everybody. So I want to say how much I appreciate this and want to ask that we all redouble our efforts to make sure that we're making this city safer for everybody . Thank you. Well-stated. Any other comments? Not seeing any. All those in favor of adopting the resolution vote i. I. Those opposed vote no. The motion carries the resolutions adopted. The chair will sign it. Is there any further business to come before the council? Nope. Nope. With that, everyone, have a great day. We stand adjourned. We'll see everyone next Friday. This Friday, rather, this Friday.