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An Open Letter to La Mesa’s Mayor, City Council, City Attorney and City Manager By Art Madrid, former La Mesa Mayor
April 3, 2024 (La Mesa) -- Recently, various racist comments and incidents occurred in two different communities resulting in blatantly, dissimilar outcomes. Coeur d’Alene, and La Mesa were the cities at center stage.
In Coeur d’Alene, the mayor, council, and business community immediately defended the values and standards of their community by condemned the racists who directed their offensive remarks at an ethnically diverse women’s basketball team.
The La Mesa incident occurred during your February 13 council meeting where racist, hateful, and vile comments were made during the zoom portion of public comments. Your collective response to the offensive behavior was and continues to be different from the immediate positive action displayed by leadership in Coeur d’Alene.
Remaining silent during that meeting speaks volumes about your inept leadership. The excuse for not interceding was that you were “protecting free speech” while simultaneously tacitly condoning behavior orchestrated by racist callers who hid behind their electronic hoods.
“Free speech” is not free! The courts have ruled that not all speech is protected by the first amendment. Rather than deal with the cause, you chose to deal with the symptom by “temporarily” banning zoom calls. You have now created another problem, silencing a segment of the population that is unable to attend council meetings in person.
In the meantime, you have yet to make a forceful public statement that racist behavior, comments, or practices are not welcomed, condoned, or accepted in La Mesa.
The opinions in this editorial reflect the views of the reader and do not necessarily reflect the views of East County Magazine. To submit an editorial for consideration, contact editor@eastcountymagazine.org.
Comments
Don Bacon
Are you serious?
The first amendment