The Advocate

In perhaps one of the most glaring examples of hypocrisy, the people who have sworn an oath to protect and serve refuse to comply with it whenever it hurts their feelings. Indeed, the history of cops' resistance to following the very rules they're charged with enforcing is infamous . But since the COVID-19 pandemic, these temper tantrums have highlighted how truly dangerous they are, from refusing mask mandates to protesting against vaccination requirements that demonstrably increase public health and safety. This is even happening here in San Leandro as the police officers' union utilizes scare tactics to pressure the city council and the city manager away from enacting mandates to protect people from COVID-19, including the very officers themselves! (More officers died from COVID-19 this year and last year than anything else.) Read this story from NBC News by Matthew Guariglia, historian of race, policing and state power, for a particularly illuminating perspective on ...

(Credit: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection ) I'm one of many community activists here in San Leandro and I just put together this post to help address a lot of questions, confusion, and even frustration or anger people may have regarding the recent push to defund the SLPD, or the police in general. To start with, I hear you. In my city, a slim majority of our elected officials defied the calls from activists to delay the budget vote and review where budget allocations originally marked for SLPD would go. Instead, the mayor and a few city council members felt it was more important to just pass a budget than to do the harder work of revising the budget to help prevent further police violence. If you listen to the meeting (link here ) you can hear for yourself that this decision was solely made by 4 city council (including the mayor) members against the wishes of community members that participated in public comment, wrote letters, and have been advocating for justice against pol...

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...

(Credit Amber Hughson, @conflicttransformation) What does it mean? I'm one of many community advocates and organizers here in San Leandro and I put his post together to help address a lot of questions, confusion, and even frustration, fear, or anger that people may have regarding the recent push to reimagine public safety and defund the SLPD. To start with, let's be clear: SLPD hasn't been defunded. They still have the same $42 million budget, a 60% increase over the last ten years. They still receive 50%+ of the city’s payroll. They still cost approximately 1/3rd of our entire budget. They still account for upwards of 2/3rds of our overtime costs. They still receive the newest equipment, the highest starting salaries, and the most deference from elected officials. But what's been the return on our investment? Source: SLPD Crime Stats Crime rates, YTD 2020 to 2021: violent crime down 9%, property crime down 25%, overall crime down 23%. Crime rates, YOY 2019-20 to 2020-2...

Credit to the Bay Area News Group and The San Francisco Chronicle . "San Leandro to pay $3.9 million settlement amid claims officers beat, tased mentally disabled man in 2019. The settlement marks at least the sixth time either officer has been sued over their actions as police officers in the East Bay San Leandro is expected to pay $3.9 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuit claiming the city’s police officers brutally beat a mentally disabled man in 2019, causing his brain to bleed so badly that he suffered repeated strokes. The city’s payout comes nearly five years after Sorrell Shiflett, 37, was tased and bludgeoned by two San Leandro police officers while walking with his cousin through a neighborhood in search of a friend’s house, according to the federal lawsuit. The case marks at least the sixth time that either officer — Ismael Navarro or Anthony Pantoja — has been named in a lawsuit claiming they acted violently while working for multiple police departments ac...

(Photos of SLPD in 2013, courtesy of Urban Shield.) Cops are not supposed to be soldiers. City streets are not a battlefield. Police are not meant to be military occupation. Law enforcement has become increasingly militarized over the years to the point that it is often hard to tell the difference between them. Here in San Leandro, our police department is finally moving to comply with Assembly Bill 481, an act to help change this trend. Accordingly, the city has publicized a list of all the military equipment that SLPD possesses and uses , including chemical agents like tear gas, grenades like flashbangs, and heavily modified AR-15-style assault rifles. The latter are especially troubling because they are owned by individual officers, not the department itself. Indeed, the use of personal non-standard equipment of this nature is troubling, to say the least, given the lack of extensive rationale to justify their use. Notably, command staff asserted that SLPD, purportedly, did not ...

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...

If your kids like to take naps in the car as much as mine do, maybe while driving around town you've noticed an American flag with muted colors and a thin blue line highlighted in the middle. To many this flag represents a commitment to law and order To many it represents solidarity with fallen police officers. To many it represents respect, honor, and courage. To many it represents their support for law enforcement as part of the fabric of American society. However, the reality is far less prosaic. Because this flag is actually a symbol of White Supremacy. Let's start with a history lesson. (See original reporting at https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/06/08/the-short-fraught-history-of-the-thin-blue-line-american-flag .) The flag made one of its most famous appearances at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville in 2017. The same rally with Confederate flags and tiki torch wielding terrorists chanting "Jews will not replace us." (Full disclosure:...