Two movements, one common cause as Concord residents stage protests

Tenant protection, police services at heart of rallies for racial justice.

Concord residents gathered at two separate protests on July 7 to demand better tenant protections and to defund the Concord Police Department, with both relating their causes to racial justice issues.

One group of residents drove to Meadow Homes Park at 11 a.m. to participate in “Day of Action: Housing Justice is Racial Justice.” The caravan then passed by the homes of Mayor Tim McGallian and Councilwoman Carlyn Obringer to ask that the city implement better tenant protections than those in the City Council’s proposed solution, as well as an extension of the eviction moratorium.

The city’s proposed ordinance would repeal and replace the Residential Rent Review Program, which offered mediation if a tenant received a rent increase of 10 percent or more. The new Residential Tenant Protection Program would require relocation assistance for tenants and a minimum of one-year leases.

Seeking rent control, just cause evictions

Nicole Zapata, an organizer with Raise the Roof Coalition, said the council’s new ordinance “doesn’t include the policies that we’ve been proposing, like rent control and just cause. … We need policies that would prevent those unjust evictions from happening in the first place.”
She called the plan a band-aid, rather than “actually going to the root of the problem.”

William Colin, secretary of the Central County Regional Group, said it was “absolutely” a racial justice issue. “These people have to pick between having a place to live and having food n the table (because of COVID-19). Access isn’t equitable.”

A large number of protestors honked and chanted through the streets before ending their movement at Concord Civic Center with chants of “we’ll be back,” in reference to the council meeting later that evening.

In that virtual meeting, the council voted unanimously to repeal the old program and replace it with the Residential Tenant Protection Program.

Looking beyond policing

The second group of protestors, labeled Defund Concord PD, met at 6 p.m. outside the Concord Civic Center to demand that the council cut the police department’s more than $60 million budget and instead “invest in equitable communities and systems” that are “far better equipped to handle these situations,” according to a press release.

Organizer June Higginbotham described her concern with the council’s discussion of “having to build a budget around obligation,” a reference to the June 23 decision to extend a contract with the police union that would secure police department employment levels through 2023. “They’re trying to avoid embarrassment,” she said.

Organizer Mara Berton got involved with the movement after researching police budgets with her wife. “Right now, we’re seeing the data skew very far to where people of color are being arrested more for crimes that are not felonies, like drug possession or loitering,” she said. “We’re seeing those crime spikes more than what represents people in the community.”

A small altercation occurred when two counter-protestors arrived, but they remained at a distance for the rest of the event.

The council discussed police issues at a special virtual meeting  July 15 which we will post here as soon as it is available to stream.