Councilmember Maritza Rivera (District 4) released the following statement after the incidents at Brown University in Rhode Island and at Bondi Beach in Australia.

The events at Brown University and Bondi Beach have left me, and I’m sure many of you, shaken, upset and unsettled, with the continued antisemitism and gun violence against our youth in this country.

For some Brown students, who spent hours in lockdown on Saturday, this was the second time that they had been evacuated and put in lock down as part of a school shooting.

My own daughters have been directly affected by a school shooting, and I have received those terrifying texts from my kids, scared and confused, in lock down for hours. We can’t continue like this. We are failing our kids. 

I will be talking more about gun violence, specifically youth gun violence, in early 2026, as I start work with Seattle Police Department (SPD) and the Human Services Department (HSD) to host a youth gun violence summit, to learn from national violence prevention experts, and other cities that have successfully reduced their levels of gun violence.

I am also deeply saddened and sickened by the antisemitic killings in Australia and am mourning for the Jewish lives lost as they were celebrating the first night of Hannukah. We continue to see, across the world, and in our own country, increased antisemitism and hate. Just this June the New York Times reported that Jews face far greater risks of being victims of hate crimes than members of any other demographic groups. This hate cannot continue. We must work in our own state, and in our own city, to reduce acts of antisemitism and hate. We are all in this together. Enough.

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