Defund the police? Oakland’s budget shortfall could force cuts [San Francisco Chronicle]
Dec. 20 For months, Oakland leaders have considered cutting the city’s $290 million police budget in half, a goal set to meet the urgency of the Black Lives Matter movement and turn a department haunted by past misconduct into a national model.
Now, as city officials struggle to fill a widening budget hole, a memo by the interim police chief provides the first glimpse of what a more modest cut might look like.
It could mean that activists get some of their demands met, such as relieving police of their duty to provide security when city workers clear homeless encampments. But it could also mean freezing youth mentorships, ending foot patrols of the bustling Uptown district, and paring back a celebrated program to curb gun violence.
Defund the police? Oakland s budget shortfall could force cuts
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Officers Bryant Ocampo and Daniel Cornejo-Valdivia patrol downtown Oakland. As the city struggles to fill a widening budget gap, a memo by the interim police chief offers a glimpse of what cuts might look like.Photos by Paul Kuroda / Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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Oakland Officers Bryant Ocampo (right) and Daniel Cornejo-Valdivia visit with an officer on horseback patrolling downtown. The Police Department has eliminated details that put extra officers in areas with high rates of violent crime.Paul Kuroda / Special to The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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California Assembly member Lorena Gonzalez, Democrat of San Diego. | Rich Pedroncelli/AP
As California lawmakers gathered in Sacramento Dec. 7 to take their oaths of office in socially distanced settings and prepare for the 2021-22 legislative session, members of the state Senate and Assembly also took the opportunity to introduce new legislation on many topics, and to reintroduce bills which hadn’t gotten all the way through the process in a schedule truncated by COVID-19.
Among those reintroducing legislation were authors of measures regulating policing who, after their bills didn’t reach the finish line, vowed they’d be back.
One was Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, author of a measure to create clear statewide standards on when law enforcement agencies could use projectile weapons and chemical agents during large gatherings, and to bar their use to disperse peaceful demonstrations.
December 8, 2020
We say their names. We never forget. Racial justice uprisings gained momentum during the Summer of 2020, fueled by the unrepentant police killings of unarmed Black and Brown Americans. Men, women and children were killed while walking. Driving. Sitting in cars. Selling cigarettes. Relaxing in the backyard. Holding a toy gun. Experiencing a mental health crisis. The policing system has been racist and unjust at its core. Calls to abolish, to defund, the police are ever louder, and more compelling.
So how do we get there? What does this look like in practice? How should cities redistribute their budget millions to keep communities healthy and safe? To advance the conversation, Next City welcomes Asantewaa Boykin and Cat Brooks, co-founders of the Anti Police-Terror Project. Brooks and Boykin have started a program, MH First, which sends trained volunteers to respond to people having psychiatric emergencies or problems with substance use, circumventing the police enti
Senator Bradford and Pro Tem Atkins Introduce Police Decertification Bill
By Sentinel News Service
(Courtesy photo)
This week, Senator Bradford (D-Gardena) and Senate President pro Tempore Atkins (D-San Diego) introduced Senate Bill 2 to increase accountability for law enforcement officers that commit serious misconduct and illegally violate a person’s civil rights.
“The time is now to pass meaningful and common-sense police reform,” said Senator Steven Bradford. “California is able to revoke the certification or licenses of bad doctors, lawyers, teachers, and even barbers, but is unable to decertify police officers who have broken the law and violated the public trust. It’s time for California to join the majority of the nation and create a process to decertify bad officers. I look forward to working with Pro Tem Atkins, my colleagues, and all stakeholders to have this bill signed into law.”