From Bakersfield Now (Jackson Walker):
Officers escorted Riddhi Patel, 28, out of a Thursday meeting of the Bakersfield City Council after she repeatedly threatened death toward councilmembers who were weighing a Gaza ceasefire resolution. Patel spoke out in favor of the resolution, but expressed skepticism toward the council’s willingness to pass it.
“I don’t have faith that you’ll do this,” Patel said of the resolution. “You guys are all horrible human beings and Jesus probably would have killed you himself.”
Patel, who identifies as non-binary, then threatened a violent uprising if council members chose to oppress their constituents.
“I remind you that these holidays that we practice, that other people in the global south practice, believe in violent revolution against their oppressors and I hope one day somebody brings the guillotine and kills all of you motherf ——,” Patel said.
Patel later addressed the council a second time, expressing outrage over the presence of metal detectors at the meeting.
“In the last five years I’ve attended city council meetings there’s never been metal detectors, there’s never been more cops,” Patel said. “The only reason you’re doing it is because people actually don’t care if you guys don’t like them and they’re actually resisting so you’re trying to criminalize them.”
“We’ll see you at your house,” they added. “We’ll murder you.” …
Patel has been charged for the threats, and remains in jail with bail set at $2 million.
For more from Patel, see the Tweets archived here:
Please blacklist this @riddhipatel1025 and don’t let her endanger the leaders of Bharat, @NIA_India @HMOIndia @IndianEmbassyUS https://t.co/LQlItfmald pic.twitter.com/zZgLAQx3iE
— Utsav ???????? (@UtsavSanduja) April 13, 2024
The Tweets appear to have come from the @riddhipatel1025 Twitter account that Bakersfield Now indicates was associated with Patel. (It has since been deleted, though you can see an archive of the identification information here; it also links to this page.)
I appreciate that there are many Patels in this world, including in America, and that the photo associated with the Twitter page is somewhat different from the image on the video. But this March 27 Facebook @riddhipatel1025 post, seems to confirm the link suggested by the Bakersfield Now story: The post sought donations for an “emergency bail fund” for “5 folks arrested today at a Bakersfield City Council meeting today after folks have been turning out for MONTHS with United Liberation Front … to demand city council introduce a ceasefire resolution,” seems to confirm Bakersfield Now’s connection between Patel and @riddhipatel1025. (The United Liberation Front posted an item Wednesday saying that it “unequivocally condemns any statements that threaten public officials,” apparently specifically referring to Patel’s comments.)
Patel also appears to be (or at least have been) “an economic development coordinator with the Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment (CRPE)”; here’s her biography blurb from the CRPE site:
Riddhi joined the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment in September of 2020. She was born and raised in Bakersfield, CA and attended Stockdale High School. She then went on to achieve a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Saint Louis University in 2017. After returning to Bakersfield in 2019, she began volunteering for the Bernie 2020 campaign where she found organizing. After the campaign ended, she quickly found a home in the Sunrise Movement, co-founding the local Sunrise Movement hub in Kern County with other local organizers.
Through her advocacy for common sense statewide setbacks to protect frontline communities across the state, she found CRPE in the fall of 2020. She prioritizes highlighting the intersectionality that comes with the environmental justice movement to achieve collective liberation for all oppressed communities. In her spare time, she enjoys holding elected officials accountable, watching endless amounts of movies, television series and sports, and enjoying time outdoors with her family and friends.
