The Advocate

In a promising move of political and moral courage, the San Leandro City Council has authorized the release of the internal investigation report provided by the OIR Group, who were contracted to help clean-up repeated misconduct in the San Leandro Police Department. You can read it and the city’s press release . In what was obvious to most residents, the report confirms that former SLPD Officer Jason Fletcher violated numerous department policies, failed to utilize several non-lethal tactics, and clearly violated the law when fatally shot Steven Taylor on April 18, 2020. Let’s start with the essential conclusion: “Had a different approach been taken, the use of deadly force might have been avoided altogether.” [ Emphasis added.] The report’s findings state this outright, actually condemning the actions of both Fletcher *and* Officer Stefan Overton. Yes, you read that right! Now in this era of increasing cynicism and apathy, I confess to being stunned by this admission. Of course, local

This is reposted from the San Leandro High School's Social Justice Academy. Please come out on Sunday, April 18th to the San Leandro Marina Park (near the exercise equipment) to have a socially distanced celebration to honor the one year death anniversary of Steven Taylor and other victims of police terror. This event is brought to you by the youth of the Social Justice Academy and community organizers from Justice for Steven Taylor (J4ST). There will be music, booths, performers, and more! If you cannot make it, this event will also be live-streamed at tinyurl.com/HonorStevenTaylor. Save the date for Sunday, April 18th, @ 2:30 PM! Take note and take care.

Please watch this 10 minute clip from CNN on how effective and innovative the Street Crisis Response Team in San Francisco has been, as well as interviews with Steven Taylor's grandmother Addie Kitchen, who tell us that a program like this in San Leandro could have prevented his murder at the hands of former SLPD Officer Jason Fletcher. Click here for link. This program is not just cost-effective compared to traditional policing, but it actually solves problems in a sustainable and ethical way. The CATT program in Alameda is insufficient because it keeps police officers as the first point of contact and leaves it to their judgement on whether to call in a CATT team in situations that they have no expertise with. This is what defund the police means in action. This is what trauma-informed care looks like. This is how we deal with mental health crises. This is the model we need to be using in San Leandro and scaling it up to include other issues that police are not trained or equippe

"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings." — Nelson Mandela in 2005 at the Make Poverty History rally in London’s Trafalgar Square. Average rent for a 1 bedroom apartment in San Leandro in 2020 is approximately $1,845 per month . For a single year of occupancy, that total rent is $22,140. The minimum wage as of July 1, 2020 is $15 per hour . For a single full-time worker that equals a gross annual income of $31,200. After taxes, that comes to approximately $26,425 annual net income . That leaves you with approximately $4,285 for the entire year, or about $357 monthly, to pay for groceries, water, electricity, transportation, healthcare, and internet. This assumes you don't get sick or injured, lose your job or access to reliable transpiration, are evicted or foreclosed on, experience any kind of financial emergency, and that you aren't saving for retirement. In one of the m

As discussed in my earlier post, there was a free webinar sponsored by a coalition of community members who seek to reimagine public safety through shifting some public resources from policing and reallocating them to community services that prioritize racial equity and social justice in order to ensure the well-being of our entire city. In order to continue providing ongoing education and resources for our neighbors and fellow residents that weren't able to attend the live session, the webinar is now available for streaming online! The Spanish recording is expected to be added soon. Additionally, a document with reference material is also available, which includes: land acknowledgement language and local Indigenous groups to support, San Leandro city information, San Leandro groups organizing to support critical community issues, regional and national groups organizing around larger causes, as well as social media accounts devoted to connecting people interested in local social ju

There has been a lot of discussion about public safety in our city. From frenzied posts on social media of package theft caught on camera to gun violence and gun seizures to homeless encampments to substance addiction problems to police brutality, it is clear that we are all grappling with this in some way. Yet, it's unclear what most San Leandrans actually think about this, even as a number of people allege to speak on behalf of the city as a whole. Indeed, there have been unscientific Nextdoor polls as well as incomplete city surveys that have been used for exactly that purpose, despite missing critical information needed from using best practices in social science. I think it's time we correct this deficiency. There is currently a research project from CSU East Bay aiming to do just this. Here's the pertinent information: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdvgKXq5lNgMYqp-i_0W9Xh5V6_YIssB5l0NDTUZS3m6U3kwA/viewform "Data collected from this confidential survey

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