The Advocate

(Costanoan by Pastel @  Highway 880 Marina West Exit ) I remember the exact day that the Left in San Leandro died. It was actually a Monday evening downtown at City Hall. There was a city council meeting that night and it was packed. A group of fellow local activists, and even more from outside the community, had organized a protest against the then-recent war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas. The protest erupted into civil disobedience that shut down the city council meeting, before ultimately descending into bigotry and violence. I know because I was there. This post has been a long time coming. Some have repeatedly asked me to share what happened. Just as many would like to pretend nothing happened that night. A few have even threatened me against ever writing about it. But I'd bet that there are also a lot of people who have absolutely no idea what happened. This isn't about spreading salacious stories for social media clout. It's about holding ourselves accountable as...

It happened in San Leandro back in 2011 with Dewayne Stancill . A highly regarded Black police officer forced out because of racism, politics, and corruption. Now, here we are in 2024 having deja vu. Former SLPD Chief Abdul Pridgen has been fired by the city under, to put it mildly, suspicious circumstances without any actual evidence of wrongdoing having been provided with the specter of expensive litigation looming ahead. I guess I'll weigh in on this with what I know, especially now that Pridgen is officially out. What I have learned is based on information from my own sources, some of whom took great risks to reach out to me, so I can't even share all of what they told me, let alone independently verify all of it. At the same time, because the city is point-blank refusing to release responsive records under the California Public Records Act, despite repeated attempts to get them to do so, even what has been shared publicly is difficult to confirm or deny. So, please, like ...

San Leandro currently has 41 Flock "safety" cameras in use around the city. They're meant to help law enforcement catch criminals and stop crimes before they happen. But, like so many well-intended efforts to expand policing, this one presents more dangers and failures than it does results. Indeed, that is the problem with mass surveillance and has been since at least 2001. Recently, the city sought a no-bid contract to expand to 82 Flock cameras throughout the city at the cost of over $1,000,000 without even a policy in place regarding their use or data to support it. However, a group of local leaders came together and were able to successfully advocate for the city council to wait and learn more before taking further action. Why, might you ask? Well, let's break it down for everyone. The ACLU has released a comprehensive report on the multiple problems with these types of AI-driven mass surveillance systems, from improper retention and sharing of data to the incre...