Equity Action denounces fraudulent petition drive by sham group

Equity Action, a local nonprofit political action committee, is decrying what it calls a fraudulent effort by an unknown group impersonating it online and while canvassing for petition signatures.

In August, Equity Action submitted 33,000 petition signatures to the city clerk in support of the Austin Police Oversight Act, which would remove the Office of Police Oversight and the Community Police Review Commission from the purview of the city’s labor contract with the police union.

The group pretending to be Equity Action, board members said at a Thursday morning press conference, is gathering signatures for a substitute ballot measure that would be significantly weaker than the proposal set to go before voters in May.

“This is an urgent voter alert,” said Kathy Mitchell, Equity Action senior adviser. “You may encounter petitioners at the polls for the Dec. 13 runoff, but any petition you are asked to sign is not from Equity Action, is not the same as the Austin Police Oversight Act already on the May 2023 ballot, and if it’s about police oversight, it’s a harmful and fraudulent effort so please don’t sign it.”

In a recording obtained by Equity Action, a canvasser for the bogus group can be heard explaining to a voter that the Equity Action petition hadn’t met the signature requirements and the new one represented a “slight change in wording” but had otherwise the same message.

Neither of those statements is true. Equity Action’s petition, as reported by the Austin Monitor, was validated by the city clerk in September. The new petition represents a sharp contrast from Equity Action’s version.

Instead of bolstering the police oversight system, the shadow group’s petition would strip powers from the office, including access to information about complaints; strip the community of the ability to file anonymous complaints; retain the current “black box” police misconduct record system; maintain the 180-day statute of limitations for officer discipline; and remove every mention of the word “brutality” from the ordinance.

“Clearly they want a far weaker system of police oversight,” Chris Harris, Equity Action board president, said. “We’re trying to protect the community from 1) being tricked by people who are committing fraud; and 2) potentially setting up a situation in which a very, very weak – even weaker than today’s system – system of oversight is being put into place.”

One of the petitioners supplied EquityAction.org as the website for the petition. Equity Action’s actual URL is EquityActionATX.org. As of Thursday afternoon, EquityAction.org was offline.

Equity Action treasurer Rebecca Webber told the Monitor that the group is exploring all legal options against the impersonators if the tactics don’t stop immediately.

“My message is directly to the clowns who are perpetrating this fraud: It’s not cute, it’s not funny,” she said. “People actually care about these issues. They need to reveal themselves or just cut it out.”

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