Mayor Miguel Pulido canceled Tuesday night’s Santa Ana City Council meeting after a man refused to remove a cap with an anti-police expletive on it, according to the OC Register.
The young man in question, identified as “Bijan” is affiliated with Santa Ana CopWatch. They posted this message on their Facebook page after the City Council meeting was shut down, “The city council meeting got shut down. The mayor and the cops tried a bluff saying that if we didn’t leave that we would get arrested. Over a hat. The cops were even showing off their cuffs. We stayed and it got shut down. Media was there so expect it in the news. In solidarity with all survivors and victims of police violence. From Santa Ana to Ferguson to Palestine: F*ck the Police.”
These actions were clearly premeditated. The ruckus actually began over a month ago at a previous Council meeting when Mayor Miguel Pulido was upset that while he was trying to give service awards to two Santa Ana police officers there were protestors seated in the Council Chambers holding “f*ck the police” signs. No one on the City Council said or did anything about that and in fact they all ignored the police too. Pulido was the only one who congratulated them on their awards. The meeting left a very negative impression on the members of the Santa Ana Police Officers Association and their President, John Franks, later sent a stern letter to the City Council announcing that unless they could control what happened at their meetings he would not allow his officers to receive awards in Chambers but instead they would be given out at the SAPD headquarters.
The City Council’s lack of respect for the police cost Council Member Michele Martinez their endorsement, which they gave to Ward 2 challenger Mirna Velasquez. And they also endorsed Pulido instead of Councilman Roman Reyna, for Mayor. Reyna and Martinez are thought to have gang ties and they both were involved in shutting down the SAPD’s strike force.
Pulido had the City Manager and his staff draft a decorum ordinance which was supposed to be discussed and voted on by the City Council tonight. But the protestors came to the meeting intent on disrupting it and that is exactly what happened.
Free speech has its limits. Wearing apparel with the F word on it in public meetings is uncalled for. These meetings are televised. It is one thing to videotape officers and to protest their actions when they go bad. But what happened tonight was ridiculous and we applaud Pulido for taking a stand against these irresponsible protestors.
