Did the Sacramento City Council really vote to purchase a tank for police? No. | Opinion

Did the Sacramento City Council really vote for a tank? The answer is no.

At last week’s city council meeting, Sacramento Police Chief Kathy Lester and her team gave a presentation on a Rook, a piece of equipment the department was requesting. She also answered questions related to its use. A Rook is a tractor with a shield and a platform that can be raised to allow entry into higher levels of buildings. It is not used at protests or homeless encampments — two questions that were addressed at the meeting. In fact, the Sacramento Police Department has had access to a Rook for years and it has not been used for these purposes.

The Rook is most often used in situations where a person is barricaded with a gun and is likely to shoot at officers. Recent incidents like this involved victims of domestic violence held hostage at gunpoint while their lives were being threatened. Similar situations took place in my neighborhood just a few months ago and in another city neighborhood just a couple days after our vote on the Rook.

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I wish this violence didn’t happen at all and I firmly believe we need to invest in mental health care and interventions to prevent it from occurring in the first place. But while we still live in a world where this violence does occur, we must prepare for it.

These situations are traumatic and dangerous for the victims, the community and law enforcement. If this type of equipment is not available, the police might instead conduct a “raid” where an armed SWAT team is deployed. This would only escalate already violent situations and likely result in injury or death. The Rook, by contrast, is a less lethal tool intended for very dangerous situations, and that’s why I voted along with a supermajority of my colleagues to approve its purchase.

After the January 31 vote to approve the Rook is when online harassment and bullying began.

Within hours of the council’s vote, a group of people online sent messages to me and my family members that I cannot repeat in print. They posted my address online, threatened to burn my house down and harassed my staff to the point where we had to stop answering the office phones and turn off notifications on social media. Members of this group shared misinformation online that the city council had voted to purchase a military “tank” that could be used during protests and at homeless encampments. Then, the Sacramento Bee published a column with the headline, “Caity Maple told Sacramento she was progressive. Then she voted for a tank.”

But of course, that’s not true. A tank is a vehicle with attached weapons that is used in war. A Rook is a tractor with a shield used in very specific and dangerous situations.

The truth matters.

I know there is trauma associated with over-policing in communities of color and that incidents of police brutality continue to shake our nation. I believe we need reform and a shift in what public safety looks like in our city, including investing in mental health, youth programming, community-based safety responses and economic mobility.

I do not support tanks being used by our police force, and I purposely chose not to accept law enforcement contributions on the campaign trail because I wanted the community to know that I would make unbiased decisions related to the police. Voting for the Rook is not a repudiation of my stated beliefs.

I was elected to represent my community and there will be many difficult decisions ahead. I hope that we can change the dynamics of our discourse and seek to understand rather than tear one another down.

We have too much important work to do, and we can only do it together.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Caity Maple represents District 5.