Demonstrators make voices heard outside mayor’s home
The protesters chant and demand reductions in police department funding
FREMONT >> A crowd protesting police violence against Black and other people of color demonstrated outside Fremont Mayor Lily Mei’s home Monday evening, demanding reductions to the city’s police department funding.
Protesters drew chalk messages on the street in front of Mei’s home reading “Defund the FPD” and “Asian Silence is Violence,” and carried signs that said “Black Lives Matter” and “Care not Cops.” Similar demonstrations seeking police defunding have sprung up in cities across the nation since an officer pressed his knee against the neck of a prone and handcuffed George Floyd in Minneapolis for almost nine minutes, killing him.
Organizers said the demonstration started around 8 p.m. with about 40 people marching up and down the block where Mei lives, chanting slogans including “No Justice, No Peace, No Racist Police,” and saying the names of some people killed by police.
The group also played music and danced outside Mei’s home in the Kimber Gomes area of the city before breaking up after midnight.
It’s unclear whether Mei was home at the time of the protest, though organizers said no one saw her. Mei did not return calls, texts or an email Tuesday seeking comment about the action.
Justin Valenzuela, 21, of Fremont, who helped organize the protest, said he wants “to amplify the voices of Black lives, of Indigenous people, and to most importantly really make change in the system of Fremont… starting with defunding FPD.”
Valenzuela said police contacted him to say Mei wasn’t home, but that didn’t deter the group.
“We want to wake up the affluent suburban neighborhoods in this area,” Valenzuela said.
Police did not show up during the nonviolent protest.
Another organizer, Jefferson Peng, 21, of Fremont, said he wants money diverted from the police department budget to programs for homeless people, social services and education resources.
“Small reforms are not enough. We need systematic change to fight systematic racism,” said Peng, who is Black.
“Right now, my family, we’re afraid to call 911 because there’s a chance that call is going to get me,” Peng said.
The city’s current budget is $96.5 million, accounting for about 48 percent of its general fund, an amount some people criticized during a recent council meeting and a subsequent town hall session as too much.
“The police have had a chance to make their statement, they’ve had a chance to change, they’ve had a chance to grow, and…it’s not working,” Peng said.
Last month, Mei was criticized by some for not kneeling during a Black Lives Matter protest in the city; she later explained she didn’t do so because she only kneels for God.
Michael Chapman, 19, of Union City, who helped organize Tuesday night’s protest, said Mei’s refusal to kneel then was tantamount to saying she doesn’t care for Black lives.
One of the chalk messages written on Mei’s driveway said “Take a knee.”
One protester, who didn’t want to give her name, said she felt being in front of Mei’s home was necessary because the mayor is “not really pressured to take on political stances or be a leader,” but has a “responsibility” to do so.
These kinds of direct protest actions are “rare” for Fremont, “but it’s starting not to be,” she said.
“We want to normalize this, we want to normalize having our voices heard,” she added.
“This isn’t just a fad,” Peng added, “or something that’s calming down very quickly.”