The Advocate

A recent article from Shaila Dewan at the NY Times lays out some compelling complexities of nuance around policing, reimagining public safety, and the true costs of both. Rather than summarize, I have embedded the poignant points below. For the TL;DR version, the basic finding is that sometimes police can potentially help a little bit, but the costs are far more than the cheaper and greater gains from funding communities instead of more cops, and it's better from a moral and ethical standpoint. "With shootings and homicides surging in many cities, calls to redirect money to policing are rising. But evidence that hiring more officers is the best way to reduce crime is mixed: Beefing up a police force can help, but the effects are modest and far from certain. Those who study the question say any declines in crime have to be weighed against the downsides of adding more police officers, including negative interactions with the public, police violence and further erosion of public...

I've been meaning to come back to this video for quite a while. The incident in question happened July 18, 2019. The victim was a Black woman. The perpetrator was a White San Leandro police officer. The video itself is only about 14 to 16 minutes , but the sequence of events can be summarized as follows: The cell phone recording begins with a Black woman in her car being confronted by a White police officer for an alleged traffic infraction. The officer stated the woman was pulled over for not having a front license plate. The woman informed the officer that she actually does have a front license plate. The officer reasserted that there is not front license plate, requested the woman's identification, and attempted to get her to exit the car in order to conduct a search. The woman did provide her identification but did not consent to a search of her vehicle as the probable cause for the stop was false because she did indeed have front license plates. The officer became argument...

(Artist unknown) Today we learned that the recent SLPD shooting on October 24, 2020, was against an innocent man, 43 year-old John Berry. This is SLPD's 3rd case of unnecessary use of gun violence this year, and the 4th in the last 18 months. If Mr. Berry ultimately succumbs to his critical injuries, he will be the 4th person murdered by SLPD in those 18 months as well. You can find the public posting of the videos, press release, and associated information at https://www.sanleandro.org/depts/pd/information_portal/officer_involved_shooting.asp. My previous post about the shooting is available at https://eunoiainsomnia.blogspot.com/2020/10/yet-another-shooting-by-slpd.html. Some important details to be aware of when reviewing these materials: 1. Mr. Berry was not associated with the alleged criminal activity earlier that evening regarding a high speed car chase over an also alleged minor traffic violation. 2. There is no evidence provided to show Mr. Berry was pointing his gun at th...