Take Back SLO wants change in city leadership. Mayor calls group ‘hateful’ and ‘racist’
A social media group with more than 2,500 members — labeled by San Luis Obispo Mayor Heidi Harmon as “hateful, racist, misogynistic and radically far right” — is on a mission to “take back” control of the city’s leadership, and it’s rallying around two candidates as a way to do just that.
The Take Back SLO Facebook group was formed in June to “recruit leadership to the City Council of San Luis Obispo,” according to its “about” section, which adds, “We believe the current leadership is not serving our values.”
The administrator of the group says its political perspective represents members of the community who feel the city’s current leadership has gotten away from the common concerns of residents.
The group also has largely been critical of racial justice protests and progressive causes, with posts targeting Harmon, vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and the Black Lives Matter movement, including wide use of mocking internet memes.
The tenor of the posts and comments on the page, however, has raised alarm from some who find the conversation divisive and uncivil.
Harmon, who’s running for re-election, pulled no punches in her critique of Take Back SLO, saying the group’s members rally around fear and have an “obsession with me indicative of people who don’t have their own ideas.”
“We’re in a fight for the soul of the city,” Harmon said. “... We’re in a pivotal moment in the history of the city. ... I fear for the future of the city.”
Take Back SLO’s memes and posts
Over the past few months, group members have posted hundreds of comments, memes, photos and videos — largely in support of SLO mayor candidate Cherisse Sweeney and City Council candidate Abrianna Torres with targeted criticism of Harmon.
Some of the posts from the group include the following:
▪ A meme of a witch on a scooter with a broom referencing Harmon, captioned “HH riding to work!”
▪ A photoshopped image of Harmon appearing as a child with Bernie Sanders in a field surrounded by mountains and “captions” with comments such as: “she would be flirting with him,” another with a sexual innuendo referring to Harmon (“Heidi, Heidi, Heidi, Hoe?”), “only the Black goat matters” and “Come my little Heidi. Come see my new world just over this cliff.”
▪ Photos and comments of Harmon with Black racial justice protesters, and a remark that the demonstrations have been “partly responsible for the organization of terrorism in our city.”
▪ A meme of Harmon wearing a crown near a homeless encampment with comments such as “It’s actually a perfect depiction of her ... trashy and overpaid.”
▪ A photo of Harmon with the note “Hiding Heidi, drinking coffee, crying, avoiding responsibility.”
▪ A comment below a post on a Sept. 25 racial justice protest, saying “Slo. Funny. You don’t have blacks.”
The group’s posts also include: support of President Donald Trump, opposition to wearing masks, support for events such as a Freedom Rally and the recent gathering with right-wing activist Candace Owens, and anti-Democrat sentiments and denunciation of socialism and Marxism.
Why the group was formed
Take Back SLO is a private group, meaning it can’t be found by searching on Facebook and anyone who wishes to join needs an invitation from a member.
“Our goal is to Take Back SLO. Current leaders don’t represent who we are and are trying to take away the unity we have all felt in San Luis,” a group message notes to members. “Keep your comments to that goal.”
Mechell Vieira — a site administrator, SLO resident and small business owner — said she formed the group as a “safe place” for like-minded community members to express themselves on issues that can be “landmines” in settings more open to the public.
“Because we have different goals for our city — jobs, affordable housing, help for the mentally ill and solutions for homelessness — we are being called vile names with a continued attempt to pigeonhole us into a group we are not,” Vieira said in a post on the page.
She told The Tribune that while the city spent hundreds of thousands of dollars policing protests, small businesses have fallen behind with closures and economic challenges, among other civic concerns she and other group members have.
Numerous posts and comments on the page encourage members to join in sign-waving events for Sweeney and Torres.
Though Sweeney says she’s not actively involved with the group and does not represent the messaging of the posts — which she agrees can be uncivil and divisive — she did announce her mayor candidacy on the page as a way to connect with voters.
“I joined several Facebook groups, every group that had SLO in it that I possibly could,” Sweeney said. “I’m not a leader of this group, and I’m rarely on Facebook these days. I’m out in the community.”
Sweeney added: “Heidi gets a lot of criticism, and civil discourse has become so uncivilized. It makes me uncomfortable. I’m a classy person, and I don’t believe in hateful, hurtful or inaccurate (attacks).”
To that point, Vieira, one of four site moderators, said overseeing the page is a time-consuming job outside of her work running a small business, but said some content has been removed for violating courtesy rules. The group’s basic rule is “act like you’re at a dinner table.”
Accusations of white supremacy
Members of the group have taken offense to being called white supremacists, although Vieira didn’t reveal what “names” they’ve been called.
She points to the group’s support of Torres, who is Black, saying they simply want a different type of leadership.
The group actively was looking to recruit candidates for SLO City Council.
Members also have supported Erik Long, a candidate without a social media presence who hasn’t appeared in multiple election forums.
More recently, some Take Back SLO members have expressed support for former mayor and current council candidate Jan Marx, who has registered nonpartisan in this election.
Pease and Harmon were endorsed by the county Democrats, along with newcomer Kelly Evans.
“I want to go back to before March 13 when the city was clear on what its goals were,” Vieira said. “I think a lot of what we’ve seen locally is from an outside perspective that doesn’t apply here. We want leaders who don’t call us names and say the city is systemically racist. I don’t believe that to be true.”
Vieira and other Take Back SLO members say downtown businesses have been abandoned by the city amid rampant homelessness and drug use, issues that Sweeney says are priorities for her.
“Our group wants to unify SLO,” Vieira said. “... We want leaders who wouldn’t fail the way the current leadership has failed.”
Harmon, Sweeney, Pease weigh in
Harmon disagrees with the group’s approach, telling The Tribune she believes Take Back SLO is spreading hate.
“They’re not offering solutions,” Harmon said. “They’re taking the changes that have been forced upon us by an unprecedented pandemic and turning that into a reason to express their very extreme, hateful, racist and misogynistic views.”
Harmon added: “It needs to be called out for what it is because we need to name it to fully understand it so that we can rally as a community against it, but more importantly for what we want in the community, which is not hate, or violence or misogyny.”
Harmon said that the group is operating around fear and that the comments should be denounced by Sweeney and Torres, who have campaigned on platforms of civility and nonpartisanship.
“They’re rallying around this fear ... fear of the other, fear of blackness, fear of change, which is understandable, and change is always uncomfortable for people,” Harmon said.
Harmon also doesn’t feel the group’s criticism of the city’s COVID response is fair.
She pointed to city efforts to help small businesses, including adding parklets, fast-tracking permitting for tenant improvements and shepherding small business grants, adding that addressing homelessness, housing and police are also among city concerns with various measures in place.
Harmon, who has supported racial justice and championed the city’s Diversity Equality and Inclusion Task Force, said the positions of Take Black SLO will further discourage the kind of unity the city has worked hard to advance.
“The arc of history is bending toward justice,” Harmon said. “If people refuse to come with us, then we can’t spend so much time and energy trying to convince them that Black people’s lives matter, that women’s lives matter, that LGBTQ+ lives matter, and that we should all have equal rights and access to opportunities in this community.”
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Harmon said she takes the attacks as evidence the city’s leadership has been effective, citing a balanced budget among other successes.
Pease said she hadn’t seen the posts, which include criticism of her support of Black Lives Matter, but believes vitriol amid election season has been amplified.
“As a community, I think we’re much more on the same page,” Pease said. “No one (on the council) wants violence and rioting. We want to welcome all people and support our local businesses. It’s unfortunate to hear about vitriol and extreme comments. Social media isn’t a great place to have an actual conversation with folks.”
Sweeney agreed, saying that social media can be a place that “makes me sad” and that since she joined early on, the group has morphed into something she didn’t anticipate.
“We’re all human,” Sweeney said. “We have families and children, and it makes me really sad right now to see uncomfortable and damaging (posts).”
Sweeney maintains she is not closely connected with the group, or any particular political party, saying her key issues are public health and safety and fiscal responsibility.
She cites a downtown that has become dangerous for kids and businesses with drug addiction and homelessness, along with the presence of dozens of unsheltered people on the city’s leg of the Bob Jones Trail and the risks involved with not forming a solid regional plan to better address the transient community. Just this week, the city began clearing 58 homeless camps along the trail.
“My issues that I’m talking with the community about are public safety, fiscal responsibility and the management of the city budget,” Sweeney said. “Fiscal responsibility is not working right now.”
Sweeney also said she spoke personally with protesters and by the end of the conversation they listened, respected each other and exchanged phone numbers.
“Yelling and screaming from each other’s corners isn’t the best approach,” Sweeney said. “We can’t come at this from an emotional level and trying to make people submit to demands. People turn off and don’t listen if that’s the way it’s done.”
The Tribune also reached out to Torres, but she declined to comment for this story.
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This story was originally published October 21, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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