Tucson council member Nikki Lee condemns protest outside her home

A group trying to convince the Tucson City Council to re-consider a resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war protested outside the home of council member Nikki Lee, she said on Monday.

The small protest Friday morning over what Lee called a “symbolic ceasefire resolution” required police intervention, she said in a statement.

About a dozen protestors arrived at Lee’s home about 5:45 a.m. to demand that she “un-table” the council’s possible ceasefire resolution, she said. The group “proceeded to disturb the peace” in the neighborhood and were on private property. They left when police arrived, Lee said.

In April, the council voted down the possibility of a ceasefire resolution coming to the table for a vote. The discussion of a possible vote had been requested by council member Lane Santa Cruz, who said in a March 19 memo that evidence of the need for such a resolution was evident by a growing number of people at council meetings asking for one.

The effort by Santa Cruz did not last long. Instead, Lee made a motion at the April meeting that rather than bring it back at a later time, the council should “instead leave room for each (member of the council) to express and advocate our own positions if and/or as we see fit.”

That motion passed 5-1, with Santa Cruz being the sole no-vote.

Lee told the Star on Monday that about a dozen protestors showed up at her home Friday morning and began “making noise” shortly thereafter. They protested for 45 minutes to about an hour, she said, marching in front of her house and those of her neighbors with “drums and cowbells.”

They chanted, referring to her specifically, with demands that she un-table the ceasefire resolution, Lee said.

A neighbor, she said, who spoke to the group said they identified themselves as part of the “Party for Socialism and Liberation.”

Lee called Tucson police chief Chad Kasmar shortly after 6 a.m., she said, after she “anticipated that this might not resolve on its own.”

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“I wasn’t sure if they were allowed to be there, because it’s private property, and I really just needed some advice on how to navigate the situation,” Lee said. “(Kasmar) responded right away and connected with our team out here on the east side and got some (officers) to come out and assess the situation. And once the patrol cars started to show up, everyone kind of just dissipated at that point.”

Tucson police, in an email to the Star, said that officers responded after “multiple people” called 911 reporting that the group was “disturbing the peace of the neighborhood.”

Police say there have been no citations or arrests, but that the matter “remains an active investigation.”

In her statement, Lee said that the protest tactic of showing up to an elected official’s home has become more common. She said that this has led officials “on both sides of the aisle” to leave public service due to safety concerns.

She says the home-protest tactic “must be condemned.”

“The homes and families of public servants should be off-limits, especially when there are public spaces where peaceful demonstrations are allowed, and even encouraged here in Tucson,” Lee said. “I have never tolerated intimidation tactics at any point in my life, and I do not intend to now. Showing up at our home and attempting to intimidate me, my husband, and my children will not move me in the direction of requesting to bring a symbolic ceasefire resolution back to the table.

“To be as clear and direct as possible to those making this ‘demand’, and all the community members who have been following this issue since late 2023, I will not request to bring a symbolic ceasefire resolution back to the Mayor & Council table for reconsideration,” Lee said in her statement.

Despite “at least 100 cities, towns, and villages across the country” passing symbolic ceasefire resolutions, she said, “the war continues.”

“Any ceasefire resolution that the City of Tucson would hypothetically pass would be purely symbolic and have no impact on what’s happening on the ground in the region,” Lee said. “It would do nothing but create more division in our community.”