Brian Hofer of the “Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission,” has been shopping the so-called “Sanctuary City Contracting and Investment Policy” from city to city for years with no takers. Finally he hit pay dirt in Richmond where the City Council has a long-standing habit of adopting, like a lost puppy, anything that looks or sounds good.

Councilmember Beckles, one of the ordinance’s sponsors, is particularly attracted to “feel good” public policy with minimal substance and unintended consequences. She is perhaps best known for embracing the “Space Weapons” resolution that made Richmond the Mecca for “targeted individuals” from around the world. Read more at  https://www.mercurynews.com/2015/05/20/barnidge-no-more-mind-control-weapons-targeting-richmond-residents/, http://richmondstandard.com/2016/06/10/ny-times-richmonds-space-weapons-ban-biggest-victory-for-targeted-individuals/, http://richmondstandard.com/2015/05/20/richmond-council-passes-resolution-supporting-ban-on-space-based-weapons-2/ and https://www.cbsnews.com/news/people-fearing-space-weapons-target-one-california-town/. Beckles is employed by Contra Costa County as a youth mental health professional and should know better. Just this evening, I received the following email from a targeted individual seeking asylum in Richmond:

Dear Sir,

This is Dan. This is not my real name. I hope this email will reach you. I was looking for the help of Richmond's Police Department since I saw Richmond's police department must be the first police department to at least listen to the victims who call themselves as Targeted Individuals. By becoming a victim and then doing a massive research I managed to find out the actual cause of this crime and I hope my story will help millions of people who are suffering out there without knowing some hidden truth about the world that we are living today. Further, I see American citizens are the highest target of this crime than any other country. Therefore, I appreciate if you could take your time to read this. Note that this is an extremely difficult thing to understand, so if you have sometime, please take time to carefully read this and my blog too where I have explained this crime in detail.

Couple of years ago, I had a clash with a friend. However, just after this clash, the reality that I used to know ever since my childhood, suddenly started changing drastically in a weird way. Thereafter, the whole world became hostile to me, including my closes friends, organisations around the world (Bloomberg, The Guardian, Forbes etc.. ), people in live television programs, radio stations, people in streets you name it. So basically in medical terms I'm a Schizophrenic my symptoms were identical to them. I had so many delusions or false thinking. Due to the abnormal events that I happened to face, I thought my house has been bugged, my phone has been hacked, my thoughts are being read, I get messages through TV shows, radio's etc.. However, not like other human beings, I never had a doubt of the new reality that I happened to face. Therefore, I always critically analysed my situation to understand this abnormal phenomenon. Then again this didn't end their I started facing physical harassments too. At this point I started doing a research online to understand who else would face similar experiences. This is where I got to know Targeted Individuals for the first time in my life. Thereafter, my symptoms became identical Targeted Individuals as well and then due to my research I was harassed in the most inhuman way. 

Having said that, I could tell you today that I could be the first person on Earth, who has managed to come out of such a delusion, a false thinking, simply by doing a massive research. This research helped me to gain the right knowledge. And this knowledge helped me to have the right view of my situation and that helped me to have the right understanding end of the day. Therefore, my false thinking or the delusions got vanished in thin air. My story will prove that beliefs of the medial community for the cause behind such claims are nothing more than another false thinking. 

This research, helped me to understand that Targeted Individuals has always been right on their claims saying that a technology is working on them. They do have false thoughts or delusions too but those delusions are there due to the false assumptions that they have made whilst they analysing their manipulated world so just like me they also have ended up in making false claims or in medical terms delusions. I wrote an article about this to help others and this an in-depth discussion to help someone to understand why people think that Targeted Individuals are having some sort of mental issues, which is not the truth. 

https://thestimulatedbrains.wordpress.com/2018/05/14/targeted-individuals-a-crime-against-humanity/

This is the most heinous crime that I have ever seen in this world and I cannot find words to express how cruel this crime is. I'm deeply saddened by knowing this truth. We have never listened to Targeted Individuals and never carried out a proper investigation to understand their claims with the right view in mind, so people around the world are suffering and this is not a normal suffering they are being TORTURED in front of our very own eyes, no one is there to get help. Here are more examples of such cases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLifs7IioiI - Just like others, she is being harassed in the most inhuman way. This is a horrific crime.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MAo0NfJmf8  - Organized Gang Stalking Covered On Local CBS Channel 5 News. These victims are having false views due to the way this extremely advanced technology acts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckgWXMasKe0 - Technological Torture of Myron May Covered Via Local ABC News. His views are false but he is physical harassment it real.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRzM37is2lk   -  Another victim. Please check the viewer comments too.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/targetedindividualsuk/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/678262215651731/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/GangStalkingAustralia/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/705801809437199/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/targetedindividualsinternational/

I could explain in a logical manner why cases are happening cause I went through the same but I was lucky enough to come out of my false views. My story will change the world views on this crime forever. Anyone could become a victim to this technology out of the blue just like me/others and this will devastate his/her life. I'll be happy to help further if an investigation could be carried out to help the victims.  

Thanks & Regards,
Dan

I digress. Back to the “Sanctuary City Contracting and Investment Policy.” The author, Brian Hofer, apparently does not understand local government in general, and Richmond government in particular. The ordinance has two parts:

• Prohibition against contracting with any “Person or Entity that provides ICE with any “Data Broker” or “Extreme Vetting” services”
• Prohibition against making any “investment in stocks, bonds, securities, or other obligations issued by any provider of Data Broker or Extreme Vetting services to ICE” and adopting “ a plan with respect to pension fund investments and shall implement such a plan consistent with the intent of this act”

I pointed out that the City of Richmond does not invest in stocks, bonds or securities, nor does the City make pension fund investments. That fact seemed to have no effect on the City Council’s zeal to adopt the ordinance as quickly as possible.

The contracting part is a little more complicated. Hofer’s sole target is a Bay Area company, Vigilant Solutions, that is a vendor of License Plate Recognition technology. Vigilant is currently under contract with the Richmond Police Department and also provides the platform for the system recently installed on East Bay freeways to help prevent and solve the rash of freeway shootings that has occurred over the last few years. License plate readers have been an effective tool in reducing car thefts, recovering stolen cars, and both preventing and solving violent crimes. Hofer doesn’t like Vigilant Solutions because they also contract with ICE. Fair enough, but both Vigilant and the Richmond Police Department maintain that license plate data acquired in Richmond will not be shared with ICE unless the City authorized it – which is not going to happen.

So the sole remaining objective of the Sanctuary City Contracting and Investment Policy is to punish Vigilant for doing business with ICE by withholding the City’s business. Whether or not this will dissuade Vigilant from dealing with ICE is unknown. Whether or not there are other equivalent alternate vendors is also unknown. Last night, Assistant Police Chief Bisa French asked for a “few more days” for the Richmond Police Department to study the potential impacts of losing Vigilant or other vendors, but the RPA dominated City Council -- no fans of police in general and the Richmond Police in particular -- turned her down and proceeded to vote the ordinance in on a first reading.

I voted against it because it was poorly written, included substantial content irrelevant to Richmond, and had no clear impact on protecting Richmond’s immigrant community. In fact, the unintended consequences of removing critical and successful crime fighting tools from the police might have more adverse impacts on the immigrant community than not passing it. But the City Council was not concerned with this. They wanted to make a statement.

Like the Space Weapons resolution, council members dismissed flaws in the ordinance by saying, “What’s the downside?”

Ironically, Richmond already has some of the most aggressive sanctuary city policies in the United States, and I have continued to advocate and bolster this. I personally signed the lawsuit that Richmond filed against President Trump, although it was subsequently dismissed on technicalities. In 2016, I joined over a hundred mayors nationwide in signing “An Open Letter to the Next President of the United States: Mayors and Municipal Leaders Call for Immigration Reform” supporting  “stronger, safer and more economically prosperous cities and counties through urgently needed immigration action.” Last night, I brought to the City Council’s executive session an opportunity for Richmond to file an amicus brief joining the State of California in defending against Trump’s lawsuit against California for the states’ sanctuary policies, and the Council approved it unanimously.

A couple of media stories on the action follow:

Tom Butt

FILE ART- Aerial image over ICE protests in San Francisco. Feb. 28, 2018
By: Lisa Fernandez East Bay Times

Posted: May 16 2018 08:27AM PDT
Updated: May 16 2018 10:27AM PDT

RICHMOND, Calif. - The Richmond City Council on Tuesday voted 6-1 to prevent the city's businesses and investment funds from using data broker companies that share personal information with ICE.

It's the first council in the country to vote on this type of prohibition, said Brian Hofer, a member of Deport Ice and the chair of the Oakland of the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission. He said Oakland, Berkeley and Alameda are considering similar ordinances this summer. 

There are only six companies on the list and among those, two in the Bay Area: Palantir Technologies in Palo Alto and Vigilant Solutions in Livermore.

Richmond currently does business with Vigilant, but the vote means the city will not renew its contract, unless a compelling reason is provided otherwise by the police chief, Hofer said. 

Representatives from both companies did not immediately respond for comment on Wednesday.   ICE spokesman Richard Rocha said he didn't have a comment at this time.

Data brokers, or information resellers, collect, repackage and aggregate personal information about consumers and then resell that information to customers. In this case, the customers involved include Homeland Security Investigations and ICE.

The effort in Richmond was spearheaded by council members Jovanka Beckles and Ada Recinos. Mayor Tom Butt was the lone no vote.

“As a Black Latina immigrant, I have witnessed and experienced the challenges faced by our immigrant community. As a Richmond City Council Member, I am proud to introduce this ordinance to uphold our commitment to protect both undocumented community members and our city policies. We must prevent contractors from sharing information of immigrants to ICE," Beckles said.

Recinos is part of a 19-organization coalition called Deport Ice, which works to strengthen immigrant protections in the Bay Area's sanctuary cities.

Richmond city council severs ties with data brokers who share personal information with ICE