An email from an East Bay councilor raised many eyebrows.
Richmond City Councilor Nat Bates responded to a community activist on the issue of police funding.
In the email, Bates beat up the city of Oakland for diverting additional funds from the police and criticized the role of unarmed mental health relief workers.
“If someone breaks into my home and threatens my life, I want a police officer with a gun,” he said.
Bates saw an email from Jewell Bachelor, a Richmond teacher who lives in Oakland, asking him to withdraw funds from the Richmond Police Department and invest that money elsewhere.
That’s when he replied to her email. Bachelor couldn’t believe it.
“I thought it was spam, but there was the language I didn’t understand. When I took the time, I understood that this was a personal message, ”said Bachelor.
In the email, Bates didn’t hold back.
The Richmond city councilor criticized Oakland city leaders for choosing to divert additional millions from Oakland police as the city grapples with a surge in violent crime.
“Unfortunately, we have a group of people who are using the events in Minneapolis, Atlanta, Chicago to take the pressure off the Richmond Police Department,” he said.
Bates also wrote the following in the email to Bachelor:
“If a criminal [is] break into my car or home while threatening [me] and my family life, I want a cop with a gun, a shotgun and if possible a dog to make sure the idiot doesn’t get away, not a fucking social worker with an iPad like you want. ”
“The tone of the message really proves he doesn’t care about the Richmond people!” Bachelor added.
When speaking with NBC Bay Area’s Melissa Colorado, he shared his stance on the matter.
“They feel like they can come into our town with their Black Lives Matter t-shirts, etc., and dictate what the police are supposed to be like in our community,” said Bates.
After the death of George Floyd, the City of Richmond established a Reimaging Public Safety Community Task Force. High school teacher Luis Chacon sits on this task force that helped divert $ 3 million in police funds to a range of social services – from homelessness to summer jobs for teens.
“He [Bates] does not recognize the direction the task force has taken and the conversation the task force has had about what security really looks like, ”said Chacon.
Bates told NBC Bay Area on Wednesday why he wouldn’t want the City of Richmond to cut police funding.
“We want a strong police presence to contain this violence as much as possible,” said Bates.