From: Michele Burgess
To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: COMMENTS FOR 9/17/24 MEETING, AGENDA ITEM #26, FILE #24-672 Date: Friday, September 13, 2024 4:37:39 PM
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To the City Council:
I wholeheartedly support Agenda Item #26 for physical security of City Hall. This is something I never worried about until the MAGA 4+1 arrived on the scene and began their culture war. Attacking the library and censoring books, outsourcing management of the library, solidarity with Texas, parents’ right to know, and even declaring HB a Second Amendment city. Good grief, no wonder people don’t feel safe in the council chambers anymore.
The meetings are raucous, the rhetoric heated, audience members boo, jeer, taunt, yell, shout obscenities, drown out the speakers, holler into the microphone. Proud Boy Luke Dennis (who has a criminal record for assault) drags huge anti-LGBQT+ posters to the podium, hurls accusations and insults, flips off people in the audience. Another Proud Boy carries a tripod and camera around the chamber, filming audience members without their permission. Chad Williams rants about obscenity in children’s library books and insinuates a sitting council member is a pedophile. Dom McGee continually insults Rhonda Bolton (what does he have against Black people?) and advocates for open carry in Huntington Beach.
And then we have the outsiders like howling Manuk Grigoryan and his traveling road show of right-wing extremists who came all the way from LA to cause a ruckus. To have him sit right behind me and continually bellow insults at speakers, until he was temporarily removed by the police, and then let back in, whereupon he verbally harassed Bethany Webb, does not make me feel safe.
9/17/2024
26 (24-672)
Who knows what weapons these people might be carrying in their pockets or under their shirts? Huntington Beach already has a terrible reputation since the MAGA 4 stirred the pot and fomented dissension in the community. Let’s not add a stabbing or mass shooting to the news feed.
California law prohibits the possession of weapons in a local public building. It’s time to enforce that law. Enact sensible security precautions that are more proactive than a few police officers standing around in the council chamber keeping an eye on things.
Michele Burgess
Huntington Beach resident since 1961