Culver City Observer -

Last night city council deliberated on the task force to "reimagine public safety". This drew out the usual "defund the police" crowd. Rather than have a bunch of us speak at the meeting and draw it out, we decided to have one person speak on behalf of all of us. Keith Jones gave our statement last night on defending CCPD.

Transcript:

Good Evening Mayor Eriksson, Members of the Council & City Clerk Jeremy Green,

My name is Keith Jones, I am speaking tonight on agenda item A-2 on behalf of Protect Culver City.

I’m assuming tonight’s agenda item regarding funding for Culver City PD will draw the usual crowd of Anti-Police zealots screaming to Defund or Abolish our police. These meetings have gotten so bad that council has now reserved the right to cut off speakers after one hour so we can end the meeting at a reasonable time of night so the few citizens that still have jobs can get to bed before 2am.

We applaud this position. We also hope that in this time of Covid-19 lockdowns, where many are prevented from participating in the discussions due to having limited technical savvy that you refrain from making cuts in our Police until all stakeholders in our community have weighed in.

One can only hope for you seek 1st to listen before you act.

We propose the following offer: Tonight We will refrain from the contest of who gets to shout the loudest and most often in the spoken comments portion of this meeting and have instead instructed our members to write in their comments rather than to take up council’s time to speak on this issue. You already know Protect Culver City stands to Defend, not Defund, Culver City police department.

This will be our only spoken statement in front of council tonight. We prefer to speak softly, and carry a big stick. That stick is our current campaign to Defend, Not Defund, Culver City Police Department. You know where our membership stands. You’ve seen our flyers and our yard signs throughout the city. Our grass roots campaign is quickly making this THE 2020 election issue in Culver City. It’s not an issue that will bode well for those who pick the wrong side. Culver City Police Department has a 78% approval rating and climbing. Council’s ….is 47% and dropping.

We stand against the defamatory claims that the “defund the police” crowd have made against our police department. CCPD has become the pinata that every Virtue Signaling member of our community wants to take a whack at. Where were you all one (1) year ago or even 6 months ago?

Did the department go through some sort of change since the awful death of George Floyd?

Thankfully, Mayor Eriksson has publicly defended our police department in face of such attacks while the rest of you have remained silent or have thrown CCPD under the bus for some cheap political points. That is shameful, and we are holding all of you accountable for this. We hope you will change course – immediately, and publicly.

Lastly, would someone please tell the children speakers that police funding comes form the city, whereas our schools are funded by the state? Cutting police funding will not mean more money for our schools, just more crime in our city.

Thank you for your time tonight.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m7z4s53n7zhq4zt/Keith%20Jones%20200713.m4a?dl=0

Keith Jones

Culver City