On June 12th 2025, the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany and Emeryville (LWVBAE) held their annual meeting where speaker Jessica Li spoke about the importance of Bystander Power. Li is a co-founder and the principal consultant at Healing Equity United. She is passionate about working with groups to dismantle systematic oppression while pushing for anti-oppression and racial solidarity.

Jessica Li

Li started off her presentation by defining a bystander as someone who is not directly involved as the target or perpetrator of an event but someone who is present at the moment and witnessing it happen. She emphasized that a bystander isn’t just someone who witnesses a particularly violent or aggressive offense but that you are a bystander even when you’re just walking around the grocery store or listening to your colleague on a business call. She also described the bystander effect; the bystander effect is where individuals are less likely to help someone in need when other people are present. This could be because when there are more people present, we assume someone else will help or because we don’t want the rest of the population to judge us for taking action. Li then went on to explain what you should do when we are bystanders during a violent or unlawful event. She started by saying that first you need to assess the situation including what power dynamics are taking place. Following that, you should take action and if safe, approach and confront the perpetrator.

Due to the current events relating to ICE and deportation, Li went over what a bystander should do when ICE is acting on a citizen or a detention is occuring. These actions include being prepared, having your phone charged or carrying a paper/pen with you. You should record and document what is going on as long as you are not interfering with law enforcement. Remember to keep your cameras on law enforcement, not on the person who is the subject of the action. Document everything you can remember, officers’ badges, patrol car numbers, which agency the officers are from and even witness contact information. In the case that an officer tries to tell you to put your phone away or to leave the scene, you can tell them that you are not interfering and you are exercising your first amendment rights. Even if you don’t have a video or audio recording, you can still write down what you remember. In addition, if you think your phone is at risk of being taken, either do the recording “live” or send the photo/video to someone else. And most importantly, be aware of your surroundings (at the airport, Home Depots, near courthouses, nail salons and restaurants).

After the conclusion of Li’s presentation, members of LWVBAE discussed and approved the 2024 annual meeting minutes and the 2025 annual budget. Following that, League members voted for the slate of candidates recommended by the nominating committee for the Board. The leaders proposed for the board for the upcoming year included President, Kandea Gandhi; Secretary, Elise Mills; Treasurer, Cynthia Chen; and board members Eric Arens, Linda Carothers, Sara Faiyaz, Sharon Goldfard, Rashida Hanif and Christine Wenrich. Members then unanimously voted to approve the slate and the recommendation that the next Board vote to add Sophie Pomfret and Eva Levinson. Lastly, the program of issues for emphasis was approved after being seconded by Eric Arens – see the program recommended at program planning and by the Board here: https://www.lwvbae.org/league-news/what-happened-at-program-planning-2/

To conclude the meeting, words of gratitude were given by and to the president and all members who attended the meeting. At 9:04pm the meeting was adjourned with about 30 members present.

–Tasya Xiao