Community leaders: Sedition by a sitting president. Treason by false patriots.

Over the last four years, we have witnessed grotesque scenes of children torn from the arms of their mothers and fathers at the border or the last breaths of the children who died while in the custody of those who caged them.

Over the last four years, we have witnessed the pleas and tears of our fellow humans begging for asylum because they or their loved ones are callously denied due process and sent back to their deaths.

Over the last four years, we witnessed Latino, Black and Indigenous Americans mourning their children or a parent whose life was taken by brutality of the state or by the brutality of racism and hate.

Over the last four years, we witnessed the discovery of bodies in streets, murdered because of gender or sexual identity.

On January 6, 2021, we witnessed the same hand of cruelty behind all of that pain incite a treasonous assault upon the People’s building in Washington D.C. History was forged by Donald Trump and his mob with an attempted coup.

We heard this seditious president respond to violent, treasonous acts by calling the mobs “special people,” affirming their anger and continuing his flaccid “stolen election” narrative.

It was horrific to witness sedition, treason and domestic terrorism, broadcast live around the globe. For sedition and treason to occur with limited moderation by law enforcement and with sustained occupation of our nation’s Capitol, places democracy in danger around the world.

And we observe that had the bodies that sieged upon Congress been Black or Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC), or carrying flags with all the colors of life, they would never have been afforded the capacity to commit treason without threat or broad use of lethal force.

We, the undersigned, join as duly elected officials, community leaders and Americans in repudiating the criminal act of sedition by President Trump and the violent, treasonous acts of Trump loyalists against the United States of America, the United States Congress, the Constitution of the United States. We demand that the treasonous assaults on liberty be met with swift justice and vigorous prosecution in defense of our democracy.

In Unity,

Claudia Rossi, Board President, Santa Clara County Board of Education
Serena Alvarez, Esq., Executive Director, The Salvadore E. Alvarez Institute for Non-Violence
Rebeca Armendariz, Councilmember, City of Gilroy
Teresa Castellanos, Immediate Past Board President, San Jose Unified School District
Brian Wheatley, Board President, San Jose Unified School District
Karina Dominguez, Councilmember, City of Milpitas
Peter Ortiz, Trustee, Santa Clara County Board of Education
The Si Se Puede Collective, including:
Maritza Maldonado, Executive Director of Amigos de Guadalupe Center for Justice and
Empowerment
Veronica Goei, Executive Director of Grail Family Services
Camille Fontanilla, Executive Director of Somos Mayfair
Jessica Paz-Cedillos, Executive Director of The School of Arts and Culture
Cayce Hill, Executive Director of Veggielution
Alex Caraballo, Labor Activist
Carla Torres De Luna, Trustee, Hollister School District
Jeffrey I. Levin, The South Bay Progressive Alliance
Corina Herrera-Loera, Board President, Alum Rock Union School District
Carlos Flores, President, CARAS South County
Jan Grist, Board President, Hollister School District
Patrick Ahrens, Trustee, Foothill-De Anza Community College District
Ketzal Gomez, Red Earth Women’s Society
Gabriela Chavez-Lopez, President of the Latina Coalition of Silicon Valley
Tamara Alvarado, Community Advocate
Gina Gates, Community Advocate
Omar Torres, Regional Director, California Democratic Party
Ruth Silver Taube, Coordinator, Santa Clara County Wage Theft Coalition
Gerardo Loera, Community Activist
Derecka Mehrens, Executive Director, Working Partnerships U.S.A.
South Bay Labor Council
Pastor Jethroe Moore II, President, San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP
Otto Lee, District 3 Supervisor, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors
Maria Noel Fernandez, Silicon Valley Rising
Patricia Mondragon, Trustee, Gavilan Community College Board
Red Earth Women’s Society
Women’s March San Jose
Sergio Jimenez, Councilmember, City of San Jose
Alysa Cisneros, Councilmember, City of Sunnyvale
Patti Andrade, Trustee, Evergreen Elementary School District
Marisa Hanson, Trustee, Evergreen Elementary School District
Lam Nguyen, Orchard City Indivisible Co-Chair
Huy Tran, Community Activist
Ray Mueller, Co-Chair, Stonewall Democratic Club of Silicon Valley
Diego Martinez, Santa Clara County Democratic Party Central Committee
Scott and Diane Myers-Lipton, Community Activists
Marisa Hanson, Evergreen Elem. School District Trustee
Allie Hughes, Santa Clara County Democratic Party Central Committee Member
Justin Lardinois, San José Community Advocate
Maricela Lechuga, East San José Community Activist
DAWN, Democratic Activists for Women Now
Michelle Osorio, M.P.A., Community Advocate
Sylvia Alvarez, J.D., Former Trustee, Evergreen Elementary School District
Danny Garza, Mexican American Political Association
Micael “Mica” Estremera, President, California La Raza Lawyers Association
Jake Tonkel, Co-Chair, SBPA Public Banking
Beija Gonzalez, Trustee, Oak Grove School District
Carla Hernandez, Trustee, Oak Grove School District
Angel Kelly, Community Advocate & Former Chair, El Comite PDLF (Latino Social Workers)
Nassim Nouri, Green Party Santa Clara County & Unhoused Response Group
Michele Mashburn, Director, San Jose Peace and Justice Center & Green Party SCC
Andres Quintero, Vice President, Alum Rock Union School District
Bernice Aguilera, Community Activist
Ron P. Muriera, Community Activist
Rebecca, Gallardo, Civic and Small Business Leader
Wendy Greenfield, Community Activist
Tina Acevedo, Latina Business Owner
Barbara Baca, Retired Elementary Educator