Councilwoman under fire for accusing Black activist of threatening her

Remarks by politician Lynnette Lee Eng ‘put me in danger,’ woman says

LOS ALTOS >> About 30 people criticized Los Altos Councilwoman Lynnette Lee Eng at Tuesday’s night’s meeting, saying she falsely accused a Black Lives Matter community activist of threatening her and her family.

But Lee Eng didn’t retract her words from a Nov. 24 council meeting, when she made it a point to publicly announce she received threatening messages from members of Justice Vanguard, a local contingent of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The council voted at that meeting to eliminate the school resource officer program and enact new police reforms in light of the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd last May, Lee Eng abstained from voting for changes to the police complaint system and joined another council member in opposing an online complaint submission system. Complaints against the police are handled by the police and Eng said then she didn’t support using a third-party auditor to handle complaints.

As the council moved on to a discussion about eliminating the resource officer program, Lee Eng said she was receiving threats from “members of Vanguard” calling her racist and wanted to put that on the record before voting no, “if anything were to occur to me or my family.”

“I’m making it known that I voted the way I did and I’m representing my concerns because of lack of information and because I had concerns moving forward,” Lee Eng said. “So that said, I just want to protect myself and protect my family.”

Lee Eng said in a statement to this news organization Wednesday that recent action against the homes of public officials in the Bay Area like Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo “has caused me concern for the safety of my family and my home.” She did not provide any further comment.

But 22-year-old Kenan Moos, a University of Oregon senior and a founder of Justice Vanguard, said in an interview Wednesday he texted Lee Eng during the Nov. 24 meeting in frustration at the discussion and was not happy about how she characterized the situation.

At Tuesday’s council meeting, Moos and about 30 other speakers denounced Lee Eng’s “false accusations” and called for her to apologize and resign.

In the text exchange he had sent Lee Eng during the November meeting, Moos said her name “will be all over the papers” and that “we know there are racists that supported you.” That text message did not make any threats to her or her family or directly call her a racist. Lee Eng did not say whether she received any messages from other people.

“You are trying to delay this,” Moos says in the texts. “It has nothing to do with budget and you know this. You lied to me in our discussions that you were going to support racial matters. You said you were the only one in favor and it looks like you are the only one against them. Very disappointing.”

Moos goes on to say that the messages are “in no way a threat of any kind … This is me expressing my disappointment.”

During his comments Tuesday, Moos said he had what he thought was a cordial relationship with Lee Eng, “who expressed her support and commitment to social and racial justice,” but was disappointed when she did not choose to vote for recommendations supporting that.

In response to Lee Eng’s accusations, Moos invoked the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black child lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being falsely accused of offending a White woman.

“Council member Lee Eng, your false accusation has put a target on my back,” Moos said. “Some in the community may think that I pose a threat to others. My odds of a negative interaction with police are already high. Lynette, your false accusations have increased the odds that I could be killed by the police.”

But Nancy Ellickson, a 35-year Los Altos resident who called into Tuesday’s council meeting, said Lee Eng has reason to feel threatened.

“Let’s remember, and this hasn’t come up, that before the Nov. 7 council meeting more than 30 campaign signs, many of which were Lee Eng’s … were defaced by somebody who put ‘racist’ bumper stickers across each one,” Ellickson said. “Wouldn’t any reasonable person be concerned about themselves and their family? There’s been a tsunami of bullying and harassment in an attempt to get her to apologize and resign.”

On Wednesday, Moos told The Mercury News he’s disappointed that Lee Eng did not comment after so many people spoke up against her accusations. He said he also hasn’t personally received any response from Lee Eng since Tuesday.

“It’s frustrating and it’s kind of scary,” he said. “I don’t cry, but I was low-key in tears last night because it really hit me that I have a one in a thousand chance of being killed by police. The threats put me in danger, something my mom is always constantly scared of.”

It’s not the first time the council has made headlines in a racism scandal.

Moos said he was inspired to become a Black Lives Matter community educator in part because Councilwoman Jeannie Bruins stirred a public outcry for saying that anyone who thinks people should be required to wear masks in public places because of the coronavirus pandemic is “out of your cotton-picking mind” during a council meeting last year.

Bruins apologized and said “those words will never again come out of my mouth.” Moos said he reached out to Bruins after that and offered to talk to her about racial justice and racism. He said they went on to have a personal relationship, exchanging articles and thoughts about racial justice, and he doesn’t doubt Bruins’ sincerity.

Moos is calling on other council members and Mayor Neysa Fligor — the city’s first Black mayor — to speak up against Lee Eng.

“I would say that yesterday the mayor did the most to not do too much,” Moos said. “Especially being the first Black mayor, she should be taking a stronger stance. Criminalization of Black people is wrong. We’re not going to stop coming and calling Lee Eng out on this. This is not stopping.”