The Advocate

The Oaklandside published a new story on the recently released report by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division on the mental health resources (or lack thereof) provided by Alameda County. You can read the story here  and the DOJ report here . Of particular interest to my fellow neighbors would be the conditions and practices at John George Psychiatric Pavilion in San Leandro: "An average of 1,111 people experiencing a mental health emergency enter John George Psychiatric Pavilion each month and remain there for up to 72 hours. The San Leandro hospital, which is operated by the county, provides care for people suffering nearly all of the acute psychiatric emergencies in the county. Nearly 240 people a month are admitted to inpatient services at the 80-bed public hospital, where they stay an average of 9 days. Some stay for months while they’re treated. Hundreds lasted for more than 30 days in a two-year period in 2017-2019. The hospital’s inpatient unit is used...

Last year, the Alameda County District Attorney's office released its report on the officer-involved shooting and death of Anthony Robert Gomez on June 11, 2019. You can read a copy of it here . Additionally, you can read the original arrest report as well as the internal investigation report . Mr. Gomez had not been charged with a crime. He was unarmed. The pretext for this encounter with Mr. Gomez was a domestic disturbance between himself, his mother, their neighbors, and the neighbors’ children. One of the neighbors called 911 with inflated allegations of a machete-wielding man exposing himself to children. The DA’s report reads like a classic case of an end looking for an excuse for its means, a facade to place around a paper tiger. Here are some of the highlights from this transparent incompetence: 1. No warning before the officer shoots Mr. Gomez in the neck. 2. No deescalation or crisis resolution attempts are captured on bodycam footage or listed in the reports, and oddly...

I waited to post until now. I wanted to sit with my feelings about the first official Steven Taylor Day this past April 18, 2021. The day commemorated not his murder by SLPD, but rather his life as a father, a son, a grandson, an artist, an SLHS alumnus, and so much more. He was a human being. His life mattered. It was self-evident, inherent. His worth was more than 40 seconds or $40 dollars of generic retail items. However, because he was a Black man, mentally ill, and homeless, he was discarded, disregarded, callously calculated as less than and less deserving than. Sadly, his story is not unique or even rare. It's why Steven Taylor Day was also made into a memorial for every life, every victim, every survivor, every family touched by police violence. It’s a reminder that racism is not a bygone era or fringe feeling. It was built into the foundations of our nation, intertwined within our institutions, our values, our way of life. So, yes, I wanted to sit with it, because so much ...