Posts Tagged ‘police chief anthony batts’

At a tense press conference at City Hall shortly after delivering his letter of resignation to the City Council, Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts criticized a bureaucracy that he said failed to “let the Chief be the Chief.”

Just under a hundred people marched through the streets of Oakland Wednesday afternoon to demonstrate against human trafficking, holding signs and shouting, “every child is too valuable to be bought and sold.”

An intimate gathering was held Thursday night to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Khadafy Washington Foundation for Non-Violence, an organization founded by heartbroken parent turned community leader, Marilyn Washington Harris. In August 2000, Harris’ 18-year-old son Khadafy Washington was shot and killed. In 2001, she started the foundation to meet the needs of homicide victims’ family members.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Anthony Batts appeared together Monday, for the first time since Batts was turned down for the job as San Jose’s chief, to talk about the future of the OPD -– a future that Batts may not be part of.

Tensions are high as former BART Police Office Johannes Mehserle’s murder trial comes to an end in Los Angeles. Mehserle faces a possible second-degree murder charge for killing unarmed 22-year-old Oscar Grant on New Year’s Day in 2009. Riots broke out during the weeks following the shooting and now as a verdict nears Oakland non-profits, government agencies, volunteer organizations and the Oakland Police Department are preparing for more possible violence if people are upset with the jury’s decision.