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Tiburon Police Confront Owners of Yema, Town's Only Black-Owned Biz –– We Want to Hear The Experiences of Mill Valley's BIPOC Biz Owners

8/25/2020

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Let us use this deeply unfortunate incident to continue the community conversation in Mill Valley about racial equity and specifically the dozens of Mill Valley BIPOC business owners' interactions with local police. We want to hear about your interactions with MVPD officers - bad, good or otherwise - particularly as the City of MV introduces DEI Task Force facilitator on Sept. 8. Email us here.
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Yema Khalif and Hawi Awash, owners of the Yema apparel shop on Main Street in downtown Tiburon, were working late into the night on inventory when they were confronted by Tiburon police officers about why they were in the store at that hour. The confrontation escalated and was recorded (video below), sparking outrage in that community as the country continues to grapple with horrific confrontations with the police, the latest of which occurred with the shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin on Aug. 23.

"After it was over I was shaking," Awash told the Marin IJ. "My whole body was shaking and I could not make it stop. It was fear. It came from knowing that in one split second they could end someone's life."

In the video that begins shortly after the encounter began, police seek for Khalif to show them his identification to prove that is the owner of the store. Khalif declines, saying that a white business owner would not be asked to prove his ownership of the store in the same situation. Officers quickly grow frustrated and the exchange escalates. 

A Change.org petition calling for the firing of one of the officers involved in the incident has achieved nearly 1,000 signatures. 

"I cannot lie and say I'm OK," Khalif told the IJ. "I'm traumatized and my wife is traumatized."

In the video, Tiburon Sgt. Michael Blasi says, "Do you want us to look out for the community or do you want us to let anybody walk in here at 2 o'clock in the morning and steal all your stuff? You sure? 'Cause you don't sound like you're very grateful. You sound very defensive."

Moments later, a neighbor can be heard telling police that Khalif is indeed the store owner. Blasi and two other officers then leave.

"Whatever the intention of the responding offices, the interchange inappropriately deteriorated from helpful to confrontational," Tiburon Mayor Alice Fredericks wrote in an email sent to the community. "Tiburon police officers are trained and held to the highest standards of conduct. A key component of that training is the expectation that our officers will utilize de-escalation techniques in situations like there. It is clear that did not occur in this instance."

Police Chief Michael Cronin said the town has engaged the services of an independent attorney to conduct an investigation into the incident. "At the conclusion of the investigation the report will be provided to the Town Manager for review and appropriate action will be taken based on the findings of the investigator," Cronin told the IJ.

Tiburon Police released footage from an officer's body camera during the incident.
​VIEW IT HERE.

WATCH THE VIDEO HERE OR BELOW.

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Last night we had a not so good exchange with Tiburon police at our place of work. YEMA is the only black owned clothing store in Tiburon, California so many people in our community know who we are. Some days we have to work late. Yesterday was one of those days. We received new inventory during the day so we went back to our store, on Main street Tiburon California, to work late. One of our business friend was visiting us from washing DC so he came with us. This is around 1AM. FYI, a popular restaurant close to us was still open and I could see their employees working late. We are inside the store minding our business, All store lights are on and you can see us from outside because we have high windows all around the store. Our store alarm did not go off, no one called the police, everything was peaceful. Then we see Tiburon police car patrolling. We saw him drive around the block like 3 times. At one point he stopped across our store for a good minute. Then finally, the cop decided to come knock on our store door. FYI, we didn’t realize that when he was circling the block he was calling for back up. I opened the door for him then he proceeded to tell me his purpose for knocking on our door was to check what we were doing at the store that late. And he wanted us to prove who we are. His tone not very like-able. I expressed to him that there was no crime going on and we were going about our business. Then he insisted that he wanted us to prove who we are and to explain what we were doing at the store that late. I, kindly, explained that we didn’t have to prove anything and asked for a supervisor. That’s when we knew he had already called for back up. Supervisor and another cop - who had his hand on his gun, by the way, showed up almost immediately. The supervisor came charged and did not come to deescalate anything. The situation started getting out of hand so our friend from DC started recording the exchange (Video below). @shaunking @beyonce @chakabars @lauraharrier @buzzfeed @nowthisnews @aljazeeraenglish @cnn @bbcnews @latimes @nytimes @wsj @ava @shondarhimes @kuz @kingjames @oprah @voguemagazine @essence @adutakech @tiffanyhaddish

A post shared by YEMAâ„¢ (@yemacalif) on Aug 21, 2020 at 3:33pm PDT

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Mill Valley Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center
85 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, CA 94941
(415) 388-9700