Mill Valley Council should have condemned riot

Many who attended the entirety of the Mill Valley City Council Zoom meeting on Jan. 7 noted that there was only a glancing, anodyne mention from a single council member of the prior day’s attempted coup at our nation’s Capitol.

During the Jan. 6 “White riot” incited by President Trump, the Capitol building of the United States was breached and five people were killed. Among the dead was a Capitol police officer, whose skull was struck with a fire extinguisher.

The riots were not merely violent. They were an assault against the valid results of the 2020 presidential election. Trump summoned the riots within hours of the results of the victory in the Senate runoff in Georgia in which a Black candidate and a Jewish candidate prevailed over two White GOP candidates.

The White rioters carried with them multiple Confederate flags. One wore a sweatshirt emblazoned with “Camp Auschwitz,” while others displayed different anti-Semitic and racist insignias. One Black Capitol police officer said the rioters repeatedly called him “the n-word.”

Compounding the Mill Valley City Council’s refusal to condemn the failed coup attempt was Mayor Sashi McEntee’s decision to significantly abbreviate public comment.

The expectation of condemnation of the attempted coup by elected representatives may seem minimal given the deadly coup attempt on Jan. 6. The violent attack on our Capitol is not neatly separated from our own local governments, as we learn of California business owners, elected representatives and off-duty police officers who either participated directly in the coup attempt, or who expressed public support for it.

I understand that taking a position, when Marin County itself has its share of violent Trump supporters, requires courage. Apparently that quality is lacking in Mill Valley’s mayor and City Council.

— Eva Chrysanthe, Berkeley