Page 216 | Bohemian | Sonoma & Napa Counties

Family, Activists Hold Vigil After Sheriff’s Deputy Shoots, Kills Man

Aug 10, 2022

Family, Activists Hold Vigil After Sheriff’s Deputy Shoots, Kills Man

On Saturday, July 29, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office issued a public statement revealing that a deputy had shot a man in a creekbed east of Healdsburg at 10:03am that morning. The man, later identified as 36-year-old David Pelaez Chavez, was pronounced dead by a paramedic at 10:29am.

In the week after the event, a little more information trickled out in statements from law enforcement agencies. However, no body-worn camera footage from the shooting or the deputies’ prolonged search leading up to it has been released, leading some to call for more transparency and outside investigations.

At a Friday, Aug. 5, vigil hosted by the North Bay Organizing Project, Chavez’s older brother accused authorities of “murdering who [David] was” in public statements about his death.

“My brother did not deserve to die like this. He was a good man, a joyous, happy man. We have many questions in regard to the investigation and what they are saying happened. What we want is justice,” Jose Pelaez said in Spanish, addressing dozens of people gathered in Santa Rosa’s Old Courthouse Square through a translator.

According to the Sheriff’s original statement and a subsequent Aug. 1 statement from the Santa Rosa Police Department, the Sheriff’s Office received a call at 8:20am from a Geyserville resident who said that a man had “threw a rock thru a house window.” The statements allege Chavez interacted with multiple residents, asking one to shoot him, and then stole a truck, breaking several gates and a fence before crashing the vehicle and fleeing barefoot.

After chasing him through rural, hilly terrain for approximately 45 minutes, the deputies stopped Chavez in a creekbed. According to the Sheriff’s original July 29 statement, they ordered him to drop what “appeared to be … a weapon.” After “he refused” to drop the item, the man “initially appeared to charge at one of the deputies but stopped.” The first deputy shot him with a taser and, when that “appeared ineffective,” the second deputy shot him with a gun.

The Sheriff’s original statement drew criticism from longtime law enforcement oversight advocates for its vague language, including using the word “appeared” three times in a paragraph describing the events leading up to Chavez’s death.

The Aug. 1 statement released by the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is conducting an investigation into the events leading to Chavez’s death with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office, offered a more detailed description of what allegedly occurred. According to SRPD’s statement, Chavez held a claw hammer, a hand tiller farming tool and a “cantaloupe-sized river rock” during the final interaction. Chavez then dropped the rock, bent over to pick up another rock and “made a movement that indicated he was threatening to hurl the rock at the deputy,” according to the SRPD statement. The deputies were 10–15 feet away from Chavez when Deputy Michael Dietrick, a five-year employee of the Sheriff’s Office, shot Chavez three times, the Press Democrat has reported.

Dietrick and Anthony Powers, the other deputy pursuing Chavez, have been placed on paid administrative leave.

On Aug. 3, the Press Democrat reported that Dietrick shot and killed a 45-year-old man in 2016 while working for the Clearlake Police Department. The Lake County District Attorney’s Office decided in 2017 that Dietrick was justified in the killing, the Press Democrat reported. The same year, Dietrick was hired by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

On Aug. 4, the Committee for Law Enforcement Accountability Now (CLEAN), a Sonoma County law enforcement oversight advocacy group, released a statement calling for the California Attorney General’s Office to investigate Chavez’s death instead of local agencies.

Under state law, the AG’s office can investigate killings by law enforcement officers when the victim was “unarmed or if there is a reasonable dispute as to whether the civilian was armed,” according to CLEAN. The AG’s office has reportedly already told the Sheriff’s Office it will not investigate Chavez’s death.

Chavez’s family is gathering funds through GoFundMe to hold a funeral for him in Mexico.

Dreamgirl Comes to Sonoma Community Center

Harry Duke

Aug 10, 2022

Dreamgirl Comes to Sonoma Community Center

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic forced the theater community to be even more creative than usual to survive, a struggle for many companies even in the best of times.

As theaters dealt with dwindling audiences, theater artists dealt with dwindling opportunities. Theaters have postponed or canceled performances or worse, shut their doors completely. Streaming theater was an outlet for some, but most agree it’s a less than ideal replacement for the communal experience of an in-person show.

But streaming theater gave Emerson Collins and Blake McIver, two performers with decades of experience between them, the opportunity to work together. What they developed as a streaming piece for the Public Theatre of San Antonio has now transmogrified into a full-fledged touring production.

Sonoma Arts Live will host I Dreamed a Dreamgirl, Collins and McIver’s two-man tour de force based on their life experiences and careers—from Star Search to Ragtime to Full House to Rent—for one weekend of performances in August. The two describe the show as “showtunes, duets, Disney favs (and deep cuts), mashups and medleys that (probably) shouldn’t exist.” The title itself is a mashup of Collins’ love of Les Miz and McIver’s love of Dreamgirls.

Audiences have responded positively so far. “It’s been overwhelming,” said Collins. “We opened the tour in Palm Springs, and there was a standing ovation at the end of the first act, and that was the first time I truly thought, ‘Okay, we’ve made something people really enjoy.’ Also, we did a test run of it in LA for the harshest critics among our friends. My best friend, a standup comedian who hates musicals, said, ‘I actually loved the whole thing.’ In Dallas, an audience member said, ‘I didn’t know any song you sang, and I had an absolute blast,’ so it seems to be playing well for people.”

This is what Collins and McIver hope for their Sonoma County audiences. “There is so much darkness right now; our goal here is truly to just provide a silly, fun and joyful evening,” concluded Collins. “We sing all or part of 49 different songs in 90 minutes from Aida and Chess, a Disney villains’ medley, standards and things from Britney to Barbra. So truly, we just want you to leave smiling a little more than when you came in.”

‘I Dreamed a Dreamgirl’ runs Friday, Aug. 19 and Saturday, Aug. 20 at Andrews Hall in the Sonoma Community Center, 276 E. Napa St., Sonoma. 7:30pm. $30–$45. 866.710.8942. Proof of vaccination with ID and masking are required to attend. son omaartslive.org

Bohemian Interviews Former SF DA Chesa Boudin

Chelsea Kurnick

Aug 10, 2022

Bohemian Interviews Former SF DA Chesa Boudin

On Sunday, Aug. 14, former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin will visit Sonoma for a talk hosted by local nonprofit Praxis Peace Institute.

Boudin, who was elected in 2019, ran on a progressive platform which emphasized expanding diversion programs, ending cash bail and decriminalizing poverty and homelessness by declining to prosecute quality-of-life crimes such as public camping, soliciting sex and public urination.

In June, Boudin was recalled in a campaign in which his detractors raised $7.1 million. Days ago, Boudin announced he will not run in the special election this November, citing an intention to prioritize his family.

The talk is one in an ongoing series by Praxis Peace Institute.

Established 22 years ago, the organization is “dedicated to systemic peace, social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and informed civic participation.” Founder and executive director Georgia Kelly began the organization to learn and teach peace-building skills in opposition to wars.

In addition to their talk series, Praxis hosts an annual seminar—opening next month—at the Mondragón Cooperatives in the Basque region of Spain. Founded in 1956, Mondragón Corporation is a federation of hundreds of worker cooperatives and the leading business group in the Basque region.

The North Bay Bohemian interviewed Boudin prior to his visit to Sonoma. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

North Bay Bohemian: Will you share your definition of what it means to be a progressive prosecutor?

Chesa Boudin: Being a progressive prosecutor is really being a decarceral prosecutor. It’s an understanding that we need to proactively reduce the number of people in jails and prisons. It doesn’t mean you’re an abolitionist, necessarily, but it means you recognize that more incarceration is not the solution in the country that locks up more people than any other country in the history of the world.

There are a lot of people in blue states or jurisdictions who call themselves progressive, but who are fundamentally committed to the status quo.

You have to be committed, as I was, to expanding diversion programs, declining to prosecute juveniles as adults, refusing to participate in the criminalization of reproductive choices, abolishing the death penalty and increasing upstream interventions like mental health care and drug treatment. These are not only more cost-effective and more likely to reduce the likelihood of future arrests, but are also more humane than waiting for a crime to be committed and then putting people in cages for longer and longer periods of time.

NBB: A 2018 study by Cornell University estimated that 45 percent of Americans are closely related to someone who has been incarcerated. The statistics vary depending on race and socioeconomic status, but it’s a really substantial percentage of the population across all categories. It seems like that often doesn’t translate into progressive attitudes about policing and incarceration, that it doesn’t necessarily create empathy for people living behind bars. What do you make of that?

CB: It’s a staggering statistic. I think you’re right that there are some high profile examples of people who have loved ones who have been incarcerated, who lack the compassion or the creativity to think—literally—outside the box about how to respond to public safety issues, or what have become defined as public safety issues.

But more than that, the almost 50 percent of Americans who have an immediate family member currently or formerly incarcerated mostly don’t look like me and they don’t have the kinds of professional or academic opportunities that I’ve had.

For the most part, the half of America that’s directly connected to the lived experience of incarceration are Black and Brown, immigrants, poor, working class, under-housed or suffering from addiction or mental illness. Because of the confluence of those sorts of factors, they tend to be really underrepresented both in political spaces and in mainstream media discourse. More than a lack of empathy amongst that community, I think it’s a systemic exclusion from the conversation about what sorts of solutions to public safety issues we can be advancing.

NBB: Even though you lost, thousands more people voted against recalling you than voted to elect you in the first place. How does that feel?

CB: I’m proud of the work we accomplished and the movement that we’re a part of.

Look at the primary race in Tennessee last week for District Attorney in Shelby County—Amy Weirich was voted out of office in favor of a reform-minded, Democratic progressive prosecutor. [Weirich] was a Republican, conservative, a classic example of the failed approach this country has taken to criminal justice. She had been in office for over a decade, had crime spiral upwards during her tenure and prosecuted Black women for trying to register to vote.

It didn’t get any national news coverage at all, and yet, in San Francisco, when we got about 15,000 more votes than we did to be elected in 2019—before the votes were even counted, there were news stories all across the country interpreting it as the death of the criminal justice reform movement. That is simply not true. Our movement is strong. It’s growing.

What happened in San Francisco is an aberration, and it’s a result of a truly unique confluence of factors including the fact that we have among the most lenient recall rules of any jurisdiction in the country. It deprives the elected official being recalled even of an opponent to run against and makes it possible to give unlimited contributions to support a recall. We had some individuals giving upwards of $600,000 to support the recall. By contrast, traditional elections have an individual contribution limit of $500.

NBB: How can the people push the legal justice system in a more progressive direction here in Sonoma County or anywhere else in California?

CB: We need to hold our elected officials and appointed officials accountable—our Public Defender, our District Attorney, our police chiefs, our mayors. We’re not going to simply achieve the changes that we’re fighting for by electing progressive prosecutors. We need to also elect progressive supervisors and mayors. We need to make sure that they’re investing in drug treatment and mental healthcare and housing—the things that actually prevent crime, that build safe and vibrant communities, that make people feel safe when they walk around. Investing in social services is a critical thing that can happen outside the criminal legal system and can fundamentally change the nature of policing and who police interact with.

I don’t want to live in a society where police are the first line of response to drug overdoses. It’s not effective. It’s not efficient. It distracts police from working on violent crimes.

We can also make sure that, as consumers of news media, we’re staying informed but also pushing back against the “If it bleeds, it leads” approach that is so dominant in coverage of public safety issues in this country. [That news approach] is designed to increase resources and power for police unions, without any connection to data, evidence or alternatives that actually address root causes.”

The event will be held outdoors at the Sonoma Community Center, located at 276 E. Napa St., Sonoma. Proof of Covid-19 vaccination and booster are required. Tickets are $25 general admission. To register, visit praxispeace.org/event_registration

The Praxis trip to Mondragón is Sept. 11–17. Register at praxispeace.org/mondragon.php. Praxis executive director Georgia Kelly calls the program, “a unique opportunity to learn cooperative models of business organization and to see firsthand how they work over a long period of time. It is also an opportunity to experience the values, culture, and ethics that support cooperatives.”

Kingsborough, Leo + Lea, and More

Jane Vick

Aug 9, 2022

Larkspur

Leo + Lea

Join author Monica Wesolowska for a reading and signing of her new picture book, Leo + Lea. Wesolowska’s new book is a Fibonacci sequence-inspired story of two kids becoming friends at the beginning of the school year despite differences and anxieties. Leo is a boy who prefers counting to talking and, through the book’s illustrations, readers are shown just what his counting adds up to. Leo + Lea is a beautiful homage to the beauty and art found in both math and friendship—and how both can be found all around us. Wesolowska is the author of the memoir Holding Silvan: A Brief Life, named a Best Book of 2013 by The Boston Globe and Library Journal, and a Lit Pick by the San Francisco Chronicle. Her essays and short stories have appeared in numerous publications. Leo + Lea reading and signing is this Saturday, Aug. 13, 10:30am, at Copperfield’s Bookstore, 2419 Larkspur Landing Circle, Larkspur. Free. www.copperfieldsbooks.com

Monte Rio

Raise the Roof

The nonprofit Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County hosts its annual Raise the Roof Festival this weekend. Held amid the towering redwoods of the Monte Rio Amphitheater, the festival features musical acts including Momotombo SF, Midnight Sun, THUGZ, Un AmOur Band, Ben Roots and DJ Loisaida. All proceeds go toward the yearly initiatives of the Justice & Peace Center, which is dedicated to creating a world where conflict is resolved nonviolently and human beings live in harmony with the earth. Capacity for this event is limited to allow attendees ample space to spread out and enjoy the music. Raise the Roof Music Festival is Saturday, Aug. 13, at the Monte Rio Amphitheater, 9925 Main St., Monte Rio. Noon to 8pm. Tickets $50 in advance, $60 day of. www.pjcsoco.org

Sonoma

Kingsborough

Enjoy wood-fired pizza, Primal Cuts BBQ and a glass—or two—of wine while listening to the rhythmic, rock ’n’ roll sound of Kingsborough at the latest performance in Cornerstone Outdoor Kitchen’s music series, showcasing music talent every weekend through the end of October. Kingsborough features frontman Billy Kingsborough and lead guitarist Alex Leach. Together the two offer a bluesy sound that is both danceable and emotionally stirring. “On stage, we try to recreate the energy and emotion that inspired the songs, all with the hope that we can connect with people,” Leach says. Come enjoy a late lunch and a healthy dose of rock ’n’ roll. Kingsborough plays Sunday, Aug. 14, at Cornerstone Sonoma, 23570 Arnold Drive, Sonoma. Noon to 3pm. Music is free, food is available for purchase. www.cornerstonesonoma.com

Mill Valley
Two Gentlemen of Verona

One of the Bard’s lesser-known plays, but not a whit less brilliant for it, Two Gentlemen of Verona graces the Curtain Theatre’s stage this weekend. Two Gentlemen tells the story of star-crossed lovers, friendships betrayed and redeemed, and the staying power of strong women. As is often the case in Shakespearian comedies, stratagems and mishaps abound, promising nothing short of a barrel of laughs and potential aisle-rolling. The show is directed by Steve Beecroft and includes original songs and dance tunes by Don Clark and Hal Hughes. Two Gentlemen of Verona is playing Saturday, Aug. 13 at 2pm at the Old Mill Park Amphitheatre, 375 Throckmorton Ave., Mill Valley. Free. www.curtaintheatre.org

Petaluma Arts Center Opens Agriculture-Focused Exhibition

Jane Vick

Aug 9, 2022

Petaluma Arts Center Opens Agriculture-Focused Exhibition

No, I don’t mean the remnants of a mess-hall mess-around. This week, Petaluma Arts Center opens Agri-CULTURED, an exhibition exploring the intersections of food and farming in Sonoma County.

The topic of food and the roots of food in the Sonoma County region are, to PAC executive director and exhibition curator Carin Jacobs, inextricably connected to the region, and the show’s food-and-farm focus creates an unmistakable sense of Sonoma County place.

“For me, there is very little that exemplifies a sense of place in Sonoma County [more] than food and the roots of our food,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs, who started as a volunteer and then became a board member, has served as PAC’s executive director for the past year and a half. She has a background in the arts and in food studies, and has long wanted to bring the two together in one space.

Jacobs moved to Petaluma from the East Bay nine years ago. During that time, she witnessed demographic changes, from longtime Petalumans who raised their now-adult children in the city and have been here for generations, to the young couples, families and individuals moving in.

“Sometimes there can be a schism between old Petaluma and new Petaluma, if you will. And I think food is a topic—I hope—that will unite the generations of Petalumans, in a way. I feel like there’s a bridge to be built between both geographies and generations in this area, and I think food can do that,” Jacobs said.

In Sonoma County in general, and Petaluma in particular, the food scene is growing. Institutions such as the Tea Room and Della Fattoria are flourishing, and newer spots like Sol Food and Lunchette on 4th Street are bringing exciting new cuisine options. From an outsider’s perspective, it’s exciting evolution, but change can bring some discomfort, and Jacobs is hoping Agri-CULTURED will build bridges through food; afterall, the dining table is the ultimate equalizer. Everyone’s gotta eat.

Though food- and agriculture-focused, the exhibition does not include a statement on current climate issues in Sonoma County. “I know that there are heated and substantial conversations going on around this topic right now. But this exhibition is about the terroir, sense of place and evolution of the community,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs chose to hold this exhibition now, during an era of increased climate change that might lead attendees to assume it’s directly related to current climate issues, in an effort to re-localize the programming from Petaluma Arts Center.

There was a time when the Center’s exhibitions featured the work of artists from varying geographies in an effort to emulate institutions like SFMOMA. But, in recent years, PAC has focused its vision on a closer geography, showcasing the work of regional artists and addressing regional happenings. Exhibitions that speak to location are the goal now, as PAC seeks to deepen connections to the community, creating an inimitable Petaluma arts niche that can’t be found anywhere else.

With its Petaluma-oriented programming, PAC also seeks to explore the connection between art and life. Science, botany, ecology and biology are all things Jacobs loves to explore with visual art, locating and highlighting unexpected commonalities.

“With Agri-CULTURED, I’m hoping to put artists and farmers in conversation, seeing where the commonalities between the act of creating are in these two worlds,” Jacobs said. “And there’s a poetry portion of the exhibition’s programming, juried by Sonoma County Poet Laureate Elizabeth Heron. I think hearing poetry juxtaposed against the backdrop of the visual art is going to be really interesting.”

There is an experimental quality to Jacobs’ method of curation, almost like a chef combining different ingredients to produce a surprisingly successful dish. This cross-examination of art and life has been part of PAC’s mission since 2016, when Jacobs introduced the Idea Lounge series, which she lovingly refers to as “her baby.”

During Idea Lounge events, two speakers, one from the arts and one from a non-arts-related field, each talk for 20 minutes about their work and processes. The audience then becomes the third speaker, exploring and uncovering connections between the two fields.

“My philosophy of programming and content is taking unexpected elements and putting them together to see what happens, be it in an exhibition or in programming,” Jacobs said. “It’s sort of the Petri dish element of surprise—putting people and objects and ideas in a room together that might never otherwise be in the same place, and seeing what happens!”

Agri-CULTURED’s programming offers a wide variety of opportunities to explore Petaluma through the lens of food.

Opening night, Thursday Aug. 11, promises a great turn-out of community members, artists and Petaluma food purveyors. The aforementioned poetry reading, Food & Memory, is scheduled for Aug. 18 and will view food and agriculture through a poetic, recollecting lens.

On Aug. 25 Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard-Gayeton will discuss three short films from the Lexicon of Sustainability web series and their work in food education. A Sept. 8 panel discussion with local farmers will consider the current food economy in Petaluma, and, on Sept. 17, historian Katherine J. Rinehart will lead an architectural walking tour of Petaluma’s past and present agricultural history. The show closes on Sept. 24.

With art as the lynchpin and launching pad, Agri-CULTURED explores Petaluma’s relationship with food from a multitude of perspectives.
For more information on this exhibition and PAC’s other programming, visit www.petalumaartscenter.org.

UCSF study finds 4/5ths of COVID cases going unreported

Eli Walsh, Bay City News Service

Aug 3, 2022

UCSF study finds 4/5ths of COVID cases going unreported

Roughly 80% of current COVID-19 test results go unreported due to the widespread availability and use of rapid at-home tests, according to preliminary data from an ongoing study by researchers at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

The COVID-19 Citizen Science Study has sampled COVID-19 test, symptom and location data for more than 100,000 residents in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C., focusing on the country’s most populated counties.

The study, which is ongoing, has attempted to identify which local governmental policies—categorized as containment and closure, economic response and public health—have helped slow the virus’ spread and which have not.

UCSF researchers gave an overview of the study, which they are conducting with the Louisiana Public Health Institute (LPHI), during a panel discussion last week with other researchers from the University of Oxford and the LPHI.

“The plan for these policy data is to characterize the geographic variation in policies across counties,” said Dr. Rita Hamad, a social epidemiologist and associate professor at UCSF.

“We’re also hoping to link these policy data with actual health datasets to try to understand how variation in policies affected outcomes like COVID transmission rates, but also related outcomes like mental health, chronic disease, etc.,” Hamad said.

Researchers with UCSF and the LPHI have collected data for the study on a weekly basis since 2020. In total, they have monitored the outcomes from 27 different local health policies, including how and when vaccines and testing are available and proof of vaccination requirements for large events.

So far, the researchers have found that test positivity rates are roughly the same for PCR tests and at-home tests. The study’s observed test positivity rate is also roughly on par with the national figures observed by Johns Hopkins University.

As of July 27, the national test positivity rate sat at roughly 17%, according to Johns Hopkins.

“This is actually reassuring that our surveillance data in the U.S. using test positivity numbers actually is reflecting positivity on different kinds of tests,” said Dr. Mark Pletcher, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF and one of the study’s lead researchers.

The researchers have also found that pandemic-related anxiety has been driven equally by the possibility of catching the virus and the pandemic effects on personal finances, Pletcher said.

The study has found general COVID-19 health risk to be a strong predictor of pandemic-related anxiety with very little variance since the pandemic began, as those who feel most at risk are the most worried about contracting the virus and those who are not at risk showing little or no concern.

The variance over time was more observable among those who described themselves as somewhat worried about catching COVID-19, with ebbs and flows depending on whether positive cases are actively surging or not.

Overall, according to Pletcher, an average of just 12% of study participants who reported any symptoms consistent with COVID-19 got tested within three days of the onset of symptoms.

Eventually, the researchers plan to analyze how both changing local COVID-19-related policies and self-reported patient data have affected anxiety about the pandemic over time.

“We’re just completing our policy data collection effort, and then that’s our main plan,” he said.

Santa Rosa Council delays request for raise, Measure O renewal to ballot

Will Carruthers

Aug 3, 2022

Santa Rosa Council delays request for raise, Measure O renewal to ballot

With forecasts of a recession looming large, the Santa Rosa City Council last week opted not to request a living wage from voters at the ballot box in November.

At recent meetings, the council has discussed whether to add a measure to the ballot which, if passed, would have tied the mayor and councilmembers’ pay to the local median income beginning in 2025. The mayor would be paid the equivalent of the median income of a family of three—currently, $101,500—while councilmembers would be paid two-thirds of that figure, currently $67,660.

As it stands, Santa Rosa’s mayor is paid $17,000 in meeting stipends, plus benefits, per year. Councilmembers are paid $9,600 per year with benefits.

Supporters of the proposal were inspired by a similar ballot item, Measure JJ, which Berkeley voters passed in 2020. With living costs skyrocketing, backers say that the opportunity cost of serving on the council under current conditions discourages people without financial means from running for public office.

Still, the less-than-rosey economic projections made the supporters on the council blink, at least for now. The council discussed the possibility of putting the idea in front of voters in 2024 with the hopes that the economic situation would have improved—and city officials have had a chance to discuss the proposal with voters.

After a short discussion, the council unanimously agreed to discuss adding the item to the 2024 ballot at an Aug. 9 meeting.

The same day, the council voted to add the following measures to the city’s November ballot:

Measure O, passed in 2004, a ¼ cent sales tax used to pay for police, fire and gang-prevention programs. It is currently set to expire in March 2025. An item added to the November 2022 ballot would extend the tax to 2045 and tweak how the funds can be spent.
Two other measures added to the November ballot would update language in the city’s charter. The first item would update the charter language to reflect the city’s transition to district city council elections instead of citywide elections. The second would “update and modernize” the language of the charter in order to “remove ambiguities, to provide additional flexibility in City operations, and to ensure gender and citizenship neutrality.”