Saturday January 16, 2021 - 02:27:00 PM If all the newspapers I subscribe to arrived as paper editions, my house might look like the one I entered as a nurse years ago with newspapers in a mound filling the living room to the ceiling and the bedroom where I found my patient so full of papers and magazines that I couldn’t see the size of the bed or the rest of the room. I miss daily newspapers in hand, but limit myself to just the Sunday paper to read and set aside for my parrot Zorro. It is interesting how older articles take on a different meaning and that is what happened when I pulled out Joe Matthews’ editorial on why City Councils should be bigger.
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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Berkeley police reform work to ramp up in January
Officials are forging ahead with efforts to reimagine policing in Berkeley and voted unanimously Tuesday night to launch a new community task force focused on that work in January.
The Berkeley City Council, Dec. 15, 2020. Photo: COB/Berkeleyside
Officials are forging ahead with efforts to reimagine policing in Berkeley and voted unanimously Tuesday night to launch a new community task force focused on that work in January.
The Berkeley City Council also voted Tuesday to hire the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform to oversee the upcoming community process, which is slated to last through June 2022, according to documents from the meeting. Officials approved the $270,000 contract on the consent calendar.
Members of Oakland defund police task force push for more homicide investigators, dispatchers
By Lisa Fernandez
Henry Lee reports on what each side would like to see.
OAKLAND, Calif. - Five Black community members, some of whom have long been critical of police, and all of whom sit on a task force to reimagine public safety, are imploring Oakland leaders to not simply slash the police budget unless they also find solid ideas for better alternatives.
There are certain elements of policing that are important to keep the community safe, said community activist John Jones III who is formerly incarcerated, a father of three and the current director of community and political engagement at Just Cities.