Why are Bay Area District Attorneys Reluctant to Charge Police on Rape Case?

The following statement listed below is coming from the Anti Police-Terror Project: Folks need to pay attention and see how these elected officials respond.. Pay close attention to the actions or lack thereof of district attorneys Nancy O’Malley (Alameda County) Mark A Peterson (Contra Costa County) and George Gascon (San Francisco)
Bay Area District Attorneys
WHERE ARE BAY AREA LAW MAKERS?

Anti-Police Terror ProjectWhy no charges for Bay Area law enforcement sexual exploitation, corruption and conspiracy?

Coalition members to retrieve signed promises to prosecute criminal cops from District Attorneys

In the 3 months since the public learned of the Bay Area-wide sexual exploitation and misconduct by law enforcement, no charges have been brought against any officers or staff involved in the commission or cover-up of crimes and departmental policy violations. Why aren’t our District Attorneys dedicating the same resources toward this gang activity as they would if it were conducted by civilians?

On Thursday, August 4th, members of the Take Back Oakland Coalition dropped off letters to the District Attorneys in Alameda, Contra Costa (Richmond office) and San Francisco Counties demanding the following:

Prosecute all sworn officers who committed or had peripheral involvement in crimes or the conspiracy to cover up those crimes.

Investigate with the intent of pressing charges and jailing criminal cops — and enumerate the reasons why DAs chose not to file charges for any officers they have already cleared.

Charges to pursue include but are not limited to:

California Penal Code:

52.1 Police brutality and coercion

186 California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act (gang enhancement)

236.1 False imprisonment/human trafficking of a minor

261.5 Statutory rape

266i Pimping and Pandering

182 Conspiracy

118.1 Perjury

Weapon enhancements for all of the above
Federal law:
Criminal street gangs (18 U.S.C. 521)
Coercion And Enticement of a Minor (18 U.S.C. 2422)
Perjury (18 U.S.C. 1621)

Announce a full investigation by an outside agency that will examine how many people have been wrongfully incarcerated due to cases touched by these officers, as well as the depth and breadth of corruption within each department.

Acknowledge the imbalance of power that always exists between police officers and the general public and state that the coercion and enticement of a minor is never the fault of the child.

It is time for our District Attorneys to behave like elected leaders and work on behalf of the people. They have a duty to charge and convict these officers to combat the existing culture that allows them to simply quit or transfer when they’re caught abusing their power and preying on civilians.

The Coalition indicated that members would return on Tuesday, August 9th to pick up the DAs’ signed agreements to honor the demands brought forth in the letters. Coalition members and representatives from allied organizations will visit each office simultaneously at 10:30am this Tuesday to accept our elected officials’ commitment to uphold the law as they are sworn to do.

Oakland Police Say the City is ‘Too Liberal’ and they Hate Working Here

photo by Jay Finneburgh

photo by Jay Finneburgh

Last night local news outlet  KTVU did a report about an internal poll obtained by the East Bay Express newspaper about Oakland’s police department. Apparently a majority of officers who patrol the city feel Oakland city leaders are ‘too liberal’. They also noted they feel demoralized and under appreciated. It was a pretty high % of officers at 65% who expressed these troubling sentiments. Over 55% said they do not feel appreciated by the citizens of Oakland and they are basically miserable on the job….You can read that East Bay Express article HERE

People should sit back and think about this for a minute as this poll reveals a serious rifts between the community and those who are entrusted to protect and serve. We have a city that goes out and votes for reps who they feel would do right by them.. These leaders in theory should reflect the general political values of the population. Yet we have an institution (the local police department) that gets more than 50% of the city’s budget, yields tremendous influence on Oakland’s political landscape while more than 75% of those within the institution don’t even live in Oakland. These individuals who don’t live in Oakland are complaining the city is too liberal? What does that mean at the end of the day for the average person who lives in Oakland?

Are Oaklanders having to deal with disgruntled employees who are patrolling their neighborhoods thinking they are too liberal and thus need to be taught a lesson? Do Oakland police officers feel their hands are tied and they wanna employ more aggressive policing tactics? Do they hate the activism of the city that attempts to hold them and other public officials accountable?

Do these disgruntled employees patrolling Oakland neighborhoods soaking up more than half the city’s budget slack off on the job because they feel ‘demoralized’? Does that manifest itself in tense, explosive interactions with the public where minor situations are escalated vs de-escalated?  Does it manifest with unhappy officers showing up late or not showing up at all to a call?

Oakland is a pretty diverse city, one of the most diverse in the country with high accolades for its charm, activism, burgeoning art scene and nightlife. A couple of years ago the NY Times noted that Oakland was the 5th most sought out destination in the world.. So the question remains, what exactly do Oakland police not like about the city?

Do these officers not like the gentrification going on in Oakland that have caused rents to skyrocket?  Oakland police are the second highest paid in the country with an average starting salary at 69K, can actually afford to live in Oakland under the new economy as opposed to many of Oakland’s teachers whose wages are far behind as they start off with 39k.   Do Oakland police not like the new coffee shops and art galleries sprouting up everywhere or do they not like the Black and Brown folks who been here for decades and are being displaced?

Can Oakland city leaders not find officers who love the city, share similar values and are willing to do engage the community in a way that leaves folks feeling ‘served, protected and empowered’ vs the current strain that many are feeling which is now reflected in the polling?

It sounds like Oakland is just a stepping stone to something more attractive and in the case of these officers who want to be around more conservatives.. As for the citizens, perhaps they need to slap on a Fox News or Tea Party bumper sticker on their ride to avoid being hassled by a police force that that perceives them as ‘too liberal’
Again here’s  Eastbay Express article..—-> http://bit.ly/1fCnNfL

Recent Suicides on Oakland Police Force Raises Major Concerns

Oakland Police Crazy to hear that there have been a number of police officers within OPD (Oakland Police department) who have committed suicide..There hasn’t been a whole lot of talk about this, but from what I gather it’s because of stress on the job..Here’s what a recent article laid out in Contra Costa Times http://bit.ly/1bVXUc8

Documenting officer suicides is an imperfect science because many departments don’t report them accurately. A 2012 report by the police suicide watchdog group Badge of Life documented 126 officer suicides that year, but Violanti estimated that the true figure was about 17 percent greater.

In Oakland, Weston’s suicide was not included as an “officer death” in the department’s monthly staffing report to the City Council.

Over the past five years, four Oakland police officers have taken their lives — the same number as those killed in the line of duty.

This leads to a few concerns..

1-How stable are the officers patrolling the streets.. Are the suicides isolated or are they tip of the iceberg? If officers are not in the right mind-set, how safe are we when we come in contact with them? Do they lash out in anger? Are they overly paranoid? How are they triggered?

2-If officers are under stress because of the dangers they face.. One can only imagine how stressed those are who live in ‘high crime areas’ who deal with the threats of dangers without having the powers to carry a gun and arrest those who do wrong..

3-The police suicides can not be seen in isolation and disconnected from the massive amounts of suicides that are taken place within our military.. More suicides have taken place in the military than what we lost in combat? How secure is our security??

4-It’s been pointed out that 150-200 police officers kill themselves each year.. There are so many that  a support group has been set up with recommendations for officers to avoid this tragedy. The question we should all be asking is how many officers are actually getting mental health check ups? What’s the standard?  how many have met them or not? With all the incidents of police brutality being reported in Oakland, one needs to know as to what was the mental conditions of the officers accused..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKe1FvtaEYI

Harsh Video of Oakland Police drawing Guns on Innocent Black Youth (Walking while Black)

photo by Jay Finneburgh

This is the latest drama going down in Oakland… Police stopping two innocent men at gun point who they claimed ‘fit the description‘ … This sort of harassment has gone on for as long as we can remember.. When I saw the video what immediately came to mind, was a young 2Pac Shakur who was stopped in similar fashion not too far from that same area 20+ years ago by OPD.. Sadly Pac didn’t have the advantage of a Youtube, folks with cell phone video cameras and twitter to get the word out.. He wound up getting severely beaten..

Police rolling up on folks is not an aberration but part of a long-standing unwritten procedure pioneered by LA Police Chief William H Parker where police were encouraged to make their presence known and felt by young Black and Brown males at a young age so they would know who ruled the streets. That was damn near 50 years ago and since then we’ve seen things get exponentially worse. From Stop and Frisk in New York where incidents like the one shown happen over 680 thousand times a year to the ‘Jump Out’ routine which is what we see here in this video..

It’s incidents like these that often go unreported but lead to the anger, unrest and the weekly protests (FTP Marches) that happen weekly. It’s these types of incidents that result in the city of Oakland having to shell out a whooping 58 million dollars in brutality and harassment settlement over the past 10 years..

Here’s how the video poster described the scene

these young men strolled past me casually having a conversation before the Oakland Police Department clearly racially profiled them as they “fit the description” but were released right after the incident. Now if they had the info to release them, why on earth did they feel like pulling live ammo out on a public street in the middle of the day, right in front of a cafe? NEWSFLASH OPD all BLACK MEN ARE FUCKING CRIMINALS!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTZya42HtpA

Oakland Police Chief Confronted & Shut Down at Justice 4 Alan Blueford Townhall

Alan Blueford murdered by Oakland Police

Since the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, there have been closed to 30 Black or Brown people shot and killed by law enforcement or in the case of Trayvon, wannabe law enforcement. Many of these shootings have been highly questionable, meaning the person killed was unarmed or there are strong conflicting statements from either the police or witnesses.

Here in Oakland, California, the shooting death Alan Dwayne Blueford is one such killing.  Oakland police have been very shady with the stories they put forth to the public. It seems like a deliberate attempt to muddy the waters, cast seeds of doubt and cover up their own mistakes.. Initially police said they were in a shoot out and Blueford shot the officer in the stomach.. Later the police said Blueford shot the officer in the leg..Next the police said that it was possible the officer was shot in the leg by another officer in a case of friendly fire..Finally it came out that the officer shot himself. He shot himself in the foot..

Many believe the officer shot himself after he killed Blueford and saw the young man was unarmed.. The police then double back and said a gun was recovered, the community has yet to see any evidence of finger prints , gun residue etc.. Many have concluded it was the officer planting a gun near the scene.. This would not be unsual in a city that in the past 10 years has had to shell out over 58 million dollars in wrongful death shootings and police brutality incidents. This would not be far-fetched in a city that was home to a rogue group of cops known as the Riders who were found to routinely plant drugs and guns on suspects. One of the Oakland Riders is a still a fugitive at large..

Adding to all this was the fact that Blueford was left to on the ground for 4 hours to die while the officer who lied and then finally admitted to shooting himself was treated. The public still does not know the name of the officer thanks to California’s Policeman’s Bill of Rights which prevents the public from knowing the name of officers involved in these and other brutality incidents.. Community investigators have revealed the officer who murdered Blueford is Miguel Masso a former military man who lives in Los Banos which is more than 100 miles outside of Oakland..

Blueford’s parents were not aware of their son’s death for more than 6 hours. They went down to the police station were treated like crap and not told for more than 2 hours. Their mistreatment led to the unusual move by Chief Howard Jordan to meet and apologize to the family.

In an attempt to do more damage control, OPD held a town hall meeting at Acts Full Gospel Church. Folks showed up only to discover the police chief would only answer questions that were pre-written. This annoyed folks to no end.. Then he seemed ill prepared or unable to answer basic questions.. He also hawked what many saw as blatant lies.. This led to more than half the room turning their backs on the chief and throwing up fist..

The chief cut the meeting short and left the building with angry residents in tow.. They got at him and let him know that there needs to be accountability and the community would not stand for his lies..The chief was definitely embarrassed.. Later that night we learned Oakland police came after one of the community members shown in the video holding a bullhorn..Chris M They claimed he assaulted an officer at the church… If that was the case when and where did that happen and why not arrest him on the spot?

Here’s a video of last night’s Townhall Meeting and dispersal..Please note I’m trying to re-render this so the quality is better… * quick note.. here’s the better quality video.. of last nights confrontation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCQ9F5hypow

Police Files Reveal FBI, Homeland Security & Secret Service Heavily Monitored Oscar Grant Protests

Below is a story about the huge amounts of surveillance that going on during the Oscar Grant protests.Some might say we shouldn’t be surprised about the strong presence of FBI, Homeland Security etc at Oscar Grant protests over the past couple of years.. That’s being a bit dismissive. The word is not surprised, but we should be concerned and be asking alot of questions. We should also note all this surveillance is connected to something much larger. Is this part of the ongoing efforts to monitor any sort of political protestor.  On many levels the US in terms of suppression has become like some of the very countries we often criticize and have even fought in an effort to bring Democracy and openness.

Many of us were well aware there were police informants and undercover officers who were embedding themselves in the Oscar Grant Movement. The very first rallies had folks who were riding for the police. Most folks who have long organized knew to expect that and on many levels worked hard to find various ways to counter and eventually a couple of the informants were identified and publicly outed.

However, with the Feds doing all this surveillance says something else. Why monitor protestors vs investigating the police who killed Oscar Grant?

There was no denying with the thousands who showed up at marches, rallies townhalls that police brutality had struck a chord in various communities. Black, Asian, Latino, whites.. When you have that many people come together and express outrage, one would think this should set of alarm bells and lead the Feds to ask themselves;  ‘What’s  going on with police in the Bay Area that so many people are out protesting’?  Are there any discernible patterns of police wrong doing? ‘Is there any sort of coverup or collusion going on?’ For starters we can look at all the potentially damaging material that convicted officer Johannes Mehserle was allowed to keep covered up thanks to the police man’s bill of rights.

People seemed to forget that an unarmed man was shot in front of hundreds of people while he lay face down on a subway platform restrained. Moments before being shot he was called a ‘bitch ass nigger‘ by an officer who was later fired when it was discovered that he and his partner had lied and covered parts of the incident.. Were the Feds investigating and monitoring that? How widespread was the coverup.. We do know that there was a police agency NOBLE that investigated and concluded there was negligence on the way BART handled things and recommended sweeping changes.. Shouldn’t the FEDS have been concerned about that verses protestors?

It’s also interesting to note that the focus seemed to be concerns about property damage. Not to justify broken windows, but all of us have been to Big Game events where Cal plays Stanford and stores have been ransacked and windows busted damn near every other year.. Have the feds been investigating that?

Judge Robert Perry

The conduct of Judge Robert Perry who is now the subject of a recall needs to be investigated. Here’s a judge who has a long history of covering for the police. Here’s a judge that told the family during sentencing that they should be happy the Barack Obama is in office. He intimated that Obama was an indication we progressed beyond race..

Again the feds are investigating things on our behalf and with our tax dollars. Most of us would like to see those tax dollars used to investigate the reason our justice system is broken and whats it gonna take to fix it.

-Davey D-

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Police files reveal Federal interest in Oscar Grant protests, “Anarchists”

December 15, 2010 | 9:29 AM | By Ali Winston

http://informant.kalwnews.org/2010/12/police-documents-reveal-federal-interest-in-oscar-grant-protests-anarchists/

Documents recently obtained by The Informant reveal the significant involvement of state and federal law enforcement in monitoring the various Oscar Grant protests in Oakland over the past two years.

According to internal Oakland Police Department documents about the July 8th protests that followed Johannes Mehserle’s involuntary manslaughter conviction, agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency, United States Secret Service, and the California Department of Justice were assigned to monitor crowd activities.

Thirty-three federal, state and local officers were assigned to video details posted in buildings surrounding Frank Ogawa Plaza and throughout the crowd of several hundred demonstrators. Among them were personnel from the Secret Service, the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, and Bureau of Intelligence and Investigation who took video of the protest. Some DEA and Oakland Police officers recorded the protest, while others dressed in plainclothes provided intelligence from within the crowd to OPD’s Emergency Operations Command Center at 1605 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.

The documents indicate FBI involvement in monitoring the Oscar Grant protests as early as January 2009. A police report included in the case file of Holly Noll, a 24-year-old activist who plead no contest to charges of assaulting a police officer, shows the FBI was providing intelligence to OPD on the movements of “black bloc” anarchists in Downtown Oakland on the night of January 14, 2009, when the latest of several protests agitating for Johannes Mehserle’s arrest erupted into property destruction and clashes with police.

Oakland Police Officer Scott Seder’s report from that night indicates specific FBI interest in “anarchists.” The report reads as follows:

“OPD [Oakland Police Department] radio announced a communications order stating the FBI advised groups of anarchists, described as MW [male, white], 17-25 years old, wearing black and red clothing, were en route to the protest and planned to commit acts of violence and vandalism adjacent to the main demonstration.”

Jose Luis Fuentes, an attorney at Siegel & Yee, the law firm that is defending those arrested in the July 8th protests, believes the involvement of state and federal agencies in intelligence-gathering is part of a larger effort to scrutinize political protest. “They’re trying to build a case against ‘black blocs’ or anarchists as domestic terrorism,” said Fuentes. “The federal government wants to know who’s protesting. They’re documenting who the agitators are — This is all COINTELPRO resurfacing.”

The Counter Intelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, was an extensive federal operation that ran from the 1950s through the 1970s that monitored political activists, sometime using law enforcement to harass and discredit everyone from the National Association of Colored People to the Ku Klux Klan, who federal authorities considered dangerous.

But law enforcement personnel who worked the Oscar Grant protests say federal involvement had nothing to do with a political ideology and everything to do with keeping civilians and critical infrastructure sites safe and preventing disorder.

Oakland Police Captain David Downing, who was in charge of “Operation Verdict,” the police response to the July 8th post-verdict protests, says the handful of federal agents were nothing more than extra eyes among the several hundred law enforcement officers working on July 8th.

“Their only job was to be out there and videotape, be observers and feed information,” said Downing, who was in charge of Operation Verdict. The DEA, California DOJ and Secret Services agents were a fraction of the several hundreds of law enforcement agents from across Northern California who took part in Operation Verdict.

Much like several police departments provided officers to assist with crowd control, the state and federal agencies brought their investigative capacities to the table, as well as equipment. The FBI and DEA both offered helicopters for air support.

Documents indicate that anarchists were on everyone’s mind.

In a running police log from the July 8 protests and in emails exchanged between OPD command staff in the days prior, there is extensive mention of potential acts of property destruction and violence by “anarchists.” The log was later forwarded to the Department of Homeland Security’s National Operations Center. “They were interested in the event,” said Captain Downing.

During previous protests about the Oscar Grant case, media reports focused on property destruction allegedly perpetrated by “black bloc” anarchists.

“They’re a concern,” said Captain Downing of the Oakland Police. “They don’t really care about the cause other than using the mask of a large mob to engage in property damage.”

Defense attorney Jose Luis Fuentes remains convinced the intelligence gathered during Operation Verdict was part of a broader effort to intimidate political protest. The subtext is that, “If you’re going to protest and violate any law, we might prosecute you federally,” Fuentes said.

A November 16th primer on “Anarchist Extremism” on the FBI’s website describes the Bureau’s general policy on anarchists:

“Currently, much of the criminal activities of anarchist extremists fall under local jurisdiction, so they’re investigated by local police. If asked by police, the Bureau can assist. But we have a heavy presence at a major national or international events generating significant media coverage—that’s when the threat from anarchist extremists, as well as others who are up to no good, dramatically increases.”

According to an OPD investigative log, the FBI explored the possibility of charging some of the July Oscar Grant protesters federally.

FBI Special Agent Russell Romero contacted OPD on July 21 to set up a meeting about the July 8th incident. On July 27, Agents Russell Romero and Kari McInturf met with OPD investigators “to see if Federal charges can be brought.” Romero and McInturf obtained a list of all the July 8th arrestees and their charges from OPD. To date, no federal charges have been filed.

Oakland Police Attack Veteran News Reporter for Filming (video)

This is a damn shame.. no one is safe even a veteran news reporter with a camera.. This is scary..You have folks who get arrested for attacking the papparazi who actually cross the line..  yet you have the police do this to a  seasoned reporter for a major network and all he was doing was his job.?

A former cameraman for KGO-TV has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Oakland Police Department, accusing several officers of attacking him and breaking his camera as he tried to film outside a hospital on the day four officers were killed last year.

Douglas Laughlin said several officers accosted him on March 21, 2009, outside Highland Hospital in Oakland as he tried to film the arrival of an ambulance carrying one of the mortally wounded officers.

The confrontation, as captured by Laughlin’s camera, can be seen here:

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=64842&tsp=1#ixzz0pk7wj7fB

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufHI4YRm6OU&feature=player_embedded

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