Push For City Resolution Condemning LGBTQ Related Attack In Jamestown
Sonora, CA — There was a packed room at Monday’s Sonora City Council meeting and the first hour and a half saw several people passionately come up during the public comment period to voice concerns about a recent incident in Jamestown in which a member of the LGBTQ community was brutally assaulted at an apartment complex.
A discussion about the attack was not on the council agenda, but the public comment period at the beginning is for community members to weigh in on any items.
Several showed up to put pressure on the city to pass a resolution strongly condemning the attack.
One community member, Nikki Coleman, stated, “To remain silent is to be complicit, and further, it sends a dangerous message to this community that leaders are okay to sit idly by while violence occurs right at our doorstep.”
Others argued that a lack of compassion and love for fellow humans is the breeding ground for hate, which leads to the destruction of a community.
At the end of public comments, Councilmember Andy Merrill called for a formal resolution to be placed on the agenda at a future meeting.
He stated, “I just want to say that I am always here to represent this (LGBTQ) community. It is us. It isn’t us and them, it is all of us, and I will just leave it at that,” to which audience members cheered.
Mayor Ann Segerstrom added, “We all appreciate people coming out tonight, and of course, a salute to our law enforcement for the handing of the issue. I understand there have been some arrests, so let justice take its course,” to which there was more applause.
Click here to read an earlier story about the one adult and two juveniles arrested in connection to the incident.
Segerstrom noted that city staff would be drafting a resolution condemning the recent attack and it will soon return to the council for a formal vote.
It was referenced by some at the meeting that the council in 2023 declined to pass a resolution to acknowledge LGBTQ Pride Month, with two council members in favor and three opposed, at the time.
