The Advocate

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...

(Photo credit: SF Chronicle ) If you live in the Bay Area, you've probably been inundated with hysteria about the local crime rate from catalytic converter thefts to store burglaries. So what's happening in San Leandro? Well, let's dig into the data.  https://www.sanleandro.org/449/Crime-Analysis . I looked at the December 2022 Uniform Crime Report (UCR) for the most recent data. Total YTD Crimes for 2022 are almost the same as they were in 2019, within 5% of each other. Thankfully, nearly all of that is property crime and not violent crime (property crime is, coincidentally, 95% of all crime in 2022 and 2019). Still, it's hard to call crime going back to pre-pandemic levels as we continue to transition out of the pandemic anything other than a return to normal. Albeit, a still unsatisfactory normal. I say unsatisfactory because total YTD arrests have continued to decrease significantly since 2017, when the high was 2,799 compared to 2022's 1,292. It's unclear ...

I recently took a ride-along with a sergeant of the San Leandro Police Department. The revelations that occurred left me pensive and unsettled as I challenged and was challenged about basic principles of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Yet, at the end of our four-hour appointment, I was able to shake hands with a person whom I disagree with on levels so fundamental that it was a wonder we were able to stay in the same car for 10 minutes. Whether that’s a testament to the sergeant, myself, both of us, or some higher power, I leave for you to discern. But let me back up a bit and provide some context. While this was my first ride-along with SLPD, it wasn’t my first ride-along with law enforcement. I’ve taken ride-alongs with police departments in Costa Mesa (CA), Billings (MT), Las Vegas (NV), Harrison (AR), and Scranton (PA), as well as Border Patrol and the Sheriffs in Imperial County (CA). I’ve also been a victim or almost a victim of many different crimes from childhood t...

Last month, San Leandro's City Council voted to establish a Community Police Review Board (CPRB) as part of citywide efforts to reimagine public safety in our city. This was a huge win for the people of San Leandro and we think a party is in order! Please join us to celebrate what we achieved together at Drake's Barrelhouse on 1933 Davis beginning at 3 PM on May 29. Drake's is family-friendly, so Feel free to bring your under-21's small, medium, and/or large. Donations are welcome and encouraged (but not required). All proceeds go towards a scholarship for a San Leandro resident to attend the  National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE) Conference this September. This is our chance to thank you all in person for your support over these past two years—and to talk about the next steps for a successful rollout of the CPRB. ​What we need   is  a strong, diverse pool of applicants from the community to serve on the Board. The  deadlin...

(Spotted in Hong Kong) I found this story by "sokdie" through a mutual friend and, after reading it, I realized how truly it encapsulates the banality and cruelty of what systemic oppression looks like in practice. This is the story of how even the smallest of law enforcement mistakes can become another brittle cog in a larger machine of human suffering. It is the story of Mariyanna Bryant and how society did more than fail her, it punished her for our failure. It is why we must reimagine public safety, defund the police, and build a better world for all. Take note and take care.

This Tuesday, February 15, 6:30 PM, the San Leandro City Council will have its first work session on creating a police oversight program and we need the community to show up, show out, and make sure that the city takes decisive action. We need the City Council to direct staff to begin creating an oversight board that is independent, transparent, well-resourced, and diverse, without any further delay. Here's how you can support: 1. Forward this information to friends, family, and neighbors who are invested in making our police department more transparent and accountable to our community! You can also use the graphics embedded here in posts on social media. I have also put together a folder of educational resources courtesy of the San Leandro White Antiracism Initiative (SWAI) at tinyurl.com/SWAITools. 2. Use the link to the Oversight Action Packet to make a public comment on February 15 at 6:30! The meeting is virtual, and you can join by visiting tinyurl.com/oversight15 or visiting...

 *CONTENT NOTICE/TRIGGER WARNING: this post discussed racist police violence and contains links to images/videos of that content.* (“Stop Police Brutality” by Icy and Sot) On November 21, at around 11:10 AM, an unnamed SLPD officer tased an innocent and mentally ill member of our city's unsheltered community in another act of police brutality in our city. This happened within less than 30 seconds from when the officer first made contact with the victim. The officer was ostensibly responding to a complaint from a local business, the Downtown McDonald's, about an allegation of someone "acting crazy" and "throwing punches." However, no one was hurt. No property was destroyed. No one was armed. There was no reason or basis to assume the victim posed a danger to themselves or others. Even worse, despite assertions to the contrary by SLPD, the officer did not engage in deescalation or crisis intervention tactics. There is no evidence that the CATT program was call...

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...