The Bothell Alliance for Justice is calling on the City of Bothell to adopt a resolution affirming Bothell's commitment to it's values of inclusion, respect, equity, public safety, the protection of human rights, and justice.

Our letter to the City of Bothell:

Dear City Council members, Mayor, and Deputy Mayor:

The City of Seattle recently proposed and passed its first anti-hate resolution to reaffirm its commitment to values of inclusion, respect, and justice. Likewise, the City of Everett also passed a resolution creating Everett as a “Safe City” to reaffirm its commitment to ensuring its city remain an inclusive and safe city for all those who live in, work in, or visit Everett.

The Bothell Alliance for Justice and Bothell community are hereby petitioning for a resolution affirming Bothell’s commitment to the same values of inclusion, respect, and justice, but also request that equity, public safety and protecting human rights be included in the resolution. Bothell is growing into a more diverse community, and it is imperative that the City Council and Mayor ensure Bothell remain safe and inclusive of all its community members.

The resolution must be a strong statement denouncing all hate crimes to illustrate Bothell’s commitment that all marginalized communities are safe and that the city of Bothell is also committed to building trust amongst its community and police.

There have been recent incidents targeting our local Muslim community and there is a longstanding history of hate rhetoric against African American, Latino, and other ethnic communities. There is an active recruitment of Ku Klux Klan members in Washington and throughout our nation and the President-elect’s hate rhetoric and target towards these specific groups have already caused an increase in the number of incidents occurring locally and nationally.

Undocumented students have already expressed their deep concern for their lives to this Council and we must ensure they feel safe. Building trusting relationships between community and police is imperative in​ the effort to make ​ALL community members feel safe.

If the city of Bothell is already taking action to reaffirm its commitment to values of inclusion, respect, and justice, we call on the city to engage the Bothell community in this work. Transparency in regard to diversity and equity programs will contribute to establishing trust between community members and city officials.

We want to acknowledge and thank Mayor Rheaume for signing the letter by Shoreline Mayor Chris Roberts, reiterating his commitment to equality and justice. We also want to extend our thanks to Chief Cummings and the Bothell Police Department for their continued efforts and commitment to building trust. We feel, however, that by establishing and passing an official resolution, the Bothell City Council would be joining other cities in their commitment to denouncing hate crimes and doing this through city legislation.

We request this be done most expeditiously and before January 20th.