The Richmond City Council, in all its wisdom, last week addressed an unforeseen threat to California residents. A silent stalker that travels at light-speed from the heavens above and watches the world with an omniscient, unblinking, unrelenting eye.

I’m talking about space-based mind control weapons, people! Where have you been?

After listening to horror stories from more than a dozen people who believe that government agencies and other parties are watching them from outer space –including one speaker who was “targeted” just before arriving at Richmond City Hall– the council voted 5-2 to approve a resolution to discourage the use of space weapons on earth dwellers.

The resolution approved on May 19 refers to an attempt by a U.S. Congressman 14 years ago to ban space-based weapons. In 2001, then-Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced the “Space Preservation Act” and “Space Preservation Treaty” that would have banned spaced-based weapons.

The Richmond resolution from Councilwoman Jovanka Beckles doesn’t merely support those attempts to ban space-based weapons, it does so “to ensure that individuals will not be targets of space-based weapons.”

Beckles said in a memo she was introducing the resolution because she had met a Richmond woman who “informed me she was a survivor of such horrible attacks. According to her description, these government patented technologies and weapons interfere and disrupt the targeted individual’s health physically and psychologically by remote transmission.” Beckles said it was a shame that city officials have dismissed their claims.

The way I read this, if I had access to space-based weapons, I could use them to control my editor’s mind — maybe score a couple of extra weeks vacation. Or I could use them to manipulate Ticketmaster and get free tickets to the Warriors playoff game. I’m warming up to the idea of space-based weapons.

Even so, as a public policy matter, I wouldn’t have supported this.

It’s not real.

It may be real in the minds of some people — but it’s not what you’d call a widespread public problem. Yet five councilmembers voted for and passed it. In addition to Beckles, they were Eduardo Martinez, Gayle McLaughlin, Vice Mayor Jael Myrick and Nat Bates. Voting no were Vinay Pimple and Mayor Tom Butt.

“For a moment I was inclined to support it simply because of the symbolic relief it would bring to (people), and I could see no downside,” Butt wrote in his weekly newsletter. “On the other hand, I considered the message this would send to the hundred thousand or more Richmond residents who are not “targeted” by mind control technology and do not suffer routine physical pain from space-based weapons.”

Butt said he didn’t think most people would want their elected officials to dwell on this matter. For the council to do so, “especially based on the testimony of  a dozen, mostly out-of-town speakers of questionable credibility, worries me,” he said.

Butt originally viewed the issue as harmless. But he received a letter after the vote that changed his mind.

“My son suffers from mental illness and believes that Voice-Skull or electromagnetic waves generated by groups who target individuals” plague him, the woman told Butt. ”He keeps using (the council’s decision) to support his theory that the reasons he hears voices is that he is being targeted! Of course, I find this hard to believe, but I can’t convince him otherwise. He often refers to and cites the Richmond Police and City Council.”

She said the council’s vote is helping her son justify his beliefs and avoid taking his medication.

In all, it’s going to take a lot more than a vote by the Richmond City Council to save us from a space attack. The real question is, what will save us from the Richmond City Council?

Reposted from SF Gate.