Sunday, October 26, 2025

Emeryville City Hall Celebrates 'Peace in the Park' While Supporting the War in Gaza

 'Peace in the Park' : Government Propaganda

City Council Likes War Depending on Who is Being Killed


“Government propaganda is the systematic dissemination of information and ideas by a government to influence public opinion and behavior in order to promote a particular agenda. It often uses emotional appeals, selective facts, or misleading information to shape how people perceive political realities.“ -Wiki

Despite the City Council’s refusal to support a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the war in Gaza, the City of Emeryville held a city wide celebration of world peace in October, seemingly oblivious to that two year war that has killed some 70,0000 Palestinians including 20,000 children.  The City is instead focused on celebrating world peace by hosting an event in Christie Avenue Park filled with fun and frivolity, 7500 miles away from the war.  To people not paying close attention, the message received would be that Emeryville likes peace.  That was probably the idea.

Emeryville’s counter factual anti-war propaganda campaign has recently taken the form of the City sanctioned event October 18th called “Peace in the Park”, an event that represents the antithesis of an earlier Council majority vote to not allow council discussion of peace in Gaza.  This Council majority is so pro-war, they will not even allow discussion amongst themselves of a proposal to resolve they are against the killing of Palestinian children.  The five Council members made it be known they are against  Ukrainian children being killed however.

The City Council voted to not allow any discussion of a resolution for a ceasefire in Gaza (4-1 Priforce dissenting),  December 5th 2023, after they earlier voted unanimously for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine.  Responding to Tattler questions about that double standard, Mayor David Mourra said the City of Emeryville “should not get involved in international politics, including foreign wars” despite the fact that he himself voted for the ceasefire in Ukraine on the Council.  Follow up questions about the Council double standard went unanswered by Mr Mourra and by the rest of the Ukraine supporting Council majority.

The sparsely attended Peace in the Park event at Christie Avenue Park featured booths and tents calling for world peace with some not for profit organizations, church groups and private companies taking part as well as tents for the Emeryville Police Department and Emery Unified School District. 
 

On a side note, the editor of the Tattler distributed flyers at the event, alerting celebrants of the City’s double standard for resolutions concerning foreign wars.  Taking umbrage with the open leaflet distributing, an Emeryville police officer physically battered the Tattler editor.  An investigation of the incident is currently underway by the police department's internal affairs division. 

Emeryville's 'Peace in the Park' celebration was
sparsely attended despite the City's wall to wall
advertising for the event.
Because no one at City Hall would speak about the Council majority’s support for a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Russia’s war against Ukraine while refusing a resolution calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against Palestinians in Gaza, it is taken as a self-evident fact that this Council majority dislikes some wars but they like some other wars.  Some would question: is it a matter of the ethnicity of the people that are being killed in the war that determines the Council's support or rejection? Are Palestinian children more expendable than Ukrainian children?   None on the City Council majority that voted against the ceasefire in Gaza would answer that question.  But the whole City Council and City Hall want us to know they are in favor of world peace (at least in the park).

Here's how the votes on the two proposed war resolutions went:

Russia/Ukraine War Resolution (is Emeryville against the war?)

(former) Mayor John Bauters:           YES

Council member David Mourra:        YES

Council member Sukhdeep Kaur:    YES

Council member Courtney Welch:    YES

Council member Kalimah Priforce:    YES


Israel/Gaza War Resolution (is Emeryville against the war?)

(former) Mayor John Bauters:        NO

Council member David Mourra:    NO

Council member Sukdeep Kaur:     NO

Council member Courtney Welch:    NO

Council Member Kalimah Priforce:     YES

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7 comments:

  1. AnonymousOctober 26, 2025 at 7:38 PM

    Again it's Priforce that is ethically centered. The rest of the council aren't interested. They're not like us.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 26, 2025 at 10:38 PM

    What did the cop do to you and which cop was it?

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    Replies
    1. Brian DonahueOctober 27, 2025 at 1:06 PM

      There's an active investigation so it would not be appropriate to say.

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  3. AnonymousOctober 27, 2025 at 9:44 AM

    It’s vital to humanity to hold the line and protect ALL children, EVERYWHERE.
    Thank you for taking a strong stand on basic principles!

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 27, 2025 at 5:44 PM

    AIPAC loves Trump, the Republican Party and the Emeryville city council. If AIPAC loves it, you know it's gotta be good.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousOctober 27, 2025 at 6:17 PM

    There was no “vote.” There were no yeas or nays. Priforce did not “dissent.” Priforce proposed an agenda item at the end of the meeting and it failed to get a second by anyone. Kaur asked Priforce to articulate how this could be written in a unifying way (presumably as to not alienate jewish residents or completely disregard the 1200 civillians killed by Hamas on 10/7) and he proceeded with a word-salad worthy of the recent Presedential candidate.
    You'd think someone that's been to as many meetings as Brian might have a basic understanding of local government protocols. I’d ask you to issue a correction but we already know you won’t.

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    Replies
    1. Brian DonahueOctober 27, 2025 at 7:15 PM

      You are correct that the Tattler won’t 'correct' true, accurately reported stories. That would not be a correction. Rather, it would be something more akin to a capitulation, in this case to pro-Israel interests.

      The vote to Council member Priforce’s future agenda proposal about a Gaza ceasefire was 4-1 against it (Priforce offering the one vote in dissent). A failure to agree counts as a NO vote. This is Emeryville Council protocol. If there are three or more NO votes, the issue fails to advance. That’s what happened with the Gaza ceasefire resolution proposal. The take away for Emeryville residents is that these four Council members don’t want a ceasefire in Gaza. It cannot be characterized in any other way, especially since the Council had months earlier voted YES for the Ukraine ceasefire.

      Council member Sukhdeep Kaur interestingly said she would need to see how the vote for a Gaza ceasefire would be “unifying” for Emeryville citizens. She decided, no, it would be “divisive” and so she voted NO to the Gaza ceasefire. It’s interesting because she was not concerned about how the Ukraine ceasefire could be divisive. She never posed that question when she voted YES to that. So the Council member can be said to be concerned about the feelings of her pro-Israel constituents but not the feelings of her pro-Russia constituents. She cares for one group but not the other, just like she cares for Ukrainian children but not Palestinian children. At least we know she doesn’t care enough about them to register a YES vote at the Emeryville City Council chambers. That is an ipso facto true statement.

      Delete