Why Stop the “Super Cop”?

Stop the Injunctions Coalition needs your support and action at City Hall tomorrow!  The Oakland City Council has started in on business for the New Year and we are greatly concerned with their direction.

One of the first items on Tuesday’s Public Safety Committee Meeting is an item to spend of a quarter million dollars to hire policing consultants William Bratton and Robert Wasserman.[1]  STIC is strongly opposed to this contract and we are mobilizing tomorrow to urge Councilmembers to reject this contract.

WHY REJECT THE BRATTON CONTRACT?
Bratton‘s quality of life and zero tolerance policing strategies are problematic and divisive in cities where they have been implemented. The “positive results” of Bratton’s techniques have increasingly begun to fray under the scrutiny of criminologists, community leaders, and even other police strategists.  Oakland residents have consistently rejected Bratton-style, zero-tolerance policing practices, such as gang injunctions and curfews. Bratton’s potential arrival coincides with a near imminent federal take-over of the Oakland Police Department, further entrenching the public’s mistrust of the department as well as it frustration with the city having already spent $1,000,000 in consultants last year alone. Read this excellent OaklandLocal piece by David Firestein to learn more.

REJECT “STOP-AND-FRISK POLICY”!
Adding to our concern are the so-called Schaaf-Reid Measures proposed last week to increase the size of OPD and the suggestion by new Council member, Noel Gallo, that Oakland adopt a stop and search policy, similar to the scandal-ridden policy in place in New York City. Studies show that stop and search tactics rely on and extend racial profiling.  Just last week, a judge ruled New York’s stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional, finding it in violation of fourth amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure. Additionaly, in July 2012 the Center for Constitutional Rights released a report on the impact of stop-and-frisk finding wide-spread and systemic human rights abuses stemming from the practice and further disadvantaging marginalized populations based on their race, gender or gender expression, sexuality, age, housing status, income, immigration status, and/or physical disability.

We can all agree that violence in our communities has taken a horrendous toll on our families, friends, co-workers, and neighbors.  Join STIC tomorrow to urge the Council to start this new year by being responsive to our communities’ suggestions and respect our experience in understanding what works to address violence on our streets.

As our past victories in persuading the Council have made clear, it is up to us to ensure that City Hall makes informed decisions and avoids peril when it comes to considering failed, destructive, and expensive quick-fix police schemes.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH @ 5:30PM
Oakland City Hall – 14th & Broadway

Sign up here and fill out a speaker card if you want to voice your opinion at the meeting.  We will provide talking points to support you!

Can’t make it to City Hall?  Jan 2013 Open Letter to City Hall STOP BRATTON and email it to City Hall!

Noel Gallo, Public Safety Chair: NGallo@oaklandnet.com

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[1] official agenda item: “Adopt A Resolution Authorizing The City Administrator To Amend The Contract With Strategic Policy Partnership, LLC In The Amount Of Two Hundred Fifty Thousand Dollars ($250,000) To Hire A Consultant To Put In Place A Much Needed Short-Term Crime Fighting Strategy And A Citywide Reduction And Community Safety plan”

STOP the SUPERCOP! ALL OUT TO CITY HALL!

This Tuesday the Oakland City Council’s Public Safety Committee will decide whether to offer the infamous William Bratton and his consulting firm a $250,000 contract to consult with the OPD. 

Bratton’s “zero tolerance” policing strategies–which include gang injunctions, stop and frisk, gang databases and “quality of life” ordinances–have had a destructive impact on communities of color in cities across the US and the world.  Oakland has already sent a crystal clear message against Bratton’s gang injunctions that forced both former police chief, Anthony Batts, and former City Attorney, John Russo, out of office and out of town.

Stop the Injunctions Coalition asks you–our allies, friends and neighbors–to join us one more time to convince City Council to say “NO” to Bratton and his destructive policies, and “YES” to community based solutions that keep Oakland safe and strong!

TUESDAY, JANUARY 15TH @ 5:30PM
Oakland City Hall – 14th & Broadway

Sign up here and fill out a speaker card if you want to voice your opinion at the meeting.  We will provide talking points to support you!

SATURDAY WORKSHOP: Community Gardens, Food Justice, & Gentrification

WORKSHOP THIS SATURDAY, December 15, 2012

Community Gardens, Food Justice, & Gentrification
at the  Saturday North Oakland Farmers’ Market, 942 Stanford St, Oakland 94608 @Lowell

Start Time: 11:00 am
Ends: 1:00 pm

A workshop to examine structural disenfranchisement in Oakland connecting public space, private property, policing and resistance. Participants will leave with an understanding of how land privatization has shaped Oakland, knowledge of historical tactics to reclaim and reuse land for communities, and how resisting gentrification can build healthier and safer communities.

READS:

Solid analysis on how gentrification and gang injunctions are connected from our allies at Phat Beets!
http://oaklandlocal.com/article/realtors-renaming-golden-gate-neighborhood-raises-gentrification-concerns-locals

Another Blow Against Gang Injunctions

Oaklanders sent a clear message against gang injunctions through yesterday’s elections, voting out Iganacio De La Fuente, the most aggressive and vocal proponent of the use of gang injunctions, and voting in injunction opponents, Dan Kalb and Lynette Gibson-McElhaney, in Districts 1 and 3 respectively. Throughout the election STIC was able to keep the issue of gang injunctions on the table, asking publicly and repeatedly what candidates’ positions were on injunctions and educating our neighbors about STIC’s people’s platform on public safety. Many candidates across the political spectrum took strong positions against injunctions or shifted their positions to oppose injunctions, citing a lack of evidence on their effectiveness, excessive costs, and danger of expanding criminalization as reasons. Our work made it clear that Oakland can’t afford injunctions, Oakland doesn’t need injunctions, and Oaklanders don’t want injunctions.  At the ballot box, we used one of the few vehicles provided for Oakland residents to weigh in on the controversial policing practice.  And the tide against gang injunctions just continues to swell. But as we know, the real battle and the real victory is still ahead.  We will watch carefully in January to see what the Council will do with some fresh energy. With a clear mandate from Oakland residents, the Council must choose to de-authorize the costly, ineffective injunctions in favor of community-based solutions consistently proven to make substantial, lasting positive change in our communities.  With so many candidates taking strong stances against injunctions during their elections, the real test will be whether those same candidates will offer more than empty campaign promises and put their positions into action on the Council. A turnover in city council old guard could open up new possibilities for Oakland to make the choice to end the use of gang injunctions once and for all, but the Stop the Injunctions Coalition will continue to monitor and mobilize around council activities related to gang injunctions, curfews, and other attempts to expand police power in Oakland to make sure that our voices and our solutions remain at the heart of the conversation about public safety in our city. Grassroots pressure made it impossible for gang injunctions to spread across the city and grassroots pressure is essential for us to eliminate the threats posed by gang injunctions.  Thanks to all of you who have been with us in this fight and stay tuned for more news from STIC soon!

Tuesday’s Election- Where do Oakland candidates stand on gang injunctions?

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD: XMC Voter Guide online read

View the whole guide!  Now in online readable format.

Oakland 2012 Election Guides from XMC

Read up on where the Oakland City Council Candidates stand on the gang injunctions and issues of policing.*  Guides are ready to print out and photocopy double-sided.  Guides include history of injunctions and the impacts of policing and gentrification in the neighborhoods.

XMC All City voter guide: Info on North Oakland (District 1), Fruitvale (District 5), and At-Large candidates.

Check out the RESOURCES page for more election materials.

*(Note: “policing” refers to the policing as an action as well as an institution.  “Policing” does not refer to just the Oakland Police Department, police officers or people paid by the city to surveil, capture and cage. Policing includes community watch, community or civilian police who are volunteers or people unaffiliated with the state who take it upon themselves to surveil, target, and detain people whom they deem suspicious or suspect.  Often “community policing” works hand in hand with police departments, however, turning people over to the city/state for arrests, snitching or alerting police bodies of the state police.)

The People Have a Plan! Join us Wednesday Oct 17!

Join us on October 17^th at the People’s Forum on Public Safety to share ideas about making our communities safe, healthy, and strong.

With national, state, county, and local elections less than a month away, candidates are quick to lay out their view on what peoples’ problems are and how they’ll be going about addressing them.  Here in Oakland public safety has taken center stage in City Council and City Attorney campaigns, with candidate after candidate scrambling to offer fixes.  Stop the Injunctions Coalition continues fighting to keep our communities’ voices at the heart of conversations about public safety in our city.  All too often those most affected by all types of violence are most marginalized when it comes to planning and implementing solutions, even as it is these same members of our communities who offer the most hope, creativity, and vision toward building strategies that disrupt and change cycles of harm.

But our collective work has shone through.  During candidate forums, nearly all candidates in all districts have said they don’t support the use of gang injunctions.  Some have even flipped their position in the course of their campaign, from being pro-injunction to being against.  We are encouraged that the work of our coalition has cemented so much opposition to gang injunctions, even among those who often scramble to outdo one another in being tough on crime.  We are encouraged that this shift away from injunctions presents an opportunity to get rid of the injunctions–once and for all.

Recent events including clearing the cop who killed Alan Blueford of any wrongdoing and the repeated denial of public access to City Council meetings for Blueford’s family and their supporters when they sought information regarding his death, have happened against the backdrop of the recent threat of federal receivership of the Oakland Police Department. These incidents and countless others have increased the distrust residents have in the OPD and in the city leadership that seems to allow the cops to do whatever they want.

Whether we are able, allowed, or choose to vote in November, there are some clear paths forward.  Oakland’s city government will fail its residents if they continue attempting to police their way out of social and economic crises.  Stop the Injunctions Coalition have joined people across Oakland in consistently demanding that the real economic, social and cultural needs of all of Oakland’s neighborhoods be prioritized.  Issues of public safety, police violence, anti-immigrant policies, gentrification, housing, racism, and disenfranchisement are clearly connected.   Communities need to be at the forefront of solutions and they need access to information and decision-making, and creativity and innovation must be our guides.  Luckily, people and organizations across the City are pushing forward ideas and strategies to build up our collective power.  We hope you will join us on October 17^th at our People’s Forum on Public Safety where we will work alongside our friends, families, co-workers, and neighbors to imagine ways to seize on opportunities leading up to the elections and beyond and to share ideas about making our communities safe, healthy, and strong.

View the North Oakland 2012 Election Voter Guide! HERE Or, get your paper copy at the Phat Beets Saturday market; put together by XMC.