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Orozco, Norma <br />From: MONICA ANNE MOUET <mmouet@ucla.edu> <br />Sent: Tuesday, July 07, 2020 11:23 AM <br />To: eComment <br />Subject: Public Comment for Tonight's Council Meeting <br />Dear Santa Ana City Council <br />My name is Monica Mouet, and I have lived in Santa Ana my whole life. James Baldwin said "There are so <br />many ways of being despicable it quite makes one's head spin. But the way to be really despicable is to be <br />contemptuous of other people's pain." I am here today because I believe that, yes, it is possible for all of us to <br />work together to end the years of pain inflicted on the people by the Santa Ana Police Department. <br />We all have a role to play, don't we? I know what role the SAPD has played throughout the years, one that <br />terrorizes it's citizens. One that dismantles the safety and wellbeing of the public. Public safety, the very <br />concept you vow to uphold with your budget increase. SAPD has ranked the 9th deadliest police department in <br />the state of California. 0% of complaints involving the use of force, police discrimination, and alleged crimes <br />committed by police ruled in favor of civilians. <br />Santa Ana City Council, what role do you have to play, as this colossal pain spreads, with no end in sight? You <br />are proposing to increase 73% of the public safety budget to go into SAPD. That means even more government - <br />sponsored use of chokeholds, tasers, batons, shootings. And no, Councilman Solorio, the use of bodycams does <br />not cancel out the horror of these police practices. This budget increase shows me that most of you are more <br />fearful of ruffling feathers than you are concerned with the safety of your community. How much longer are <br />you going to let your legacies as leaders be dictated by some extra cash the police throw into your campaigns? <br />The time has come. Not only to defund the police, but to take the steps in reckoning with the bleeding, the lives <br />lost by police violence, the ever-growing and ever-expanding pain. And I hope you realize that this is not the <br />pain of the other. These victims of police brutality are the people you swore to serve. With this increase you are <br />not serving the people, let alone protecting them. At this point you are either with us or you are in the way. <br />Thank you, <br />Monica Mouet <br />