On Tuesday, the Antioch City Council agreed in a 5-0 vote to appoint Joe Mitchell to the Antioch Police Oversight Commission, but it did not come without controversy.
With six applicants and interviews, Mayor Ron Bernal nominated Mitchell to the oversight commission. This is for the partial-term vacancy expiring November 2025. However, during public comments, several members of the public spoke out against the selection citing social media posts and hearsay. Mitchell later in the meeting called it a “character assassination”
According to Erika Raulston, she strongly opposed the appointment of Mitchell citing his Facebook page and urged the council to reject the appointment.
“Mr. Mitchells public Facebook page contains multiple posts about reflecting racist and anti-LGBTQ+ and far right views. These are not allegations, these are his own words,” said Raulston. “A person with a public record like that cannot be expected to act fairly, impartial or in the best interest of Antioch.”
Gavin Payton cited how Mitchell wants to recall Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton and how he wants immigrants to be deported while supporting racist agendas. He also claims Mitchell supported posts that bashed the COVID-19 pandemic. Peyton advocated for youth to be represented on the commission.
Melissa Case stated she had concerns over messages by the city manager in reference to “white mothers” and she was ignored.
“I was wrong, I absolutely adore our city manager. I’ve had the opportunity to volunteer with Joe Mitchell, he is someone with different views than most in California, but he is allowed to express this along with the city manager expressing what she said. I don’t see hate. We may not agree and see eye to eye on national policies, I can tell you in my time with Joe I’ve seen him treat people with respect, decency and honesty. That is the kind of character we want in Antioch,” stated Case.
Dr. Kimberley Payton, President of the East County NAACP, said she was disturbed in the thinking process in appointing someone posting that type of information.
“When you post on social media, you represent that way. You think that way. That means your thought process is clouded in that format,” explained Payton. She also questioned what was unifying with those kinds of views. She also questioned if this appointment was benefiting the community. “You are bringing hate back to the table.”
Nichole Gardner then shouted out, “Mayor he is behind me and he just blurted out f—ing troll”.
After public comments, Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker said she wanted to hear from Mr. Mitchell about the allegations issued against him.
“He has been accused for being a supporter of Elon Musk who is a representation of apartheid of Africa and extreme genocide of south Africans. There was a claim that he is apart of a home grown terrorist group called Back the Blue here in the city of Antioch… that he is an anti-vaxxer where we all went through a very public pandemic where over 600,000 people lost their lives. That he is anti-black and a major supporter of a District Attorney recall. A District Attorney that upheld the rights of victims of police corruption and state sanctioned violence. That he is homophobic and that he is anti-immigrant. And we have a large immigrant community who is struggling right now under 45 and 47 administration. And the most major accusation overall that he is not a genuine believer in police accountability and police reform and this would be a step in the wrong direction for the city of Antioch,” said Torres-Walker and hoped they could give him an opportunity to address the accusations.
Councilmemebr Monica Wilson wanted to hear from Mitchell while Mayor Bernal said when he made the recommendation he had not looked at his Facebook page.
Mitchell then addressed the council with the following:
“I was approached by someone on Facebook last night, by coincidence and by the time I figured out what was going on, they were bating me to comment or whatever, I pretty much declined. I said look, you know, you can have a difference of opinion. I am a moderate conservative and I looked at this persons Facebook page and they are an extremist liberal point of view. Anti-vaxxer I didn’t even answer or approach, I have gotten all my vaccinations, its completely false. I never made a comment about that, ever.
Elon Musk, I don’t get the connection. Its commenting on DOGE policy, cutting cost, things of that nature, not embracing a person. So, not so much posting too much, just observations. I really felt like this attack was staged, it happened the night before this meeting. And for instance, I was called a racist because I posted something about the Grammy Awards where Beyonce won a country album of the year in comparison of Lainey Wilson, no comment, just posting with a list of achievements, things of that sort. I didn’t agree with the choice of the Grammy Awards, but this person says you are a racist for just posting that. It was really an off-the-wall attack. I would challenge anyone to go there and look around, if you want to look at memes or jokes, anybody can dig and feel confined, objected to anything. Some things are about football games, Eagles vs. Chiefs. I can’t fathom this, I am shocked.
Those of you that know me, I volunteer a lot to do a lot of different things. I volunteer with my church, this person was an atheist and made some nasty comments about being a Christian. I didn’t respond, I just said hey if you want to have a civil conversation I’ll have one, it was definitely a hit job last night, I’ve never had any of these confrontations. I work with all types of people. I volunteer for safe parking at our church, volunteered at the food bank, I coached athletics at Deer Valley HS, youth athletics for 25-years. Never had a complain about anything other than maybe playing time. I am a little parched right now, I am shocked about what happened tonight, this is an assassination and I was baited by someone who was trying to bate me into responding and I deleted all the back and forth, I didn’t want to be associated with this person because it was a hit job on me.
I have a many friends that would testify and talk about who I am. I am shocked that the audience not doing any homework, and really drilling down on all this stuff, to really see the context and to go along with he said, she said it was sickening to hear the audience response the way they did without knowing anything about me at all, nothing. I felt really betrayed by the community. A lot of you guys have seen me volunteering and I’ve done a lot of work in the Sycamore, Peppertree area cleaning up, helping people. Helping people who are unhoused. In one instance, a lady was going to get her car towed away, it didn’t run. She was living in it. We convinced one of the officers if they can move it somewhere so she didn’t lose her home. That is the kind of person I am.
I feel betrayed by the community. Its one of the things that is really sad that has occurred with the police department and the city, is that trust level is just gone. It’s really easy or common place for people to run with rumors and innuendo and not know what they are talking about. I am personally hurt by a lot of things that were said tonight because they were not true. I did this because I want the city to get better, I’ve lived here for 35 years and this is a hit on me and my reputation and I’ve worked hard to be a good person.
So this is all unfounded stuff and I did say F—ing troll, because that is what happened to me. A person trolled me, picked me on stuff out of context and its shocking. So, that is my story. I am pretty disappointing. People have seen me at meetings and I try and be thoughtful with my comments and balanced. I went to all the meetings with the hiring of the police chief and asked questions that were right down the middle. More about qualifications and able to be a citizen who sat in on some of the oral interviews for the hiring of the new police chief, again, you can talk to the folks who sat in there, some of the other commissioners were on the panel and heard me speak and ask questions.
This is crazy how social media gets out of hand. A lot of stuff was posted a long time ago because I thought there could be retaliation at some point, but I’ve been contemplating getting off social media all together because its gotten terrible, so that is what I have to say.”
After Mitchell spoke, Torres-Walker was about to make the motion to appoint, however, Mayor Bernal said he was going to postpone the appointment so they could do more research.
“The reason I am saying that is I did not do my own due diligence to the level I am hearing from folks tonight,” said Bernal. “I think it benefits us all if we can find out if any of the things being said are accurate or not. I trust Mr. Mitchell, but I want to see it for myself.”
Torres-Walker did not agree and did not want to put it off, but instead was making the motion to appoint while noting she knows what it was like to be trolled on her personal social media and to have people take a personal and traumatic experience and “rake you over the coals for six years without knowing who you really are at your core”. She added she knows what its like to be trolled and have had her character be assassinated for six years. She wanted to give him a chance.
Councilmember Don Freitas, who got emotional, said they get attacked and so often it was misguided, not true and not accurate.
“It hurts, a lot. Being called Elon Musk, by some who are here in this room. It is something that I will never forget because it was wrong and because it hurt,” said Freitas who added he doesn’t know Mitchell personally, but is aware of years of volunteerism. “I am a little appalled hearing some of the things and frankly, trusting social media, I take it with a grain of salt because I have found so many times people attacking for their own personal agendas.”
Freitas also disagreed with Bernal about going back and doing more research because they interviewed 6 people and it was his opinion that he was best qualified and didn’t want to muddy any waters with “he said, she said”.
Mayor Pro Tem Louie Rocha said if he believed the things people said about the people to his right and left on social media, they would not be able to work together. He wanted to give people an opportunity to show who they are and then believe what they show him.
Councilmember Monica Wilson said she would be watching Mr. Mitchell for the next 6-months and hoped he could be a bridge to the two groups. She urged him to prove the naysayers wrong.
The council then voted 5-0 to approve the appointment of Mitchell.
Previous
- March 18, 2025 – Antioch Police Oversight Commission Defies City Council Request
- Feb 26 – Antioch City Council Cannot “Pause” Oversight Commission
- Feb 24 – Antioch to Discuss Pause of Police Oversight Commission
- Feb 13 – UPDATED: Leslie May Resigns from Antioch Police Oversight Commission
- Feb 12 – Antioch to Pause Police Oversight Commission Until June
- Feb 6 – Antioch to Consider Removal of Police Oversight Commissioner
- Jan 30, 2025 – Freitas Wants Antioch Code of Conduct, Resignation of Oversight Commissioner
- Feb 12, 2024 – Antioch Set to Make Appointments to Police Oversight Commission
- March 13, 2022 – Antioch City Council Agrees to Create Police Oversight Commission
