City Government
Hotline Established for Police Whistleblowers to Report Corrupt Officers in Oakland
Police accountability activists this week established an anonymous hotline for whistleblowers to report “corruption, misconduct and predatory policing” within the Oakland Police Department (OPD).
The hotline was set up by Civil Rights attorney Dan Siegel at his Oakland law firm, Siegel and Yee.
“We are hearing unofficially from people in the department that they are embarrassed and upset” by ongoing sex abuse and other misconduct scandals in OPD, said Siegel, speaking at a press conference Monday in front of the police department headquarters.
The press conference organizers, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP), said they decided to create the hotline after learning that Mayor Libby Schaaf hired a private investigator to “identify and punish whistleblowers who are bringing these problems to the public,” according to an APTP statement to the media.
“Our legal team, Siegel and Yee, wanted to step up and provide a safe place for officers who want to expose corruption of the police department to come tell their stories,” said Cat Brooks of APTP.
According to the APTP statement, activists are hearing that some officers “want to stop observing the ‘Code of Silence’ that goes against their oath to protect and serve the City of Oakland.”
“Many of those same officers may fear retaliation, a ruined career or worse as a result of going against the expectation to look the other way when the abuse of authority occurs,” the statement said.
Siegel and Yee will take statements and give advice to OPD employees who contact the hotline.
“We can provide you with legal advice if you are facing retaliation for going public with information about (misconduct), and your anonymity will be protected,” the APTP statement said.
Spokeswoman Karen Boyd denied that the city was seeking to plug leaks.
“The city administrator initiated an investigation not into whistleblowers but into who was divulging (information) or how information that was legally, confidentially protected was being divulged,” Boyd told KRON4.
Saying the hotline is unnecessary, Schaaf said in an interview with KRON that the city already has its own hotline for whistleblowers.
“Oakland has long had its own anonymous whistleblower hotline. It’s run by our independent auditor,” Schaaf said.
The hotline number at Siegel and Yee is (510) 839-1200. Evidence can be emailed to policehotline@siegelyee.com.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 31 = June 6, 2023

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Activism
Community Opposes High Rise Development That Threatens Geoffrey’s Inner Circle
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.

By Ken Epstein
An outpouring of community supporters – young, old, jazz lovers, environmentalists and committed Oakland partisans – spoke out at a recent Planning Commission hearing to support Geoffrey Pete and his cultural center – The Inner Circle – an historic Oakland landmark whose future is threatened by a proposed skyscraper that out-of-town-developer Tidewater Capital wants to build in the midst of the city’s Black Arts Movement and Business District (BAMBD).
City Council chambers were full for the May 17 Planning Commission hearing, and almost all the 40 speakers who had signed up to make presentations talked about the importance of the Inner Circle as part of Oakland and Geoffrey Pete as a stalwart community and business leader who has served the city for decades.
The speakers argued passionately and persuasively, winning the sympathy of the commissioners, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the Commission unanimously approved the high-rise to be built either as a residential building or office tower on Franklin Street directly behind Geoffrey’s building.
Mr. Pete has said he would appeal the decision to the City Council. He has 10 days after the hearing to file an appeal on the office building. His appeal on the residential tower has already been submitted.
Mr. Pete said the Planning Department still has not published the boundaries of the BAMBD. “Tidewater’s applications and subsequent applications should not be approved until the Planning Department fully acknowledges the existence of the BAMBD,” he said.
“This (proposed) building poses a grave danger to the historic (Inner Circle) building next to it, arguably Oakland’s most meaningful historic building,” Pete said.
“We’re here to advocate for what’s best for the African American district and community that has gotten no representation, no advocacy, as of yet,” he said. “The (commission) is guilty, the City of Oakland is guilty, and Tidewater is guilty.”
One of the first speakers was Gwendolyn Traylor, known as Lady SunRise, who directly addressed the developers.
“With all due to respect to your business, it’s not a need of this community. I would like to ask you to reconsider the location …What is being (promised) here does not add to the healing of this community,” she said.
Naomi Schiff of the Oakland Heritage Alliance emphasized that Geoffrey’s Inner Circle is a treasure of Oakland’s history.
“Our first concern is the integrity of the historic district, in particular the former Athenian-Nile Club, now Mr. Pete’s equally historic venue, which has been the location of a great number of important community events,” she said. “It would not be OK with us if the integrity of the building were damaged in any way, no matter how much insurance (the developer bought) because it is very difficult to repair a historic building once it’s damaged.”
The Inner Circle was previously owned and operated by the Athenian-Nile Club, one of the Bay Area’s largest all-white-male exclusive private membership club, where politicians and power brokers closed back-room deals over handshakes and three martini lunches.
Cephus “Uncle Bobby X” Johnson pointed out that commissioners and the city’s Planning Department have “acknowledged that you went through the entire design review process without even knowing that the Black Arts Movement and Business District existed.”
The district was created in 2016 by City Council resolution. “At the heart of the opposition to this building is the desire to further the legacy of local Black entertainment and entrepreneurship exemplified by businesses like Mr. Pete’s … a historical landmark and venue (that serves) thousands of people who listen to jazz and other entertainment and hold weddings, receptions, and memorial services,” said Uncle Bobby.
This development is taking place within a context in which the “Black population in Oakland has decreased rapidly … because of the city’s concentration on building houses that are not affordable for people who currently live in Oakland,” he said.
John Dalrymple of East Bay Residents for Responsible Development said, “This project will result in significant air quality, public health, noise, and traffic impacts. He said the city has not adequately studied the (unmitigated) impacts of this project on the Black Arts Movement and Business District.
“This project is an example of what developers are being allowed to do when they don’t have to follow the law, and they don’t have to be sensitive to our city’s culture and values,” he said. The commission should “send a signal today that we will no longer be a feeding ground for the rich.”
Prominent Oakland businessman Ray Bobbitt told commissioners, “Any decision that you make is a contribution to the systemic process that creates a disproportionate impact on Black people. Please do yourself a favor, (and) rethink this scenario. Give Mr. Pete, who is a leader in our community, an opportunity to set the framework before you make any decision.”
Though the City Council created the BAMBD, the 2016 resolution was never implemented. The district was created to “highlight, celebrate, preserve and support the contributions of Oakland’s Black artists and business owners and the corridor as a place central historically and currently to Oakland’s Black artists and Black-owned businesses.”
The district was intended to promote Black arts, political movements, enterprises, and culture in the area, and to bring in resources through grants and other funding.
Activism
Community Meeting on Crime and Violence
Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.

Join Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb to discuss the uptick in crime and violence in District 1 and across Oakland. Representatives from the Oakland Police Department will be in attendance. This event will be held in-person and online.
Tuesday, May 30, 2023
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Oakland Technical H.S. Auditorium
300-340 42nd St.
Oakland, CA 94611
For more information, contact District 1 Chief of Staff Seth Steward: ssteward@oaklandca.gov, 510-238-7013.
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