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Community, Rebecca Kaplan Call for OPD to Stop the Criminalization of Oakland Youth

Published

5 years ago

December 23, 2020

Kiki

On December 15, the Oakland Police Media Unit sent out a press release using inflammatory language to spread what the chief said she “hoped” would be “alarm” about “juveniles committing violent crimes in Oakland.”

The release says that there has been a recent spate of carjackings and robberies by children who range in age from 11 to 16 years old who are armed. The stolen vehicles are then used to commit further crimes. Readers are then advised to be aware of their surroundings, be aware when entering and exiting their vehicles and avoid distractions like their cell phones.

Calling it an active investigation, Interim Police Chief Susan E. Manheimer said “it is my hope that everyone is alarmed by the fact that it appears these violent acts are being committed by middle-school-age youth.”

The release contained no data, information or recommendations regarding their claims. It included language that has been associated with the criminalization of youth, especially Black and Brown youth.

This has caused serious concerns among community members and advocates, who have sent a letter to Oakland leaders (link) stating:

“This type of language exemplifies the well-documented ‘adultification’ of youth of color, and Black youth in particular… it is not difficult to hear the dog whistle that was so prevalent at the height of the “super-predator” era, which has long-been debunked.”

Council President Rebecca Kaplan supports the community letter, and is urging a more productive response towards our youth, and seeks answers to key questions and unsubstantiated claims from the OPD press release.

In addition to OPD’s criminalizing language towards children, the press release states OPD is collaborating “with the Department of Violence Prevention (DVP)… getting juveniles(sic) much-needed resources.” However, the release contains no information about any resources they are providing for youth. It also says that OPD is collaborating with the Alameda County Probation Dept.

When Kaplan sought more information, the Dept. of Violence Prevention was unable to identify any resources that have been or are being provided for youth violence prevention as OPD claimed.

In fact, the Administration recently proposed to fully eliminate all youth violence prevention program funding, without any funding sources for it, and defended the cuts by claiming that youth crime was quite low (link). Thus far, no one has been able to substantiate the claim that OPD is getting youth “much-needed resources” as stated in OPD’s press release.

Kaplan stated, “We need to make sure not to stereotype and harm struggling young people, but instead to make sure we are providing, rather than eliminating, vitally needed violence-prevention and jobs programs for Oakland’s youth.” There are additional questions (Kaplan’s office is) asking the OPD Chief, city administrator, and mayor that they should have to answer: – If the Chief is worried about a crime trend and wants to propose solutions, why wasn’t this release, or any proposals regarding it, sent to the Council? Was it sent to the mayor? The Police Commission?

-What are the specific resources they are providing for youth, as they claim they are doing?

– Who, specifically, was involved in writing and approving of this release?

– What was the purpose and intention of sending it?

– What specific crime data is it based on?

– Who approved the quote from the chief? Why is it appropriate for a city public safety leader to say that they “hope everyone is alarmed” about “juvenile crime” while not proposing any strategies nor providing any data? Was the intent simply to inflame the public?”

Kimberly Jones is chief of staff to Oakland City Council President Kaplan.

Kiki

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The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 8 – 14, 2026

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

Published

3 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.