A coalition of law enforcement agencies has arrested four Nuestra Familia gang leaders and 30 gang members, California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced at a press conference in Oakland on Tuesday. Several of those caught were allegedly given orders to commit murder and other violent crimes by imprisoned gang leaders who sent them encrypted messages via cell phones.

Many of the crimes were allegedly ordered by “incarcerated inmates that are supposed to be serving their time and out of circulation,” said Brown, who served as Oakland’s mayor from 1998 to 2006. “But because of the introduction of cell phones these individuals in prison are maintaining their role, their hierarchical position in the gang.” Brown explained that the imprisoned leaders of Nuestra Familia are ordering the crimes from prison and the crimes are happening out on the streets.

Attorney General Jerry Brown announces the arrest of Nuestra Familia gang members at a press conference on Tuesday.

Cracking down on violent street gangs, like Nuestra Familia, is one of Brown’s priorities as he launches into the final few months of his run for California governor. He has supported creating gang-free zones in Los Angeles and backed the Oakland Police Department in the 2008 investigation of the Acorn Gang during which over 40 suspected gang members were arrested in West Oakland.

Nuestra Familia is one of the most powerful of the seven prison gangs in California. It got its start in Folsom Prison in 1968 and its members are mostly Mexican-American or Chicano. With tens of thousands of members throughout the state and hundreds of members inside state prisons, according to the attorney general’s office, Nuestra Familia operates with a strict chain of command and has allegedly been responsible for murders, drug trafficking and weapons charges.  The attorney general’s office said some of the members have ties to the Norteños gang, which is active in the Bay Area.

In operation “Street Sweeper,” during which these most recent arrests were made, 250 law enforcement agents, including several Bay Area agencies and the FBI, spread across several California counties looking to take down the leaders at the top of the Nuestra Familia gang. Dozens of people have been arrested, the majority from Visalia and Salinas. In the course of the operation, agents realized that many of the gang members were taking orders from their bosses who were serving time in Pelican Bay State prison, which is near the Oregon border.

“We are up against some very serious criminals, very sophisticated and with nothing else to do in prison than foment more crimes,” said Brown. “When they go to prison, they don’t miss a beat—they continue their associations, their communication and their criminal behavior.” Brown was not clear on how the inmates get the cell phones, but suggested they might be smuggled in by visitors or guards. “Prison is supposed to punish, it’s supposed to be a place where people put their lives back in order and when it becomes, literally, the college of crime, our system fails,” he said.

The attorney general’s office is looking at stopping this type of communication by building certain cell phone towers that would block messages going in and out of prisons. “I believe we can take serious steps to curb this cell phone abuse and the abuse of this technology to foster crime,” said Brown. He said his office is also exploring cell phone jamming technology, but that utilizing this method would be more difficult because the Federal Communications Commission does not allow prisons to jam communications and introducing cell phone jamming would require a change in federal law.

Although the majority of people caught in operation “Street Sweeper” were from central California, Brown warned that Nuestra Familia gang activity is widespread and could include the Bay Area. “I don’t think any place is safe from this type of criminal enterprise,” he said. “It’s only safe if the prisons get better control of the inmates and we engage in greater control of the streets.”

A white pickup was parked on Broadway in downtown Oakland on Wednesday. It was there last week too, both times with a neon yellow workman’s vest hanging behind the driver’s seat and a traffic cone sitting in the truck bed. There was also a disabled parking permit hanging from the rearview mirror, guaranteeing that this truck can stay parked at the meter indefinitely, for free.

For some people, a disabled parking permit hanging on what looks like a workman’s truck might prompt a negative reaction. Others may be more kindhearted; maybe the driver had to transport a disabled family member somewhere. Maybe it belongs to a workman who got hurt. However, a quick glance down the row of parked cars might make anyone into a skeptic.

Oakland North found that 44 percent of parked cars surveyed in downtown Oakland and Chinatown on Wednesday carried disabled parking placards. That’s 107 of the 245 cars that were parked on parts of Broadway, Franklin, and Clay Streets, as well as Eighth through 14^th Streets.

That’s an exceptionally high ratio, considering that last year the California Department of Motor Vehicles allowed enough placards to exempt 9 percent of the cars and trucks registered in Alameda County – about 100,000 placards – according to statistics provided by the DMV. The total number of placards in the system in California and in Alameda County have both roughly doubled in the last ten years. The tags hang from the vehicles’ rearview mirrors, allowing drivers to park for an unlimited time at blue curbs and meters within Oakland, the latter otherwise priced at $2 per hour.

Placard fraud costs the city income in meters and parking tickets. Furthermore, because cars bearing placards have unlimited time and don’t need to be moved every hour or two, fraud prevents parking turnover. That can severely limit parking options for everyone, disabled or not. “The parking placard needs to be of value and be there for people who need it,” said Bryon MacDonald, 64, program director for the California Work Incentives Initiative at the World Institute on Disability in downtown Oakland.

The city is also aware of this problem. “In downtown Oakland alone, several hundred vehicles displaying disabled person parking placards are parked at metered spaces on a daily basis. It appears that many drivers and/or passengers of these cars are improperly using disabled person parking placards issued by the DMV,” wrote the City Administrator’s office in a statement issued November 2009. The statement said that the City Council estimated fraud costs Oakland $150,000 in yearly parking revenue.

But it can be hard to tell when placards are being fraudulently used. “When you open the hood on this issue, there are more issues,” warned MacDonald about looking into the legitimacy of placard users. He’s an amputee with a wooden foot. “When I wear long pants, no one has a clue that I’m an amputee or have a disability,” MacDonald said. He’s worried that people might mistakenly believe legitimately disabled drivers or passengers are illegally using placards. Those with chronic fatigue or a mental disability, like a fear of crowds or tight places, have symptoms invisible to strangers, he noted.

Furthermore, MacDonald wondered about Oakland North’s counting, pointing out that many people pay to park in private lots downtown, but anyone with a disabled placard would choose only to park on the street, where it’s free. “The street parking nets a disproportionate share of placards,” he said.

Nonetheless, the city of Oakland has acknowledged widespread placard fraud in recent years, a direct result of the increasing cost of parking in some neighborhoods.

Yet Oakland police have cited only a handful of drivers for improperly using the placards since last July. Improper placard use is a misdemeanor that requires a court appearance and can result in a fine of a few hundred dollars. Three police stings netted 29 violators since July, 2009, about 35 percent of the 83 people who were questioned.

The stings – roughly four hours long – involve officers stopping placard users seen entering or exiting cars and asking them for identification proving that the placard belongs to them, according to Jeff Thomason, an Oakland police spokesman.

Most of the fraud is misuse by a family member of the legitimate placard holder or a person using an expired placard, Thomason said. However, the police can’t address the question of whether there’s fraud in the DMV application process. It turns out, neither can the California DMV.

The DMV requires a doctor or certain approved medical staff– this can be a nurse practitioner or chiropractor, for example – to sign the form that the applicant sends in. The DMV doesn’t require those missing limbs to have a doctor’s note; they may merely appear in person at their local DMV office. However, the DMV doesn’t have the staff to double check the roughly 2.5 million placards issued in California or call medical professionals back to verify signatures, according to Jan Mendoza, a DMV spokesperson. Also, the DMV can’t scrutinize whether someone needs a placard. That’s for medical staff to decide, Mendoza said. She said it’s up to individual cities and counties to prosecute fraud.

Pursuing any kind of fraud costs money and could give people a negative perception of the disabled, but there are other ways to address the proliferation of placards. Oakland doesn’t have to allow unlimited free parking to the disabled at meters.

“It’s a nice benefit, but I don’t necessarily need free parking,” said Susan Henderson, director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund in Berkeley. She said that it would be possible to give a time limit – perhaps four hours instead of the regular two – or make disabled people pay for parking, as is done in other cities.

Henderson immediately amended that by saying that the eliminating the free parking might be detrimental to disabled people who are in a tight financial situation. “People who need free or reduced cost would be dismayed,” she said.

“You don’t want to wreck the whole program because there’s some fraud going on,” Henderson cautioned. She said that what really irks disabled people is a car without a placard parked illegally in a blue spot.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Wearing royal blue shirts that read “A little boy not forgotten, Hasanni Campbell,” a smattering of people representing the non-profit organization Citizens for the Lost gathered in front of the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland to remember the missing Fremont boy on Tuesday.

Citizens for the Lost formed shortly after the boy’s disappearance on August 10, 2009, and has dedicated the past year to trying to find Campbell, who had cerebral palsy, used braces to walk, and was five years old at the time of his disappearance. Over the last year the group has held vigils and meetings, as well as organized large-scale volunteer searches to look for any clues to Campbell’s whereabouts.

Custom T-shirt made in Hasanni Campbell's rememberance.

At first, Citizens for the Lost held weekly events for Campbell. As time passed, they decreased the events to once a month and now always hold them on the 10th—the day of Campbell’s disappearance. In addition to handing out fliers, and holding vigils and fundraisers, a large part of their work has been the volunteer searches they’ve organized in the Rockridge area—where the boy was reported missing—and Fremont—where Campbell lived. At one point, one month after his disappearance, 100 volunteers showed up at Lake Elizabeth and scoured the open space surrounding the lake for Campbell’s whereabouts; one person even scuba dived and inspected the bottom of the lake.

So far, these searches have come up with little evidence. “Unfortunately we are not looking for an alive body now,” said Celina Carleton, one of the volunteers who gathered in front of the courthouse on Tuesday. “We are looking for clothes, maybe bones. We check swampy areas, shorelines and out in the Coyote Hills.”

None of the volunteers from Citizens for the Lost personally knew Campbell, Carleton said. “Unfortunately Hasanni Campbell didn’t come from a big background with lots of support,” she said. “It took a handful of us being strangers and getting involved in the situation.” Their group does work with Campbell’s biological grandmother and one of his aunts.

According to information provided to the Oakland Police Department by Louis Ross, Campbell’s foster father, the boy was last seen near College Avenue in Rockridge one year ago. Ross said that he left Campbell in a parked car near a shoe store where his then-fiancée, Jennifer Campbell, who was also one of the boy’s biological aunts, worked.

On August 28, 2009, police arrested both Ross and Campbell on suspicion of murder, but no charges were filed and both were released. Since then, the couple has split up; Campbell moved to Arizona and Ross moved to Maryland.

Tuesday morning, the Oakland Police Department held a press conference marking the anniversary of the boy’s disappearance, announcing that the investigation had not yielded any new witnesses nor much new evidence. But Sergeant Gus Galindo did say that the department still considers Ross a primary suspect in Campbell’s disappearance.

Shortly after the police department’s press conference, members of Citizens for the Lost met with Alameda County Chief Deputy District Attorney Tom Rogers to see if there was anything the organization could do to help. “They’re working as hard as they can on the case,” said Sherri-Lyn Miller, the founder of Citizens for the Lost. Miller, who owns a T-shirt shop in San Leandro where she custom-makes t-shirts and jackets with photos of people’s loved ones, has been at the forefront of the volunteer searches for Campbell and making sure that his case isn’t forgotten. According to her, Rogers said he’d do everything in his power to find justice for the boy.

Citizens for the Lost logo on the back of a T-shirt.

After the meeting, Miller and 10 to 15 other volunteers from Citizens for the Lost convened in front of the courthouse to talk to the press and show that they are still working hard to find out what happened to Campbell. “Today was more based around the meeting itself and just coming out and gathering and remembering Hasanni Campbell,” said Carleton. “We want to stress the fact that there is a $75,000 reward in this case. We want to keep hope alive and keep the search for Hasanni Campbell going.”

Now, the group’s goal is to get this case more national attention. “We want to get the story outside of the Bay Area,” said Carleton. “It’s a matter if someone has seen or heard anything and will come forward with some sort of tip.” Miller added that group members will go to Arizona and Maryland within the next couple of weeks to pass out fliers and garner attention in the states where Ross and Campbell are now living. “We want to let people know that there’s possibly a killer amongst them,” Miller said.

Tuesday night, Citizens for the Lost held a prayer vigil and a small reception with cake and juice at the Westminster Hills Presbyterian Church in Hayward. On Saturday, August 14, they will host a fundraiser at Mission Valley Elementary School in Fremont from 9 am to 4 pm.

Oakland North has created a timeline of the first six months of the Hasanni Campbell investigation that is available here, as well as a topics page with further information about the investigation into Campbell’s disappearance that is available here.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

It’s been one year since Hasanni Campbell went missing. The Fremont boy, who had cerebral palsy and used braces to walk, would be six years old now.

The Oakland Police Department held a press conference marking the anniversary Tuesday morning but didn’t have much information to add, though Sergeant Gus Galindo, a homicide investigator, used strong language in reference Campbell’s foster father Louis Ross, whom the police consider a suspect in the boy’s disappearance.

“Ross is obviously not being forthright,” Galindo said. “Hasanni Campbell met some kind of foul play at the hands of Louis Ross.”

Hasanni Campbell

Hasanni Campbell, 40 pounds and three feet tall, was last seen near Oakland’s College Avenue on August 10, 2009, according to Ross, who told police that he’d left the boy in a parked car near Shuz of Rockridge at 6012 College Avenue. Ross’ then-fiancée Jennifer Campbell, the boy’s biological aunt, worked at the store. Galindo said that he believed the boy never made it to the Rockridge shoe store.

Many community members rallied to help find the boy last year. His preschool graduation photo haunted newspapers for months after his disappearance. Volunteers searched Oakland and even Lake Elizabeth in Fremont for the boy.

On August 28, 2009, police arrested both Ross and Campbell on suspicion of murder, but no charges were filed and both were released. Since then the has couple split up, and both Ross and Campbell have moved out of state, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Galindo said that there are currently no new witnesses in the case and little new evidence. He said the police department’s completed “95 percent” of possible lab work in the investigation and that any relevant information wasn’t being publicly released.

Nevertheless, Galindo says the OPD is still pursuing its investigation. “Every week I’ve put time into this case,” the sergeant said, adding that he was working hand-in-hand with the FBI and the Alameda County District Attorney’s office.

Though Hasanni Campbell’s disappearance is still listed as a missing person case, Galindo made it clear Tuesday that the police believe that he may have been murdered and that they consider Ross a primary suspect. “He is a suspect because he is the last person who was with Hasanni Campbell when he went missing,” Galindo said.

Campbell’s supporters have planned a rally for 4 pm Tuesday in front of the Oakland courthouse; Oakland North will continue to cover the story.

Oakland North has created a timeline of the first six months of the Hasanni Campbell investigation that is available here, as well as a topics page with further information about the investigation into Campbell’s disappearance that is available here.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

David Gibbons, one of the organizers for 54th and Dover Streets' block party, grills up some meat.

Carrying bowls of pasta salad, watermelon, and meat to grill, on Tuesday night people left their houses and streamed into hundreds of neighborhood gatherings being hosted throughout the city as part of National Night Out—a nationwide block party that encourages people to get to know their neighbors and promotes community safety.

In Oakland, 452 people registered to throw a party—a record for the city and 32 more parties than were hosted last year. “We are looking at 26,000 Oaklanders out tonight,” said councilmember Jean Quan at the kickoff party in front of Oakland City Hall early Tuesday evening. After the kickoff, which was full of tables with information about National Night Out, city officials and law enforcement members set off on a caravan that toured the neighborhood parties.

Police Chief Anthony Batts was among the officials who set out to visit the parties and introduce himself to residents. He stressed that it’s important for people to know their community and neighbors in order to help keep neighborhoods safe. “It’s our responsibility as adults and citizens,” he said. “The time is now for us to give back.”

National Night Out was started in 1984 by the National Association of Town Watch, a nonprofit crime prevention organization that believes in promoting neighborhood safety and peace by encouraging residents to get to know each other. Nationwide, over 14,000 communities participated in National Night Out this year.

Fire Chief Gerald Simon said, " the fire department is here tonight to help our cousins in blue," at a press conference Tuesday evening.

For Oakland, the primary goal of National Night Out is to fight crime. According to police department statistics, so far in 2010, homicide is down 20 percent, assaults with firearms are down by one third and minor crimes, from assault to burglary, are down 13 percent. But with the ever-shrinking budget and the layoff of 80 police officers, the city is working even harder to use other methods of increasing public safety in Oakland. “National Night Out means unity with the city, neighborhoods and the police,” Oakland Police Captain Ersie Joyner had said at a press conference in July, urging people to register for parties. “This is about being a collective city, this is about restoring hope.”

While the intention is serious, the mood at the parties throughout North Oakland was cheerful as families and neighbors congregated and introduced themselves to each other. Many of the parties had organized community barbeques, ice cream socials and live music, while others were smaller and less formal; people brought their own chairs and food to share in a potluck-style format. Throughout the city, streets were cordoned off with orange roadblocks, garbage cans or yellow police tape so cars couldn’t pass through, creating a safe space for kids to run around and letting people gather in the middle of the road.

On Dover and 54th Streets, neighbors had set up a big picnic table, chairs and a grill in the middle of their street. Kids ran around with plastic guns and shields, jumping over fences and in and out of their neighbors’ yards. The adults congregated near the food and chatted about summer vacations, their kids and new restaurants in Oakland.

“We’ve been doing this a long time,” said party organizer Jean Parker as she took photos of her neighbors standing in the middle of the street. “Our street is a busy urban street and so it’s the one day a year that kids can run around in the street.” Typically, to throw a block party in Oakland people need to work with the police department to get street closure permits, but on National Night Out the department streamlines the process and people only have to register online.

Streets were cordoned off with homemade signs.

Parker said that in past years a bunch of police officers and fire fighters stopped by to say hello, but that this year only a couple had passed through. “Maybe it’s the layoffs?” she mused. “Community engagement is really important—it’s good for the police to come by and meet the neighbors.”

At a party a few blocks away, another gathering was organized at Dover Street Park. Dozens of people brought plates of food to share and got to know each other. Kids played in the park, swinging on the tire swing and riding miniature bikes back and forth on the sidewalk. Some people wore nametags showing which street they lived on and residents of the senior center around the corner served up ice cream sundaes. When the sun set, at 8:30 pm, the organizers projected a movie on a wall and people cozied up under blankets to keep warm.

One couple, Matt Broz and Lara Tannenbaum, have lived in the neighborhood for two years and had gone to other National Night Out parties in the past, but this was the first time they came to the Dover Street Park party. “We don’t know anyone here… yet,” said Broz.  “We’re here to meet the neighbors,” added Tannenbaum, who is expecting a baby and said it would be nice to meet other local parents. “It’s a good place to meet people.”

It worked — as the couple was waiting for their hamburgers to finish grilling, a local pastor came by and introduced herself, inviting them to come to the church anytime.

If you threw or attended a National Night Out party on Tuesday, send us your photos and we’ll add them to a photo slideshow we are putting together! Email pics to staff@oaklandnorth.net and let us know the location of the block party and the names of people in the photograph.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Residents at last Wednesday night’s Golden Gate neighborhood community policing meeting noticed one glaring absence: For the first time they could remember, there was not a police officer in attendance.

“We have been informed that there are no [problem-solving officers] anymore,” Golden Gate NCPC chair Larry Benson told the 20 residents who attended the meeting. “But I thought an officer was supposed to be here.”

Since the layoff of 80 police officers on July 13 due to Oakland’s $30.5 million budget shortfall, the city’s policing strategy has changed. With fewer officers, the Oakland Police Department plans to focus more on emergencies and less on community problem-solving and the investigation of non-violent crimes.

“With less resources and personnel, we can handle less,” said Holly Joshi, public information officer for the Oakland Police Department.

Not only will that mean fewer officers at community meetings, but the OPD can’t send officers out to take reports and investigate non-violent crimes as often as they used to. The department is now requiring victims of non-violent and non-emergency crimes—typically referred to as “priority three” or “priority four” crimes—to report them online, via a system called Coplogic.

“Any calls where people’s lives are in danger we’ll still be responding to,” Joshi said. But crimes like theft, vandalism and car thefts and break-ins must now be reported online. The police department says other crimes, such as residential burglaries and identity theft, will soon be added to the list. While an officer will be assigned to review the online report, unless there is a hard lead on a suspect, the city will not send out an officer to investigate the crime.

Joshi says that these service cutbacks mean that the need for community policing in neighborhoods will rise, even as the level of coordination and help each NCPC receives from the city will certainly diminish.

After the passage of Measure Y in 2004, which required the city to maintain a specific number of officers in order to retain funding for the police and fire departments and violence prevention programs, the city’s 57 neighborhood beats were each assigned a problem-solving officer (PSO), in addition to regular patrol officers. The problem-solving officers would attend community policing meetings to determine which problems local residents would like to solve, like fighting graffiti and other forms of blight, and then help community members work toward their goal.

But with 80 fewer officers to patrol the streets, problem-solving officers are now a luxury. Some were laid off, and others, like the officer stationed in Golden Gate, have been moved to a regular patrol beat.

The police department currently has 694 officers on staff and expects to lose three to four each month due to attrition as officers retire or move away. If voters don’t pass an amendment to Measure Y this fall that will allow the city to retain its funding without having to maintain a specific number of police officers, another round of severe cuts will be made to the force in January.

Golden Gate residents spoke of their safety concerns at Wednesday night’s meeting as they grappled with the fact that they would be largely on their own in solving their neighborhood’s problems. When Benson asked attendees if anyone had a neighborhood problem they wanted to share with the group, nearly every hand in the room went up. Of the greatest concern to residents at the meeting were issues of prostitution, graffiti, and drugs.

“They’re coming from out of the area and prostituting on San Pablo Avenue,” one woman who lives on that street told the group. “It’s becoming a destination.”

Several people in the room said they had noticed police officers from neighboring Emeryville and Berkeley responding to calls in the Golden Gate neighborhood, and one woman went further. “In an emergency, I call [the] Berkeley, Oakland, and Emeryville [police departments],” she said, to laughter and the nodding of heads. “I see who comes first.”

Benson and other NCPC leaders listened to concerns and wrote down suggestions to present at a city-wide NCPC meeting this Monday, at which there will be a discussion of community policing’s role in Oakland. They encouraged attendees to lock their doors and windows and suggested starting a phone tree for each block so that neighbors can keep an eye out for each other and make multiple calls to the police when a crime occurs, theoretically ensuring a police response.

But Benson was frustrated Wednesday night, unsure of how community policing will look in the future without the physical presence of officers in his neighborhood. “The community will get restless with the lack of police help,” he said. “It’s not a crime-solving meeting unless the police are here.”

Joshi said the OPD remains committed to the Golden Gate group and its counterparts around the city as well as to the broader concept behind them. “The Oakland Police Department is operating off of community policing,” she said. “That’s our philosophy. That’s going to continue.”

Joshi urged residents to get involved in their neighborhoods, and promised that the OPD will continue to respond to emergencies. “We’re going to be there if there’s anything in progress that’s threatening someone’s life. There’s no panic needed that OPD won’t be there,” Joshi continued. “Overall advice: Get more involved in crime prevention yourself. Lock your doors and windows, report suspicious people casing someone’s house, and look out for your neighbors. Be aware of your surroundings.”

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

Wearing a white tank top spotted with blood, Susan Harman, a 69-year-old former school principal and Oakland resident, told a crowd of reporters that she was a victim of police aggression during the protests following the July 8 Johannes Mehserle verdict. The tank top she was wearing was the same one she had on that night when, she said, while peacefully protesting she was pushed down, hit on the head with a baton and arrested.

Many local residents peacefully protested the involuntary manslaughter verdict for Mehserle, the BART police officer accused of having shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back as he lay face-down on the platform of Oakland’s Fruitvale BART station in January, 2009. But a small number of people looted businesses and vandalized downtown Oakland, destroying property, setting fires in trashcans and breaking storefront windows. Police arrested 78 people that night. The majority have been released after being cited with misdemeanors, such as failure to disperse.

Now, the San Francisco Bay Area chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is claiming that police manhandled some of the people arrested, as well as arrested people who had done nothing illegal. “There are at least half a dozen people with injuries that go beyond mere bruises,” said Carlos Villarreal, the executive director of the guild’s Bay Area chapter. According to Villareal, the injuries range from people being hit on the head with batons to one man who had some of his dreadlocks pulled out.

On the night of the protest, the National Lawyers Guild posted dozens of legal observers in the street to see if police acted aggressively towards the protesters. “We’ve been looking over the evidence we’ve gathered and what we have found is the story that’s developed is quite different,” said Villarreal. “Police were violent; police violated peoples civil rights.”

At a guild press conference last week, Harman said that she was a peaceful protester. She said that when the official city-sponsored rally near Frank Ogawa Plaza ended, the police began to try to get the protesters to disperse and she joined a line of citizens, including Oakland city councilmembers Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, who linked elbows and barricaded the police from the crowd. They slowly walked in front of police to help disperse the gathering.

Harman said they came across two people sitting on the ground playing chess who refused to stand up. “I’m not going to walk on these people,” Harman said she told the police. Then, she said, a police officer charged her and hit her on the head. “I still have a lump,” she said.

Harman claims police officers put her in an ambulance, that she was taken to the hospital so her wounds could be treated, and afterwards taken to jail, where she spent the night. The next day she was cited with a misdemeanor and released. “The whole thing was very frightening in a country that is using security as an excuse for increasing oppression,” Harman said.

According to a 2004 Oakland Tribune article, this isn’t Harman’s first skirmish with authorities. At that time, when she was a principal at an East Oakland public charter school, the Tribune reported that she was banned from the school district headquarters after she had a confrontation with then-State Administrator Randolph Ward’s bodyguard.

Oakland attorney Walter Riley was also present at the National Lawyers Guild press conference. He said that he was at the rally peacefully protesting, and that when the officially sanctioned speaking portion of the rally ended he and his son walked down to his office at 15th Street and Broadway. As he was opening his office door, he said, “I was grabbed and pushed against the wall.” Then, he said, an officer choked him. “It was CHP [California Highway Patrol] and they were outrageous.”

Also allegedly injured by police was John Weston Osburn, a 26-year-old self-proclaimed anarchist from Salt Lake City, Utah, who claims that, while he supported the vandalism that happened that night, he was at the rally as a reporter. He said he was wearing a press pass and was videotaping the protest for Indy Media, an open publishing media site that allows anybody to contribute. He said that he was thrown to the ground and that the police twisted his arm behind his back so roughly that they injured his wrist. “I told them they were going to break my arm,” he said, “and they kept twisting.” He was taken to the hospital in the same ambulance as Harman and then brought to jail.

Harman and Riley were cited for misdemeanors and released; Osburn was initially arrested for attempted arson, a felony. According to his police report, officers thought he was trying to light a match near his backpack, as if he was trying to set something in his pack on fire. Osburn was later let off with misdemeanor citations for acts constituting a riot and failure to disperse.

The night of the protest, the regional California Highway Patrol and Alameda County Sheriff’s Department officers joined Oakland police officers. All groups were outfitted in full riot gear, including shields, bulletproof vests, helmets with facemasks, billy clubs and bundles of zip-ties to be used as handcuffs.

Law enforcement officials say that their officers acted legally during the protest. An Oakland Police Department spokesperson told the San Francisco Chronicle that OPD officers gave protesters lawful orders to disperse and announced over bullhorns that those who did not leave the area would be arrested. As of last Thursday, only one complaint of excessive force had been received by the OPD. Department spokespeople did not return interview requests this week.

California Highway Patrol spokespeople also did not return interview requests.

As of Monday, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office had received no complaints regarding use of excessive force. “I attribute that to our deputies being well trained,” said Sergeant Ray Kelly, a public information officer for the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office. “Our deputies have a long history in crowd control situations.”

However, Villarreal said that it’s rare that people file complaints with law enforcement agencies while they have a pending legal case against them. One reason, he said, may be for fear of retribution. Another is that typically lawyers advise against bringing complaints, since they could reveal information relevant in a criminal or civil case. “I doubt that there’s going be any other people filing complaints with the Oakland police,” Villarreal said.

The National Lawyers Guild Bay Area chapter is continuing to investigate possible legal action on behalf of protesters who were allegedly injured by law enforcement officers during the protest. “There are civil liberties issues and also criminal issues,” said Villarreal. “We can urge criminal prosecution and also bring civil suits for people being assaulted and violations of people’s First Amendment rights.”

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you could be taking dance lessons in Jack London Square or having a drink. But no, we’ve had too important a week, haven’t we?” With that, Aimee Alison, host of the KPFA Morning Show and founder of OaklandSeen.com, opened the Oakland mayoral forum on public safety held Thursday evening, July 15^th at the Lakeshore Baptist Church.

The forum featured seven candidates planning to participate in November’s mayoral election—current city councilmembers Jean Quan and Rebecca Kaplan, educator Terrance Candell, community activist Orlando Johnson, businessman Gary Harland, Green Party activist Don Macleay, and professor and political commentator Joe Tuman, the latest to announce his candidacy. Larry Lionel Young Jr., a real estate agent, announced his candidacy too late to participate, although he attended the forum. Former State Senate President Don Perata, who’s also running, was absent.

The public safety forum drew a full house—spanning ages and color lines—on the heels of two highly controversial events: the layoff of 80 police officers on Tuesday to help close the city’s budget gap, and the protests following the verdict in the trial of former BART police officer, Johannes Mehserle that resulted in the arrest of 78 people. Those arrested included some who looted and vandalized downtown Oakland during the protests, but also many who simply failed to disperse that night, including Oakland civil rights lawyer Walter Riley.

Thursday night's forum, the second of this year's mayoral race, drew a packed audience.

At the forum, each candidate was given 90 seconds to respond to questions from the groups that co-hosted the event, including the Oakland Black Caucus, the Paul Robeson Chapter of the ACLU, the John George Democratic Club, the Wellstone Democratic Club, Black Women Organized for Political Action and Oakland’s New Leaders.

Alison of OaklandSeen moderated the event, and posed several audience questions to the candidates. Here are some of the questions and responses [shortened in some cases].

Question from the Black Women Organized for Political Action: In Oakland, pimps are forcing preteens and teenage girls into prostitution, where they come into contact with police. How would you work with the police to decriminalize sexually exploited minors?

Candell: I go out into the street, particularly in Fruitvale, and I bring some of our daughters home. We get in contact with parents and we attempt to get communication going again. I don’t know how else to do it. We need a civilian agency involved with working with the police department to bring these young ladies off of these streets.

Johnson: What I’d do is help those individuals on probation, on parole, that have been molested, that have been victimized…and get them the resources we have out here in Oakland. The only thing we can do is protect our own children. I’m from the streets of Oakland. I’ve been in group homes, county jails, the penitentiary, so I understand personally how crime affects people and how to overcome the crimes and surround yourself by a good support base.

Harland: There’s a part of our community in the inner city that has languished for 65 years, ever since World War II and we need to correct that problem. We need economic development. We need people who have lived in families for generations of unemployment to have an opportunity to live a good life.

Kaplan: I would take action to make sure that we’re not criminalizing and punishing young kids who have just been victimized. If we give them a record, we prevent them from having access to jobs. We have to pursue the pimps and understand that they’re the problem, not the minors.

Tuman: We need to vigorously enforce laws against prostitution where children are concerned. That means not only going against the pimps, it means going after the customers, the consumers. They drive the business.

Question from the ACLU: Why do you believe the mayor’s office and the city council have remained silent about the gang injunction in North Oakland? What specific actions would you take as mayor to ensure that the gang injunction is being implemented without violating the civil liberties of our residents?

Harland: This is about law enforcement, and to have proper law enforcement, you have to have a fully staffed police force. You can’t arrest people for normal, legal behavior. If you want a rule of law, this won’t work.

Kaplan: We need to make sure that the promised civil liberties protections are fully implemented. That means no injunctions against a named gang. You have to name the specific individuals by name and have a hearing with the opportunity to be heard and respond.

Macleay: I’m opposed to this gang injunction for two reasons. I’m opposed to taking a person into a civil court…where we don’t really have to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The other crime that the gang injunction commits is it divides us. We need to stick together to work on the things we can agree with, and this is just not one of them.

Quan: The current Oakland injunction is against 15 individuals who have mostly been involved in violent crimes in the North Oakland area. I told the chief…that I would not support it being used as a way to just pick up anyone who’s wearing colors, or looks a different way. If I’m mayor, I plan to monitor [the gang injunction] and to see if it’s working or not working. I’m not sure. I’ve been walking North and West Oakland and people are worried about some of the gangs and this is another tool.

Tuman: There are some parts of this [injunction] that make sense. For example, there is an injunction against carrying firearms. There’s an injunction against carrying graffiti-making equipment. The problem that I have with this injunction is that there are two parts of it that do involve violating someone’s rights. One has to do with recruitment; the other has to do with association. There may be a potential for racial profiling. We have to be very careful when talking about association where that’s concerned.

Candell: How is it that this gang injunction only has African Americans and Latinos on it? Oh…and guess what? [Candell takes off his black jacket to reveal a bright, salmon-colored button-down shirt and matching tie.] This is red. You gonna arrest me too? Get the criminals off the street and charge them criminally.

Question from the John George Democratic Club: How would you assess Mayor Dellum’s administration with respect to public safety issues? What, if anything, would you do differently?

Kaplan: My core focus as mayor will be to expand jobs for local residents and business opportunity for local business, and attract the economic investment that makes it possible both to fund our public safety services and to give people real options so they don’t pursue a life of crime. Now…with regards to our situation with the police. I do have an alternative, and that is to have the police pay 9 percent into their pension. We could commit to no layoffs. Even if we were going to lose some [police], the last ones we should lose are the newest hires, who are some of the best, and most affordable, and most diverse, and most from Oakland.

Macleay: I have a profound respect for Ron Dellums….but I was profoundly upset that Ron Dellums actually got himself elected and did not have a clear idea what he was going to do about public safety. I am not going to run for mayor without a clear idea of what I’m going to do about public safety. It’s not a job where you can say ‘This is not my job.’ Yes, it’s the city attorney who’s responsible for the gang injunction. Yes, it’s the BART police that gave us the Oscar Grant disaster. But the mayor has to stand up and take responsibility and lead the community at all times.

Quan: Where I differ with Ron is, quite frankly, I think a lot of safety is going to have to do with my theme of organizing block by block—the grassroots work, the neighborhood watches, building the crime council … that’s how you put your arms around the kid who’s in trouble and is thinking about breaking into your house. When we have good after school programs, crime goes down 40 percent. The real end to crime will be full employment in Oakland, but since we’re away from that…we have to, as a city, take this issue of pension reform [for police] on. It’s irresponsible to stand on the sidelines and say ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have voted to lay off police.’

Tuman: We have to thank Mayor Dellums for his selection of our chief of police. I think he’s a fine man. I think [the police] should pay their share [of pension funds] like everybody else. But I don’t blame them for accepting a generous offer that the city was dumb enough to make. Why did they offer this is the first place? Where is the long-term planning? We need to adjust base salaries, not just pensions and overtime, to get these costs under control.

Johnson: First of all, I would like to respect Mayor Dellums for [being] an African American in one of roughest cities in the country doing a great job. Second of all, we’re not going to talk bad about elected officials on my watch. The murder rate is still dropping, on Dellum’s watch. Now everyone wants to talk about the money. The solution I have for the money is we have an alternative local currency for the city. That will help our deficit.

Question from an audience member: How many police officers does Oakland need? How would you propose paying for them?

Quan: About 1,000 officers, but in order to get there, we have to bring down the cost of the officers. But it’s not just how many officers we have, it’s how we work with them. We may not be able to afford 1,000 offices for quite a while. They have to be community-based officers. They have to get out of their cars and walk. They have to know the neighborhood. They have to be able to work with the community. We could have 10,000 officers and it wouldn’t be safe if they don’t have a better relationship with the community.

Tuman: 1,100 to 1,200 officers. I think we need to focus on criminal enterprise … people who use violence to advance the enterprise of crime. These people are basically rational capitalists. They want the least investment for the greatest return, but they don’t like regulatory oversight. Just like a capitalist. When you have extensive police presence, criminal activity tends to go down. When you don’t, it goes up. It’s very simple. If you have a police department that’s understaffed by a full third, you can’t be everywhere.

Candell: Quote “We cannot arrest our way into social bliss” unquote. Author: Chief Batts. [Oakland North note: the (mis)quote should actually be attributed to Mayor Ron Dellums.] In my school, we haven’t had so much as a fight in ten years. You have to love them enough to give them activities and social programs, and guidance so they can function better in our society.

Johnson: I let the city decide how many police officers we’re going to have. The districts where our seniors and elders are, I make sure that district is policed. Areas where there’s the lowest income, where there’s poverty and tragedy, I have a minimum of police officers. People don’t make crime; crime is a system. I think we should be police-free if we all can come together.

Harland: 1,100 but I agree with Joe [Tuman] that it could be 1,200 officers. According to the FBI, we have the most dangerous city in the United States. People in the inner city stay inside all day because they’re afraid to go outside. I think we need enough police for the city but I also think we need a city that works for everybody, a city that is economically viable.

Kaplan: We need a fundamental economic revitalization strategy aimed at the question of how do we fund a fully functioning city with all the services that people need. The question should not be only how do we pay for law enforcement, but how do we pay for all the services? We have to effectively deploy the police. When there’s a teacher rally, there shouldn’t be 200 cops on standby while someone who’s calling to report a real crime is getting no response.

Macleay: If there was ever a question that could not be answered in 90 seconds, this is it. To try to answer it with a sound bite, I would say, how many police to do what? We’re over-weighted in enforcement, we need to get more into prevention and more into restoration.

Mayoral candidates have until August 5 to declare their candidacy.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

John Weston Osburn at a press conference on police brutality.

As the Oakland Police Department works to identify more people who were involved with the property damage and looting during the protest following the Johannes Mehserle verdict, it’s still unclear if there was any one group in charge of organizing the destruction. In the days before the verdict, several online anarchist groups urged aggressive protest, and at a recent press conference, Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said that of the 78 people arrested during the protest, some were “anarchists” found carrying Molotov cocktails, sawed-off baseball bats, spray paint cans and bottles filled with urine and feces.

Law enforcement, as well as Oakland residents, have been struggling to figure out whether anarchists and out-of-town activists were responsible for much of the damage. Of the 78 arrests, only 19 were of Oakland residents. Another 19 were from outside the Bay Area, 12 were from out of state, and the rest were from local cities.

At least one of those arrested protesters readily calls himself an anarchist and said that he came from out of state to attend the protest. John Weston Osburn—a tall, skinny young man with straight dark-blonde hair— is 26-years-old and from Salt Lake City, Utah. He came to Oakland specifically for the July 8 verdict protest. “I felt that being a similar age to Oscar Grant, his story touched me personally and [I] felt that it was important for people all over the country to show up and show solidarity and make sure that the police didn’t get away with this murder,” Osburn said.

Osburn said that during the protest he was working as a “media activist” for Indy Media, a radical open publishing media site that allows anybody to contribute. He said that he did not participate in the riots, but would have if he were not in media work. The anarchists at the Mehserle protests were “freedom fighters,” he said, and the vandalism they did “was absolutely heroic.”

“When you smash a window and you tear the town up,” he said, “it shows the police there will be real-world consequences when they abuse vulnerable people in their communities.”

Oakland police believe—and Osburn agrees—that anarchists did cause some of the damage in downtown Oakland that night, but that the anarchists were not the only people involved in looting and property destruction.

The police prepared for unrest before the protests by duct-taping windows to prevent them from breaking.

According to Osburn’s arrest report, as the peaceful protest ended and the crowds began to get rowdy, several officers saw Osburn allegedly trying to light a match near his backpack, as if he was trying to light something in his pack on fire. According to the report, when he saw the police watching him, Osburn allegedly dropped the matches and picked up his video camera. He was originally arrested for the felony charge of attempted arson. After being held for five days in Santa Rita county jail on a $125,000 bond, Osburn’s bail was reduced to $3,000 and he was instead charged with two misdemeanors—acts constituting a riot and failure to disperse.

Osburn denied the felony allegations. “I was arrested for attempted arson. They claim that I lit a weapon,” said Osburn after a Wednesday press conference hosted by the National Lawyers Guild about police brutality during the protest. “That is completely false.”

Osburn’s left wrist was in a splint and wrapped in an ace bandage; he said the police twisted his arm during his arrest after they threw him down to the ground.

Osburn is not the only person with anarchist ties to have expressed interest in the post-verdict protests. Before the riots, several anarchist groups threatened online to retaliate with aggression if the Mehserle verdict was anything other than murder. (Mehserle was ultimately convicted of involuntary manslaughter, which carries a lesser penalty.)  One group that identified themselves merely as “some anarchists” sent around a statement that was posted on several anarchist websites and news sources urging people to go to downtown Oakland on the day of the verdict. They wrote that they’d “respect the tone of the gathering” but that “what happens in the streets will be determined by the people in the streets.”

They also warned that “the more Bay Area cops you bring to downtown Oakland to threaten and intimidate those expressing themselves, the more targets you leave exposed. It’s open game on all your $hit from now until the job is done.”

Before the protest, another group called the Raider Nation Collective, a black-power anarchist group based in Los Angeles and Oakland, claimed in a statement also posted on several anarchist websites that all the non-profits urging a peaceful rally as a constructive way to approach social change were part of “the nonprofit-industrial complex” and that these non-profits were aligned with the city government and police.

“Nothing has been more ‘constructive’ than the popular fury unleashed in January,” read the Raider Nation Collective statement, referring to the riots that happened in downtown Oakland after Grant was killed in 2009. “Our power lies not in opportunistic deal-making with Dellums behind closed doors: it lies in the streets and it is homegrown.” It’s unknown whether any members of the Raider Nation Collective actually participated in last week’s protest.

Another group who calls themselves the “Bay Area National Anarchists,” took a different stance. Before the protest, the group issued a written statement that urged “restraint on behalf of residents of Oakland” and stated that “although a tragic situation, causing pain and destruction for those not to blame in the attack is irresponsible and does not bring honor to Oscar Grant or our communities.”

The rally was for Oscar Grant who was killed in January 2009.

Grant’s family had also publicly asked people to keep the rally peaceful and to not cause property damage or physical harm to anyone. “Don’t come out here to fight,” said Grant’s grandfather, Oscar Grant, Sr., to crowds of protesters on the night of the rally. “Don’t dishonor my grandson’s death by coming out here and tearing up Oakland.”

For Osburn, though, the protest “isn’t just about Oscar Grant.” He said that police brutality “is happening all across the country—if we don’t take to action, it’s going to get worse.” He added that last week’s Oakland protest was part of the “grassroots global civil war” and that “these skirmishes are part of a lot bigger conflict.”

Oakland wasn’t the only city in which anarchists and other protesters acted out after the Mehserle verdict; protests, vandalism and property damage were reported across the country. In Baltimore, Maryland, anarchists claimed they spray painted three police vehicles, slashed the tires and spread feces on the door handles. In Portland, Oregon, around 40 protesters occupied the streets, set off smoke bombs and roman candles—three arrests were made. And in Bloomington, Indiana, protesters held a noisy demonstration outside the local jail chanting against police violence. “The anarchist community is lots of middle-class white kids,” Osburn said “and I think it’s commendable that they’re in solidarity with other communities.”

Osburn said that during his time at Santa Rita he was held with some anarchists, some “disenchanted youth” and some people who were just bystanders during the protest. For the anarchists, he said, “It was an honor to be with them and an honor to go to jail with them.” He added, “the people that got away whose face was hiding behind a mask, I think they’re courageous.”

Of the 78 people arrested at the rally, 66 were cited for misdemeanors and then released, nine were cited with felonies and two (including Osburn) were cited for felonies, but later let off with misdemeanor citations. The majority of the felony citations were for commercial burglary, arson and possessing stolen property.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said that currently her office is reviewing the cases of 17 arrested protesters and she expects to receive even more cases from the police. “On some we are bringing charges,” she said, “and some we are doing further investigation.”

Bank of the West windows broken during the protest.

O’Malley’s office is exploring different avenues for prosecution in these cases, including some based on the fact that many of the people who participated in vandalism were wearing masks, bandanas or other face coverings. “We are looking at [Penal Code] 185, which hasn’t been used [by the county] before,” she said—this penal code makes it unlawful for anyone to wear a mask or conceal their identity for the purpose of “escaping discovery or recognition.” She is also looking at how to pin the costs of emergency response on those arrested, which could fall under various government and penal codes.

All the protesters charged with a felony will get a preliminary hearing and a lawyer from the state to represent them, said O’Malley.

The Oakland City Attorney’s office is also researching different options for prosecution in the misdemeanor cases. “We are looking at the law and whether that includes a lawsuit or some other court order to go after some of those people who were not here to demonstrate but were here as an excuse to break things and trash Oakland,” said Alex Katz, the communications director for the City Attorney’s office.

Katz specified that his office does not intend to prosecute everyone arrested. “If someone comes to a protest and wants to get arrested to make a statement, that’s fine,” he said. “We are just looking at those involved in violence and destruction and the circumstances of their arrest.”

For now, Osburn is awaiting his court hearing, which should be coming up in the next couple of months. He said that he believes the anarchists who participated in the Mehserle protest were successful in furthering their own cause—acting out against the police. “Breaking windows is effective,” he said. “It proves the police to be ineffective at quelling dissent.”

He also said that this dissent is what helped bring attention to Grant’s death and the verdict for Mehserle. “This wouldn’t have gotten any news if a window hadn’t been broken,” he said.

You can read John Weston Osburn’s response to this story here.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Outside the Sears building. Photo courtesy of the Oakland Police Department.

On Wednesday, the Oakland Police Department released photos of people allegedly looting and destroying property during the protests following last week’s verdict in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant. They published 15 photos on the department’s website in the hopes that citizens will come forward to identify those in the photos. A $1,000 reward is being offered for each person identified.

Police department officials say they received these photos from protestors and people observing the rally. The photographs show alleged looters running in and out of Foot Locker, Sears and a beauty supply store carrying everything from sneakers to piles of T-shirts; in one, a man is holding a mannequin. There is also one photo of a man breaking a window on the Sears building.

“We need the public to come forward to give us their names so we can follow up and arrest them,” said Jeff Thomason, a public information officer for the Oakland Police Department. “I know the citizens of Oakland are very upset about what took place in their city,” he added.

Last Thursday, after the release of the verdict of involuntary manslaughter for Johannes Mehserle, a BART police officer who was accused of murdering 22-year-old Oscar Grant on a BART station platform in January 2009, protesters gathered in downtown Oakland to demonstrate. The majority of people gathered protested peacefully, but after the rally ended, a small number of protesters looted businesses and vandalized downtown Oakland, destroying property, setting fires in trashcans and breaking storefront windows.

At the Sears building. Photo courtesy of the Oakland Police Department.

Police arrested 78 people that night. The majority got off with misdemeanors, such as failure to disperse. Nine people received felony charges, including arson, property damage and burglary. Police department officials say they will make more arrests if the people in the photos can be identified.

Police are considering a variety of charges, including burglary, which is a felony, and looting. “This was a major event that took place in the City of Oakland,” Thomason said, “and we are going to go after them and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

The full set of photos can be seen on the Oakland Police Department’s website.

Connect with Oakland North on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.