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Several dozen activists marched to City Hall late Wednesday afternoon to demand the resignation of two Antioch police officers and call for police reforms and social justice.
“We’re not going to stand for it anymore,” Shay Davis said at the rally at City Park before the march began. “We are not just going to allow men and women of law enforcement to take advantage of their role in the community. We want change. We want safety. We want to feel we are protected.”
The protest was organized by a group of community members who now have a Facebook page, “Make A Stand in Your Community.” They called for the firing of police Officer Michael Mellone, who left the San Francisco Police Department and joined Antioch’s force this year and resigned just before he was to be disciplined, and for police Cpl. Steve Aiello, president of the local police union, who made social media comments they called “outrageous.”
Aiello had made a comment on his personal Facebook account to a meme posted to Antioch’s Crime Prevention Commission showing a woman giving the middle finger to an officer during a protest. “I firmly believe an open hand slap in the face is 100 percent justified in this incident,” Aiello commented.
“The police should not be making these sorts of remarks against their own residents they are supposed to be protecting,” local activist Shagoofa Khan said.
Aiello has said they were taken out of context.
He added that he “would never promote violence on anyone” and that he supports “peaceful” protests.
Even so, Chief Tammany Brooks wrote in a statement that he was “extremely disappointed” by the police union president’s comments.
“At face value, they were insensitive and not in line with values of the Antioch Police Department,” Brooks wrote. “I have opened an investigation into this matter and, based on the findings, will hold him accountable for his actions.”
Wednesday’s protest also targeted Mellone, who resigned just before internal affairs investigators in San Francisco recommended he be suspended for 10 days for shooting a homeless man in 2016 with a bean-bag gun that escalated the situation. Mellone and another officer killed the man moments later.
Jose Góngora-Pat, younger brother of the victim, Luís Góngora-Pat, attended the Wednesday rally carrying a sign with his brother’s photo.
Davis, one of the organizers along with Khan and Kevin McManimen, called for fellow protesters to rally for the officers’ dismissals.
“Our slogan in this city is a joke,” she said. “Opportunity Lives here. The Opportunity for what? Opportunity to get shot? The opportunity to have a knee on our throat. … No, we won’t stand for it anymore — Officer Mellone does need to go, Aiello does need to go. Change is necessary now.”
Others chanted “Black Lives Matter” and called for protesters to voice their opinions at local council meetings and by voting at the upcoming election.
“We need to invest in mental health counselors, we need to invest in homeless shelters,” Khan added. “We need to invest in professionals who can de-escalate problems in our city. … The police officers have not been doing that as you can see with everything that is going on.”
Davis meanwhile called for protesters to help “rewrite the system.”
“It’s time for us to make change for ourselves and how do we do that? By holding our mayor and our police department accountable, holding the police union accountable, holding the people we voted for accountable.”