The email is as follows:
"My name is {INSERT YOUR NAME}, and I am reaching out to you about the recent violent and discriminatory arrests made at the San Bernardino Courthouse.
On January 1st, 2020 and July 7th, 2020, an order was given by Judge Michael A. Sachs that prohibited certain behaviors in regards to protesting at, around, and near courthouses in San Bernardino County. These orders are being imposed as a Covid safety initiative, yet we have not seen these orders enforced in the past, namely on May 1st, 2020 when several demonstrators were at the courthouse protesting the shelter-in-place order and mask policy.
On July 31, four key Black organizers of the Black Lives Matter, Inland Empire chapter were targeted, brutalized, and detained by the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department. Eye witness accounts noted the organizers had been protesting for all of 10 minutes before the Sheriffs escalated the situation. Officer F. Harris was documented on film assaulting, tackling, and beating Black and disabled protesters. The captured organizers were held for 12 hours in a detention facility, 6 hours of which were without the presentation of charges from the cops.
I do not believe that it is a coincidence that local leaders of the Black community were targeted only two days after they had fed 1000 people just a couple blocks down the road. Throughout history, we have seen police target Black organizers who are building power and providing resources for their community, and it is clear this situation is no different. This display of corrupt and violent enforcement of the court order is a clear act of descrimination and racism.
The legal justification the court cited for the order, Comfort v McLaughlin, is largely based on the fact that no similar speech had been allowed on courthouse grounds in the past, but since the order has been in effect they have allowed white Anti-Mask and counter BLM protesters to demonstrate in the area. This sets a new precedent and nullifies the legality of the order. Now that certain groups are allowed to protest on courthouse property, all groups must be allowed the same first amendment protections.
We, the people of the Orange County community, demand this court order be lifted and all charges against the targeted organizers be dropped. United we stand in the resistance against any discriminatory and racist action, whether in our own county, San Bernardino County, or elsewhere."
