On April 1, Antioch Police Crime Commissioner Leslie May issued a warning to members of the community who are talking negatively about her online.
May said during the April 1 Antioch Police Oversight Commission Meeting she will take action against those who go above and beyond criticism and impede her ability to financially provide for herself. She has also issued several cease and desist letters to members of the community.
During the nearly six-minute statement stating at the committee meeting, she claimed those attacking her online was abuse of a senior citizen, abuse of a disabled person and abuse of an altruistic black woman all punishable by law in legal and civil courts of law.
“Any further acts of aggression, intimidation will be construed as a violation of the American With Disabilities Act to condone violence towards me, elder abuse by intentional acts or failure to act that causes a risk of harm to an older adult and violation of my struggle for equality as a black woman who has always served on the front line in the fight for equality. I am protected by these three classes and I will use any means necessary to protect me,” stated May.
She stated (see video or read transcript):
“Due to some recent activities I am going to respond accordingly. I go high when people go low. In my professional and personal life, I meet people where they are so let me apologize for having to tread down to the guttural level. I realize when I became a public figure I opened myself up for criticism, racism, bigotry, and hatred who fear me because my integrity, my character, my relevance, education, social standing and oratorical skills. I worked hard to attain my status and I am proud of who I have become. But when you go above and beyond and above the criticism and disparagement of me by making statements filled with lies and unfounded accusations which can effect my ability to be gainfully employed as a mental health therapist, launch my private practice, launch my non-profit, you stepped out of the realm of attacking a public figure and into the realm of impeding my ability to financially provide for myself.
Abuse of a senior citizen, abuse of a disabled person and abuse of an altruistic black woman all punishable by law in legal and civil courts of law.
Prior to me moving to Contra Costa County, I worked as a specialist for the Alameda County Sheriffs Office at Santa Rita Jail in 2010. When I was raised, I was taught to put up or shut up. I led and assisted in protests in Antioch because it was the right thing to do. But instead of taking a position of a cowardless, spineless social media warrior, I also put my money where my mouth is and decided I needed to be involved to make a difference in Antioch.
The first step I took was to apply to be a member of Re-Imagine Antioch where we strategized and make plans to create a healing center to help the community members of Antioch who have been harmed the most, black people! The second step I took was to apply to be a police trainee law enforcement officer with the Antioch Police Department last year. I spoke to the interim chief and explained about my physical disabilities and was assured they would make accommodations for the physical agility test as well as assured me they do not discriminate against aged people. I was scheduled to take the POST test at 9/29 at 8:00 am at the Antioch Police Department but my sciatica went completely out and I was bed ridden for a couple of months. The third step I took was to apply for a commissioner on the Antioch Police Oversight Commission which I was selected by local committee members, not one so councilmember. The fourth step I took was to apply for the position of Community Services Officer for the city of Antioch and completed the written test on Friday, March 29, 2024. Nobody knows I was contacted by the interim chief last year and was asked to assist the department to review policies surrounding effective policing, mental health disparities as well as social justice and equity. Before he could get the question out of his mouth, I said yes. Because this was an opportunity for me to help create policies which could be used for training policies that could help the Antioch Police Department to heal from the disgraceful past.
Everything I have ever done was for the betterment of people around me because I know God has me covered and I don’t have to worry about me. I have enjoyed my life in which I have thrived in any area I touched including being a published author and being a certified applied statistician which helps me write grants for myself and contract myself out for others when I have time.
I am a mother of 5, grandmother of 7, great grandmother of 12 and great-great grandmother of one-and-a-half children. In addition to potential clients and my numerous streams of income, all of my children except for 2.5 read and listen to the news and are affected by the disparaging and libelous, slanderous remarks made by a few people who haven’t walked a mile in my shoes and could never achieve what I have achieved what I have achieved in their lifetime.
I am not a politician or a power chaser because I need to be able to look at my reflection in the mirror and not turn away from the hoard, revolting, hideous, grotesque, aberrant, repulsive being I have manifested into.
In ending, any, any, any, any weapons used against me shall not prosper. Any further acts of aggression, intimidation will be construed as a violation of the American With Disabilities Act to condone violence towards me, elder abuse by intentional acts or failure to act that causes a risk of harm to an older adult and violation of my struggle for equality as a black woman who has always served on the front line in the fight for equality. I am protected by these three classes and I will use any means necessary to protect me.
So for everyone who says I hate the police, I just made you look foolish. Thank you.”
May Sends Cease and Desist Orders
Over the past several days, its been confirmed May has sent out several cease and desist letters and rumblings this includes an elected official. One was dated March 31, 2024 which was a day prior to her comments at the Police Oversight Commission meeting. It is unclear what legal standing she would have considering she was appointed to the commission in February and is now on a public commission.
Its also unclear if May is threatening to use the legal system for those who disagree with her thus using intimidation for those who voice opposition to her ideas and beliefs stated during public meetings–thus a form of silencing opposition.
Will Antioch Seek to Remove May from the commission?
While it is not known if the City of Antioch will take any action, May comments will likely be addressed given the history Antioch has with members serving on commissions–especially after Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe was caught on a hot mic stating he would have no problem removing Leslie May from the commission should she gets out of line and that she was warned.
Back in February 2016, Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe (now mayor) was serving on the Economic Development Commission and was a city council alternate for Monica Wilson, was removed from the commission after he was involved in the Card Room Initiative, sponsored by the California Grand Casino in Pacheco (CA) and is in the electoral process in the City of Antioch. While in May of 2020, Ken Turnage II was removed from the planning commission after a post he made on Facebook regarding the pandemic and his believe in the Malthusian Theory.
When Turnage was removed, it was debated whether it was a free speech issue which City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith explained:
“I believe you’re hearing from the comments is that what the focus of this issue is not a free speech. The focus of this issue is what is the reaction and the impact that this speech has had on the residents of Antioch,” stated City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith. “Thinking about this issue right now and the thing that makes it so critical for the government is that this has incited an impact.”
He told the council it was up to them to determine the impact and what the impact it is having on Antioch residents and their ability to effectively govern. He then explained the difference between an elected official and an appointed commissioner.
“If an elected public official makes these types of statements, there’s a direct accountability for the people who elect that official. So elected officials receive their power on the public. What you have here, because you have an appointed official and you have someone who is appointed by an elected official, so the public elected the official, the official appointed and approved the appointment, put them in this place. And the reason that’s important is because in this circumstance, the individual is beyond the reach and the grasp of public and hold accountable. And so where you’re left is your left as the city council, which is able to determine whether or not this person will be held accountable and how that accountability will take shape. But ultimately the position that commissioner is in, it’s still a position where they got their power for the public, but the conduit was all of you as elected officials who went out there on the public vote and then enabled this person to occupy that position. And you have to decide based on what you hear from the public, whether or not there’s a call to accountability and that calls you accountability would be only yours to be open to exercise, but the public cannot not reach. This individual is safely sheltered and behind the elected officials in Antioch and only the elected officials can decide how it is that this matter should be handled.”
No one from the City of Antioch or the City Council have commented on May’s April 1 statement at the end of the meeting.
10 comments
And the soap opera (or is it a sitcom?) continues.
What kind of nut job would do that? Fine you don’t like it but don’t try to ruin someone’s life over it. What’s wrong with people?
Except May lied about that. So what kind of nut job would lie about being victim? What’s wrong with people?
Malthusian theory?
That’s not quite how this works sweetheart. If you accept a position in government, you must be willing to accept criticism. Perhaps you didn’t understand the assignment? So this might not be the job for you???
It does appear that Ms. May does not understand the legal concept of protected classes. It pertained to unlawful discrimination, not immunity from criticism.
Oh cry me a river lady…..
So now she’s worried her about her self-employment, because people have responded to the repulsive comments she has made in the past?
There was no “go high” in her comments to City Council in what I read or watched over the last couple years, just a venomous hatred to those that don’t look like her. Making her disdain for others abundantly clear with repeated name calling and the non-stop vile diatribe of how she feels about those in the community that she’s publicly representing is disgraceful and disturbing. I ignore her. I actually blocked her a long time ago, even as a stranger, because I didn’t want to see the garbage she was spreading about the local community…reactionary or not.
I will not negate the fact she has potentially had life experiences that others haven’t, but to say you “go high” when others go low….No. She lowered herself to the sewer system by even responding to the internet trolls. But, where she has missed the mark entirely is that she’s cannot govern what she (and others) are actively participating in….free speech. She’s opening herself and the city to a 1st Amendment lawsuit by using her position on the Police Oversight Committee to hand smack those who legally are allowed to speak freely. Antioch doesn’t have the money to pay for a 1st Amendment Class Action lawsuit because Ms. May is violating the community’s right to free speech. It’s mind blowing that she literally preached it from the city’s pulpit.
If the public is complaining and sending her comments and videos to the State of California so her professional license can be reviewed….again, that’s on her. She aired her personal laundry for free during public comment sessions. No one told her to respond to trolls with racism and bigotry…she’s responding in kind because those are her true feelings of others. Totally ok. She has as much right to be awful as those other people do…..but none of them, her included, should be in any position of power. She also has the right to bear the consequences of her own actions.
I say this as a protected class person myself of age & disability and as a parent of two POC children, 1 being LGBTQA+. Just in case that is needed to justify any of these comments….(that just sounds so stupid to even think this is relevant.)
You are either racist or you are not. She has spoke from the hilltop that she is. Period.
Police Oversight Committee can have real change or have bigots on board. That’s on them to decide, but as it currently stands, I’d be shocked if this committee does anything except make the community more untrusting of government as a whole.
I truly hope those who got letters band together and file a lawsuit against the City of Antioch for allowing Ms. May to violate civil rights from their own chambers . It’s time for action and accountability.
Sad to say but not everyone is cut out for public service. The mayor and Council may need to rethink their decision regarding Ms. May.
She lost all respect when in May 2023 she said during a council meeting that “black people are the superior race” and we should all “bow down”. She’s a racist, a professional victim, and an example of what not to age into.
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