Would have been nice had Palo Alto Mayor Lydia Kou been interviewed/acknowledged for the item about opening of HE&C Tea+Pot on International Woman’s Day given her role in our City.
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Regarding the short documentary discussing the Persky Recall, it is told entirely from the perspective of the recall opponents, and merely rehashes their arguments made at the time -- arguments that were rightly rejected by 62% of Santa Clara County voters.

The 2018 election out was about the treatment of victims of gender-based violence in Aaron Persky's courtroom. In accordance with the California Constitution, voters in Santa Clara County were the decision-makers. They reviewed his record and overwhelmingly decided that Persky should not continue as a judge, because of his poor record in the case of Brock Turner and others. They were right.

As for any supposed negative consequences of the recall, there is no credible evidence that the recall election produced longer sentences. That's because, contrary to the arguments of recall critics, most judges are trying to follow the law and act with integrity rather than following election results. On the other hand, the recall had the positive consequence of making a strong statement against rape culture in the legal system.

This film fails to address the extensive and disturbing victim blaming engaged in by the leaders of Judge Persky's campaign, who repeatedly pointed to the fact that Turner's victim was intoxicated as an excuse for Turner's light sentence. Nor does the documentary disclose that Persky's campaign strategist was Donald Trumps' Arizona State Director, while our campaign against him was endorsed by dozens of leading women's rights organizations and progressive Democratic elected officials across Santa Clara County, California and indeed nationally.

Aaron Persky has never taken responsibility nor apologized for the many shameful victim-blaming comments made by leaders of his campaign. That merely serves to underscore that we were right to vote him out. I continue to be glad that no rape victim will walk into a courtroom to find that her case will be presided over by Aaron Persky.