10 Feb Update: Antioch Police Oversight Commissioner Resigns

Antioch Police Oversight Commissioner Leslie May, right, is facing possible removal. At left is Porshe Taylor, the commission chair. (Screenshot captured by Samantha Kennedy / The CC Pulse)

Editor’s note: Leslie May has resigned, effective immediately, from the Antioch Police Oversight Commission, according to a statement released Monday by the city. The original story remains below.

By Samantha Kennedy

The Antioch City Council will decide this week if they want to remove one of the city’s most outspoken police oversight commissioners after she used the n-word when speaking to city leaders.

It comes weeks after council member Don Freitas called for Leslie May, a member of the Antioch Police Oversight Commission, to resign for what he said were “racist statements.”

May, a Black woman, used the n-word multiple times during a special Jan. 17 City Council meeting when talking about what she said was white men pitting two Black city leaders “against each other.”

Those city leaders are City Manager Bessie Scott and former City Attorney Thomas Lloyd Smith, both of whom are also Black. Freitas said Scott was “in tears” because of the comments.

May gave no indication she would resign at APOC’s most recent meeting Feb. 3 but instead said she had seen attacks on several Black city leaders and was therefore passionate.

Two other commissioners, including Chair Porshe Taylor, said they didn’t believe the Jan. 17 special council meeting was the appropriate place to use those words.

“What I see right now is not in alignment with our purpose. This has had an impact on residents in the city of Antioch,” said Commissioner Alicia Lacey-Oha. “When I come to these City Council meetings, I am tired of the same old rhetoric. I am tired of it. It’s time for us to come together. We have to come together and have to stop this division.”

Several residents disagreed that May’s comments were racist. The comments, they and Taylor said, had been “misconstrued.”

Jan. 17 comments

In defense of Smith who was rumored to be dismissed behind closed doors at the special Jan. 17 meeting, May said white members of the council were pitting Black people against each other “like they did during slavery.”

She used variations of the n-word, including “house n-word” and “field n-word” when talking about the perceived treatment of Smith and Scott.

The words were used only “as an example,” residents said at APOC’s Feb. 3 meeting.

Those comments were mostly critical of Mayor Ron Bernal and Freitas — including May at one time holding a sign saying “Recall Elon Freitas,” a reference to Elon Musk, and others with signs saying “The Ron Con.”

Council members don’t typically publicly discuss personnel matters, but Freitas called for Smith’s dismissal in his first meeting as a council member, saying the new council should have their chance to pick a city attorney. Smith ultimately resigned that day.

Council member Tamisha Torres-Walker, who attended the APOC meeting as a resident, called on Freitas to, in lieu of resigning, apologize.

“Maybe we should request a public apology from council member Freitas for publicly threatening and humiliating City Attorney (Thomas Lloyd) Smith before his resignation from the city,” she said. “For inciting bigoted, racist and violent rhetoric online and publicly, and further dividing our community at a time when we should be coming together.”

When she was appointed, May was one of seven inaugural commissioners who were sworn in last February. Two have since resigned.

Council members will make the decision on May at the Feb. 11 meeting.