Editorial: Library Fiasco Foreshadowed by Antioch Council Actions

The temporary closure of the Antioch library has placed the City of Antioch in the national spotlight yet again for all the wrong reasons. I wonder if Antioch residents have had enough yet?

While it goes without saying this county library is the responsibility for the county to ensure safety inside, its Antioch’s responsibility to provide safety to the community in the surrounding neighborhood.  Ultimately, Antioch leadership should feel embarrassed.

For one, the claim they knew nothing about the problems–talk about being asleep at the wheel. And two, it will take an emergency contract for armed security guards and patrol to reopen a library. Yes, armed security at a public library.  This was totally preventable if the Antioch City Council took crime seriously as opposed to pretend like crime doesn’t exist or accuse police of being the problem—especially when crime is actually increasing.

Some members of the Antioch City Council can play dumb all they want for political reasons about the closure, but at the end of the day elections have consequences and so do votes on items. I can think of no greater mistake than one of the very first actions under Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe which was to rescind its school resource officer grant.

This was a grant that would have placed an officer at both Antioch High School and Antioch Middle School–within 30 seconds of the library and able to respond quickly, if needed. And apparently, they were needed at the library with more than a dozen 9-1-1 calls placed since December!

But I will get the the school resource officer topic in a second, just think about the library.

Even with armed security, who the heck would want to go there knowing they could be robbed, their vehicle could get vandalized or stolen, be around drug use, or bullets flying from any direction. Or, be exposed to people engaging in sex acts–which by the way, how clean is the library today? The library should be a sanctuary, not protected like its a bank.

Sure, armed guards and patrol will help, but its only a band-aid to a much larger issue in the area–its dangerous! Everybody in Antioch knows that E 18th Street to E 20th near D Street is not safe… it hasn’t been for years.

This is a result of Antioch not having its act together or actively working on solutions and now taxpayer money from the county will now fund security in Antioch.  How long will the county fund armed security or patrol? Money will not last forever. Then what? Should taxpayers in Contra Costa County go to fund armed security? Its a fair question but it is flat out ridiculous.

Antioch should be spending its own money on safety while using Measure W money for what it was intended for, not the mayors attempt to fleece people into pet projects such as its bogus homeless solutions or the fake office of public safety and community resources.

And by the way, where are all the youth programs and after school activities? The community is still waiting.

Sadly, after this narrative of an unsafe library, most people will take their backpacks and laptops and head to Brentwood or Pittsburg. For Antioch, the area continues to get no attention while the Antioch council gives itself bogus accolades.

An altercation between a student and safety personnel at Antioch High School in 2021

Unfortunately, this library disaster was foreshadowed back in 2020 when the council voted to rescind a grant for School Resource Officers – and in case you missed it above, would have placed two officers within 30-seconds response of the library.

And according to several sources, when Antioch Police were School Resource officers in the schools back in the day, these were the officers who did respond to calls at and around the library and work with the neighborhood residents and businesses.

Back in July of 2020, the Antioch Police Department was awarded a $750k grant from the US Dept. of Justice which would have brought six SRO’s to the Antioch Unified School District—this was all in response to a January 31, 2020 fatal shooting at Deer Valley High School. At the time, big promises were made to improve safety after that shooting, but next to nothing actually happened. The community got lip service, not actual safety improvements, if anything, they got less safety thanks to national rhetoric.

With the grant, officers would have been placed at Antioch High School, Deer Valley High School, Antioch Middle School, Black Diamond Middle School, Dallas Ranch Middle School and Park Middle School. And, it was a cost savings to the city because it was a 3-way split between the grant, the city and school district for six officers.

Here are the officers who were selected for the school resource officer assignment:

• Officer Kendall – African American male who grew up in east Oakland. His mom is a teacher, father a preacher while he and his wife started WIMP (Weapons in Minors Possession) to help educate and raise awareness of damages caused by weapons. He works with youth at his church and coaches youth basketball.
• Officer Allen – white female in 20’s, grew up playing sports, coached youth sports teams and mentored youths, features in Share Blue Smiles for working with school age girls.
• Officer Saffold – African American male in 30’s, grew up on military base. High School he met an SRO who helped guide him in life challenges (suicide of father, wife’s addiction to narcotics where she was eventually arrested and now a single father)
• Officer Aguilar – bilingual male in his 30’s. Came to Antioch from El Cerrito where he was an SRO and created a cross country running team. Grew up in East Oakland.
• Officer Tanguma – Hispanic male in 30’s, Senior Year in HS he worked on projects where he adopted and worked younger students who were to enter into HS, coached youth football.
• Officer Blumberg – white male in 40s. Worked as paramedic and EMT. He was a preceptor and worked with students and interns to teach them jobs. Coaches youth swimming, water polo and is a cadet advisor for city of Antioch.

A great group of officers who would have been an asset for Antioch youths to be engaged with, get to know, and build relationships–and none of them were involved in any text messages (for those curious). And if there were multiple 9-1-1 calls to the library, officers who had relationships with youths would be on site, they would know the kids while folks in the neighborhood would get to know the officers because it would also serve as a beat for them.

Its worked wonders in the city of Brentwood where a school resource officer frequently respond to the parking garage, city park and other downtown issues–they know the youths and can have conversations. Meanwhile, in Pittsburg, its school resource officer frequently assists the area around campus. In Oakley, same thing. It works!

This win-win in Antioch was destroyed before it even started all because of philosophy of the bogus anti-police narratives in favor of coddle the criminal mentality of the majority council.

Vote Recaps:

• In a 3-2 July 2020 vote, the Antioch City Council voted to approve the grant with then Mayor Sean Wright and Councilmembers Joy Motts and Lori Ogorchock in favor with Lamar Thorpe and Monica Wilson voting “no” after approximately 100 public comments and an hour of council debate.
• In an August 3-2 vote (Hack, Rocha and Gibson-Gray in favor and Householder and Sawyer-White against), the Antioch Unified School District approved splitting the cost of the SRO grant.
• In December 2020, under a new Antioch City Council, one of the first acts under Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe was to rescind the SRO contract in a 3-2 vote with Thorpe, Tamisha Torres-Walker and Monica Wilson in favor while Mike Barbanica and Lori Ogorchock were against.

Before the program could even be launched, it was killed.

Thus, Antioch Unified School District was forced to increase its own security by hiring 4 armed security guards to cover 24-school sites. This is not exactly ideal for safety.

Also, before anyone wants to bring up the text scandal and these officers would have been placed back on the street, if AUSD and a grant was paying for officers, Antioch Police would still be required 50% of the time to be on campus or in the area of a school–its still a win for the neighborhood.

I know this ultimately a game of “what if” when looking back at what could have been. Its just one perspective, but now we will never know if school resource officers could have helped the school district and county library because Hernandez-Thorpe, Torres-Walker and Wilson killed the grant before the impact officers could have had on the neighborhood and schools were realized.

Instead, another band-aid approach in the City of Antioch with the county now providing armed security guards at a library.

Had enough yet Antioch? This Antioch library situation is pretty pathetic all around.

Mike Burkholder
Publisher of ContraCosta.news
[email protected]