HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-01-2023_Open Session_General Comment_Brown, Hardy_ADA ACCOMMODATION REQUESTED_no redaction necessaryHardy Brown Ward 6 Resident of San Bernardino Comments 2/1/23 Your Honor, Mayor Helen Tran, Mayor Protiem Fred Shorett, Council Members Ted Sanchez, Sandra Ibarra, Juan Figueroa, Ben Reynoso, Kim Calvin, Damon Alexander and Staff. Thank you for the opportunity to share my comments tonight. I would be in attendance but the COLD weather does not treat my condition kind. I want to thank you for the certificate of recognition of my 60-wedding anniversary. I count it all joy to say we have spent those years right here in the city we love and call home San Bernardino. Thank You. This is the first day of Black History Month and this city has contributed much to our national history and recently your decision to bring back for a short period of time, Charles McNeely and the hiring of Darren Goodman as Chief of Police. Then look at the council representation of diversity, put there by the citizens. The citizens are saying we want you to work together as one in unity on behalf of all of us. To paraphrase a conversation between Malcolm X and Martin Luther King; and Malcolm said, we might disagree on how to reach our objectives for our people. But, our objectives are the same so we must not fall out with each other in trying to obtain those objectives. In other words to you, we are one city, with 7 wards with different needs and races of people. Let us as the council discuss the needs and different ways to provide the services to all who live here and hire a staff that will implement our policies on behalf of the people. If we do that in a manner of unity others will help us. On another topic; this is also the day that Tyre Nichols, a Black man, was eulogized in Memphis Tennessee. Tyre was killed by five Black police officers. Recently we had a Police shooting and killing of Rob Adams, a Black man here in San Bernardino. Back in January of 2021 there was a Black man Quinn Bass stopped by a SWAT Team in San Bernardino for speeding and wound up in the hospital from a beating by the police but never cited for speeding. Each of these encounters with our police officers has similar intersections described in the Tyre incident. Ben Crump is the Attorney for Tyre Nichols and Rob Adams. Our local and National Office of the NAACP has open investigations on our San Bernardino Police Abuse Incidents. From my personal experience and serving on the Police Commission I know we have a lot of good Officers on staff and those who make a mistake do so in a split second of judgment. In my opinion it is only a few who come into the position with a preconceived idea that Black people lives are less than human and should be treated as non human. This can be corrected if they know the real history of how Blacks have been treated in America. Again thank you for your time to hear some of my concerns.