We Get Letters | Anthony Manousos : Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council Members

Open Letter to the Mayor and City Council members,

I was taken aback by the decision to cancel the planned City Council meeting “out of an abundance of caution.” Was this done because it was felt that the staff would be unsafe? Many of you attended the Black Lives Matter demonstrators last spring and you know it was peaceful, even in the midst of intense world-wide outrage at the killing of George Floyd, so why would anyone want to create the impression that BLM has become so dangerous that City Hall must be closed down?

I attended this peaceful rally and it was a profound experience. I heard the powerful message of Benjamin Crump, the attorney for George Floyd and now Anthony McClain. I was deeply moved to hear George Floyd’s brother, as well as Melina Abdullah, call us to action. It was a joy to see so many of my neighbors, along with our city’s leaders and activists, including my Council member Tyron Hampton. I am proud that he represents me and my community in Northwest Pasadena and showed his support for his constituents. He stayed until the very end and listened. Listening is so important during times like these when our nation and our community is deeply divided.

I wondered: Where were the rest of the City Council members? Since you had the evening off, why didn’t you come and listen to the speeches and get to know your African American neighbors a little better? You missed a wonderful opportunity. If you’d taken the time to go to this rally, you would have learned something and had a great time. I stayed till the very end, heard a variety of eloquent speeches, connected with my neighbors, and was blown away by the legendary jazz and blues vocalist Barbara Morrison. As the event was winding down, she sang from her wheelchair “A Change is Gonna Come.” My soul was touched to see her so strong and so committed and so beautiful at her age. (Actually, she and I were born in the same year, 1949.)

When she and I were teenagers fifty years ago, Sam Cooke composed “A Change is Gonna Come” at the height of the Civil Rights movement, inspired by Bob Dylan. Blacks and whites singing and working and taking risks together for justice is what made it possible to pass the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Fair Housing, and much more. The times were a’changin’ because people had the courage to stand up and speak their truth to power and risk the consequences.

I feel that a change, a big change, needs to come here to our city and to our country right now. We need to take seriously calls to reimagine policing and transfer funds from the bloated police budget to much needed services, like housing and education and health care. A change needs to come, and it needs to come now.

A change needs to come to our police departments. Police need to be held accountable for their misdeeds just like the rest of us. The Police Chief of Minneapolis had the moral courage to say that what police did to George Floyd was not in keeping with police ethics or protocols, or with the law. When will our Chief of Police have similar courage and speak out about the savage beating of Christopher Ballew and the killing of Anthony McClain, not to mention Reginald Thomas and Kendrec McDade? How much longer will our city leaders make excuses for inexcusable behavior by police?

I write this with due respect because I know you care deeply about our city and racial justice. I believe that in your hearts you want to do the right thing, but out of an “abundance of caution” you sometimes keep quiet to avoid controversy. I think you are probably aware that this is not the time to redecorate the police building or provide a fancier helicopter. This is a time when we need to allocate resources where they are urgently needed. Please consider the city budget as a moral document. Please consider the most vulnerable in our city. Black lives really do matter.

Anthony Manousos

Got something to say, email Managing Editor André Coleman, at andrec@pasadenanowmagazine.com