Recommendation to request City Attorney prepare a resolution condemning the insurrection and violence that occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Bush and Kerry's. Thank you. Our final item, please. Item 28 is communication from Councilmember Ranga. Councilwoman Sunday has Councilwoman Allen Vice Mayor Richardson recommendation to request city attorney to prepare a resolution condemning the insurrection and violence that occurred at the United States Capitol on January six, 2021. Thank you. I'm going to recognize Councilmember Arango from the motion. Who's the second? Sun has company in Tauranga. Your comments take us back. Richardson. First of all, I want to thank my colleagues for staying with me. I also want to thank Congressman, but also Congresswoman Nancy Levitt of Oregon State Senator Dina Gonzalez for sending their letters of support of the sale. This unit since November 3rd, 2020 124. President Trump spreading misinformation about the 2020 election. He has claimed without evidence that he won the election. Courts around the country have debunked these claims. 61 campaign lawsuits have been filed. And none of these lawsuits found evidence of widespread voter fraud. January six was meant to be. A day when the. Routine procedure of counting intellectual ballots and certifying the election of President elect Joe Biden was to take place. It was anything but routine. Earlier that day at the urging of President Trump and with the help of his enablers, rioters stormed the Capitol in hopes of stopping the count, changing the vote and declaring Trump the winner of the election. What we have learned over the period of the last two weeks is that the event was planned and orchestrated and an insurrection that threatened the very lives of members of Congress and the president and the vice president of the United States, and that it resulted in the loss of five souls. Consequently, I mean, courageously, Vice President Pence and the United States legislature were not intimidated by the violence. I reconvened later that evening to ensure that the votes of the Electoral College were counted. When these insurgents stormed the United States Capitol, they were attacking the very idea of democracy. It is important that we stand united in defense of democracy. I urge my colleagues to join me in condemning the violence and desecration of the United States Capitol building that took place on January six, 2021. And I also urge you to join me in condemning. The actions and inactions of President Donald J. Trump that led to the lawlessness in the United States Capitol. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Gringa, I mean, council members. And they have. Thank you, Vice Mayor. I really want to thank Councilmember Otunga for bringing this item to council today. I know I'm speaking for each of us and expressing how horrific it was to watch the events on January six unfold before our eyes. The act with this act of terrorism was just a horrible, horrible, horrible attack on the values of our democracy and the peaceful transfer of power. And the only thing that that's more difficult to me is, is to the understanding on just how horrible this attack was, just watching it on TV. I was I was broke and I felt helpless. And I am sure that a lot of our residents felt the same way. It was such an invasion to all of us. It was such a horrific hit to all of us. We are a country that as a group that has great gratitude to our to those who step up and become lawmakers and to be who become the press and who are officially working to protect our nation, our nation's capitol. And that day was just horrified to see everybody scramble and everybody fear for their lives. I will never be able to shake off the fear in their faces of our of our elected officials that were on in that floor that day. And with that, I just want to say thank you again. And I join Councilmember Rotunda. And in condemning that day for what happened, that horrific terror terrorist act that happened against our capital. Thank you. Any city council comments? Madam. Madam Clerk. Councilwoman Price. Thank you, Madam Clerk. I want to thank Councilman Ranga as well for bringing this item forward. I know some of my colleagues, I that I've shared this personal story with know this, but some probably don't. And some members of the public may not know it at all. But when I was seven years old, I was living in the country of Iran, and we were going through a political revolution. And I remember the day right before my mother and I left the country, when my mother and father were late picking me up from school and I was hiding under the desk of the school principal with the principal waiting for my parents to pick me up. And when wait, when they got there and we went through the streets, the streets were just crowded with people we could barely get our car through. There were trash cans filled with fire. There were burning books related to the existing government trying to bring in a new government. And watching what I was watching on the sixth was the first time since I was seven years old. That's 41 years that I recall the vivid scenes from that day, the way that I did. I mean, it was just to me, it just was a reminder of an unstable government. And that made me so sad. And I know that a lot of Americans felt that way, and I know a lot of Persians felt that way because that's exactly the environment that we all fled. And there's no doubt in my mind that if the people who were climbing the walls of that building looked anything like me or some of my male relatives. There is no doubt in my mind it would be called terrorism or in the mind of anyone from my community. And so what happened to our nation on that day was horrific. It was unbelievable and completely unacceptable, regardless of what political party you're in or who you supported for president. And I'm grateful for Congressman Lowenthal and Congresswoman Barragan, who have kept in communication with me since that happened, because my very first thoughts went to them when I was seeing all of this unfold because they were there and I was safe here. So. I appreciate Councilman Ranga bringing this forward. This is not a partizan issue. This is an American issue. And countries that are unstable politically and are fractured go through things like that. America should never go through a thing like that. That's why those of us who fled unstable governments worked so hard to make this government, our government, great and strong. So thank you so much for bringing this forward. Thank you. Is there any additional comment? That concludes council comment. Thank you. I'll add my comments here. First, I want to thank Councilman Turanga for bringing this forward. I know and I want to thank the city council members for their for their comments. Are. Certainly. Going to do it now. Councilmember Okay. All right. I'll get my comments. And I think Councilmember Alan Watts wants to speak. So to be brief, I certainly agree with the sentiments of our city council members. I think this is this is, you know, this this transcends politics. This was a moment for American unity. And it was a and it really put things in perspective. The scenes were were were they weren't pretty. They were very disturbing to see the Confederate flag flying inside the United States Capitol, particularly now. And it just reminds us all that, you know, it may be convenient to turn the cheek on racism or to, you know, be neutral or, you know, these things are I'm not racist and so on and so forth. But it's not about whether individuals are are neutral on racism. It's about acknowledging the existence of a violent white supremacist movement that that was put on display for national for the entire world that day. And we need to make sure that we're all on the right side of this thing. And we we are clear as a city council that, you know, politics aside, we took an oath to support and defend the Constitution, United States and Constitution in California. And that's why I think this was was appropriate. A lot of times we focus on, you know, the politics in our own backyards, and that's important. But this is one of those moments of significance that we need to stand up and say what is right and wrong is wrong. And we have work to do as a country to bring everyone together. I want to acknowledge our our congresspeople for staying in communication with us constantly through this process. And I have to say, you know, we you know, the 20 that Wednesday's inauguration can't come soon enough. And we'll look forward to marching together as one community, as one country starting tomorrow. So. So thank you so much. Councilmember Allen, were you trying to get in to the conversation? Yeah. Just real quickly, I just want to say, you know, I signed on to this item because I believe that in every community and in every corner of our country, we have to speak up against the violence that was perpetrated on our nation's capital. In this country, we settle our disagreements peacefully through the democratic and the legal processes. I, i, too, want to thank Councilmember Turanga for taking the lead on this. Him and I had long conversations about this, and it was just a horribly sad day for our country. And the inauguration can't come soon enough. I also want to thank Congressmembers Lowenthal and Berrigan and Senator Lena Gonzalez for their support on this item. It's fantastic. Is there any public comment on this item? Yes, we have Tiffany Deeb. Tiffany Davey. Good evening, Mayor. City Councilman Tiffany Daly, District four resident. I'd like to thank Councilmember Ranga and others for bringing this item forward. I support this item in which the city condemns violence and desecration on the Capitol that took place on January six, as defined in the US government community awareness briefing. Violent extremism refers to violence committed in the name of an idea ideology to further political social agenda. The ideologies protected force of violence on its behalf is not within the United States. On a local, state and federal level, individuals and communities will face the challenges of violent extremism going forward as a result of ignoring the building extremist movement over recent decades. And though much can be said of the role of the individual in the role and engage in forming a resilient community can and must aid in preventing violent extremism, it is imperative we build community capacity to respond and prevent type. Encourages city and community members to embark upon this important work, which is also necessary. Creating a local prevention framework in conjunction with the local intervention framework for preventing violent extremism. It can happen anywhere. It is possible that the city may seek similar funding that was available to Callaway. USA is preventing violent extremism program Iran in the past three years, funded under Homeland Security Goal ten, which was preventing violent extremism in multi-jurisdictional jurisdiction and the collaboration coordination. Now that programs start to create these plans, which were aimed at preventing violent extremism. A community effort. In 2016, white supremacist crimes rose 67% in L.A. County, and over the past six years, hate crimes rose 36% across the county. Now. Tomorrow, we're going to welcome a new administration that's tasked with some of the most grave problems and crises we've seen at such a scale in our lifetime. Our collective focus is not yet on healing, but rather addressing this crisis. I look forward. To speaking up when I see him and expecting the same of my community members. Dalton went on to report hate crimes. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Thank you for several, probably. Councilwoman Sunday has. High. Councilwoman Allen. High Councilwoman Price. I. Councilman Sabrina. Hi. Councilwoman. Mongo. By Councilwoman Sara. I. Councilmember Oranga. I. Councilman Austin. Hi. Vice Mayor Richardson. Hi. Motion carries. Thank you. That satisfies our agenda. We'll now we'll move to new business. Any announcements from the city council? Just jump in if you have an announcement. All right. Well, hearing done. Thank you all and have a great night.