ANTIOCH – A mayoral candidate right here who calls himself a “man of principles” has repeatedly left voicemails with this newspaper that embrace antisemitic slurs punctuated with expletives.
Rakesh Kumar Christian, who unsuccessfully ran for Antioch mayor in 2020 and for Hayward’s Metropolis Council in 2014, left quite a few messages with a Bay Space Information Group workers member lately and as lately as Could.
One message included an anti-Semitic trope, described intercourse acts and spoke of Muslim worshippers in a derogatory method. In different rambling messages, Christian ranted about former President Barack Obama in addition to the cartoon character Mickey Mouse and the Antichrist.
He demanded that the voicemail recipient “read the Bible,” after referencing the CEOs of Citibank, Microsoft and Google.
“Die quickly,” he stated on one voicemail.
In a latest telephone interview, Christian stated he was unaware of the voicemails despatched from his quantity in a voice clearly resembling him. “I don’t recall nothing,” he stated. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He additionally stated that the newspaper worker was “his brother,” including “you don’t know how much I give to Israel.”
Christian is amongst three candidates on the Nov. 5 poll vying to guide Antioch, a metropolis that garnered headlines lately amid allegations of widespread racism and bigotry all through its police power after a sequence of textual content messages despatched amongst officers had been uncovered.
Practically half of the division’s officers obtained not less than one of many textual content messages, which referred to Black folks as “gorillas” and “water buffalo,” whereas continuously utilizing the n-word.
Reforming town’s police division is considered one of quite a few key points at play within the race to turn out to be Antioch’s mayor this yr, together with considerations about homelessness and town’s financial system.
Additionally vying for the submit is Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe and Ron Bernal, Antioch’s former metropolis supervisor.
Christian beforehand ran for Antioch mayor 4 years in the past, when he completed in final place amongst 5 candidates, garnering 3% of the vote. His marketing campaign web site – which seems to have solely been partially accomplished – frames him as an “an ordinary citizen” who immigrated to the U.S. from India and arrived in Antioch in 2017.
“God gave me many opportunities in my life,” the opening line of his candidate assertion reads. “I jumped into politics because revolutionary acts can mean success for all humankind.”
His web site additionally stated he has battled disabilities stemming from accidents to his backbone and head, which had been suffered throughout an obvious auto-pedestrian crash, in addition to an assault of some kind.
