Berliner Abendpost - Richmond City Council Rejects Mayor’s Police Oversight Nominee

The Richmond City Council denied Mayor Eduardo Martinez’s nomination of Crescent Diamond to the Community Police Review Commission (CPRC) on Tuesday night, marking a significant escalation in the long-standing friction between civilian oversight bodies and the city’s police union.

The council vote required three affirmative votes for approval. Only two councilmembers, Sue Wilson and Claudia Jimenez, voted in favor of Diamond. Councilmembers Cesar Zepeda and Soheila Bana voted against her appointment, Doria Robinson abstained, and Jamelia Brown was absent from the session.

The central point of contention surrounding Diamond’s nomination was her affiliation with Reimagine Richmond, a public safety reform organization established in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Critics, including the Richmond Police Officers Association (RPOA), argued that Diamond’s past social media posts and organizational ties demonstrated a bias against law enforcement that would prevent her from serving as an impartial judge.

Mayor Martinez defended his selection prior to the vote, stating that his decision was based on the strength of Diamond’s application and interview rather than political alignment. "I don’t ask for political positions," Martinez said. "I ask for authenticity." He noted that while he had considered the council’s reservations, he remained steadfast in his choice, emphasizing that only one sector of the population—police-reform advocates from Richmond Rising—had applied for the available seats over recent years.

Under city charter, mayoral appointments to boards and commissions must be approved by at least three voting council members who are not the mayor. Blocking a mayoral appointment is rare in Richmond; typically, such nominations are approved unanimously during the consent calendar, which handles uncontroversial agenda items.

The CPRC currently operates with only five of its nine authorized positions filled. The current commissioners include chair Marisol Cantu, Carmen Martinez, Charlene Engle, Ana Tellez-Witrago, and Carol Hegstrom. Councilmember Bana had previously pulled Diamond’s name from the consent calendar twice in October, requesting that she appear to answer questions directly. Bana argued for a commission that is "balanced" and free of bias, noting that while police hold significant power, the oversight commission itself wields considerable authority.

"We want a balanced commission with no bias, pro or against the police," Bana said. She expressed concern that Reimagine Richmond already has five members on the commission, describing the group as having previously advocated for defunding the police. This characterization references council actions in 2021, when Jimenez and Martinez voted to reallocate funds from vacant police positions to non-police safety programs such as the Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), Reach Out with Compassion and Kindness (ROCK), SOS Richmond, and YouthWorks.

Of the current commissioners, Cantu and Carmen Martinez are known affiliates of Reimagine Richmond and members of the Richmond Progressive Alliance. It remains unclear whether Tellez-Witrago and Engle are members. Hegstrom joined the commission before Reimagine Richmond was founded.

The RPOA formally opposed Diamond’s appointment in a letter to the mayor and council, citing her social media history as evidence of deep-seated animosity toward officers. The letter referenced 2017 Instagram posts by Diamond that included images comparing police badges to "runaway slave patrol" insignia and banners advocating for "Police out of Pride" at San Francisco Pride.

The RPOA also attached a screenshot of an animated video from Reimagine Richmond’s YouTube channel, which depicts a Richmond police officer alongside a runaway slave patrolman. RPOA President Sgt. Ben Therriault stated during public comment that the council was being asked to place someone who views officers as "klansmen" in charge of judging them.

Tensions over the commission’s composition have persisted since the national reckoning on policing following Floyd’s death. In August 2025, shortly after Richmond police officers Nicholas Remick and Colton Stocking shot and killed Angel Montaño, a 27-year-old Marine reserve officer with a history of mental illness, the council approved recommendations to strengthen the CPRC’s oversight powers. These measures included extending complaint filing deadlines, allowing anonymous complaints, granting subpoena power, and requiring annual public reports.

However, these changes remain under negotiation as part of the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the RPOA, which has been without a contract since June 30, 2025. Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton cleared both officers of wrongdoing in February.

Reimagine Richmond responded to the rejection by defending its role as the "only movement holding the police and RPOA accountable" in the city. The group argued that it is being unfairly targeted, noting that the RPOA spent $340,000 on Mayor Martinez’s campaign. "We are an easy target," the group stated, asserting that all residents have political affiliations that should not disqualify them from service.

Councilmember Robinson, who abstained from the vote, acknowledged that the commission has swung in one direction in recent years and that officers may not feel they receive a fair shake. "What kind of governance, what kind of government do we want? Do we want one that actually believes in diversity or only believes in the diversity that we approve of, but not actual diversity of thought?" Robinson asked.

Incoming Mayor Jimenez criticized the opposition to Diamond, describing it as an unfair portrayal of a resident based solely on organizational membership. She highlighted concerns about intimidation within the commission, citing instances where RPOA President Therriault had tracked and identified individuals commenting in support of reform groups. "When you say, ‘I know where you live, I know where you work,’ in public meetings, it’s difficult to get more people to actually want to serve," Jimenez said.

Councilmember Wilson warned against allowing the police union a de facto veto power over appointments. "It’s more important that we don’t create a sort of a governmental process where the police union or any union for that matter gets a veto power over who we appoint," she said.

Robinson concluded that the perception of bias remains an unresolved issue. "If you have a body that’s supposed to play a role in governance that the people who are subject to it don’t feel like they trust, then you’ve got a fundamental problem," she said.

Public summaries of CPRC complaints indicate that only one out of eleven filings in the last two years resulted in a sustained finding of misconduct against an officer. That finding involved Sgt. Alexander Caine in a case involving resident Kwesi Guss. Officer Remick was also named in that complaint, but the allegation of unnecessary force was not sustained.

A.Graf--BlnAP