Activism

Hundreds Rally at Court House to Support DA Pamela Price and End Mass Incarceration

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price shared her vision and determination to fulfill the goals of the historic civil rights movement, to work with the community to end violence, support victims of crime and end the institutionalized injustice that plagues criminal justice in Alameda County and this country.

Published

4 weeks ago

May 1, 2023

Ken Epstein

By Ken Epstein

Several hundred people attended a rally last Sunday on the steps of the Alameda County Court House by Lake Merritt and live on social media to rally in support of newly elected Alameda County District Attorney Price, who already faces blistering establishment attacks for carrying out her campaign pledge to end mass incarceration and to meet the desperate needs of both crime victims and victims of the criminal justice system.

District Attorney Price shared her vision and determination to fulfill the goals of the historic civil rights movement, to work with the community to end violence, support victims of crime and end the institutionalized injustice that plagues criminal justice in Alameda County and this country.

“I stand before you as the first non-appointed, non-anointed district attorney of Alameda County in over 100 years,” said Price, who began her remarks by underscoring her determination by singing one of the anthems of the Civil Rights Movement the 1950s and 1960s, “I Ain’t Going to Let Nobody Turn Me Around.”

Among the speakers were diverse Alameda County residents and leaders who support Price, including Berkeley resident Paola Laverde, a member of the Alameda County Democratic Central Committee, District 15.

“Like the 228,721 people who voted for her in November, I believe she is the right person to be Alameda County’s top prosecutor,” said Laverde, who has worked as a translator for the courts.

“I support Pamela Price because she’s a Black woman who had the audacity … to challenge and stand up against the status quo in Alameda County, where the district attorney has been handpicked by politicians and not by the people (for decades).

“For over 30 years she has fought for the victims of sexual assault and harassment, victims of retaliation, victims of discrimination, regular people like you and me, nurses, doctors, electricians, teachers, office workers, security guards and police officers, working class people, victims of unscrupulous employers and systems that depend on maintaining the status quo,” Laverde continued.

“She is a trailblazer (who) ran a people-powered campaign for district attorney,” she said. “She refused to take money from corporations – she returned the donation from the biggest landlord in Berkeley.”

Norman Birkenstock, who described himself as a senior leader in the Asian American and Philippine-American community, introduced Price.

“I stand beside our minister of justice, Pamela Price,” Birkenstock said. “We stand strong, resolute, unwavering, for social justice, and public safety for all Asian Americans, all African Americans, all Hispanic Americans, (and) for all white Americans.”

Ron Curtis, Oakland firefighter and paramedic for 19 years, focused on some of the attacks on Price.

“All the negative things that have been said about Pamela Price and the negative press have been a lot of lies, a lot of misinformation,” Curtis said. “We’re having a war on injustice, and they’re having a war on us. They’ve been having a war on us for how many past generations. And Pamela Price gets into office for four months, and they’ve already started.”

The rally was chaired by civil rights attorney Walter Riley, who has a long history of working for justice in Oakland.

“(Pamela Price) has the tenacity, the toughness and the experience to bring equity and justice to a badly broken system,” said Riley.

“She has the mandate to carry out the reforms she has been talking about (and campaigned on), and our community supports that,” he said. “Now, for the first time, we have someone right here (in the district attorney’s office) who we can support and fight for.”

Speaking to the crowd from the courthouse steps, DA Price said she had just returned from a civil rights tour of the South.

“I had the privilege of standing in places, like Montgomery, (Alabama) where the modern civil rights movement for this country was born in 1955. (Today,) there is triumph in Montgomery, just like there is triumph in Alameda County.”

Many Black people in those days died fighting for their rights, but they were not deterred because they understood he vote meant they could change who ran the country, she said. “Just like in November 2022, we knew that if we vote we can change who runs Alameda County.”

Less than a month after the historic March on Washington, where Dr. King spoke of his dream, racists blew up a bomb, murdering four Black children in Birmingham.

She said, there is a lesson in that: “When you show up for freedom and justice, you have to be ready for the backlash.”

She presented some statistics of racial injustice in Alameda County:

A Black person in Alameda County is 20 times more likely to be incarcerated than a white person;
50% of the people on probation in the county are Black;
66% of the people in Santa Rita County jail are Black;
86% of juvenile arrests in Alameda are Black or Brown children;
Of those in the county sentenced to life without parole under the age of 21, over 82% are Black.

Price said that when she took over the DA’s office, she found “an organization in chaos.”

“There was no transition plan,” she said. “This is (former DA) Nancy O’Malley’s shame, leaving an organization totally unprepared for change. We entered an environment filled with employees either traumatized or toxic.”

In her first 75 days, Price has put many changes in place.

Her office started with improving victim services. Only 40% of the victims in this county receive services they are entitled to, she said.

Her office is rebuilding “collaborative courts,” providing mental health units. “We listened to the families of the seriously mentally ill for the first time,” she said.

She successfully found places for almost three dozen people with serious mental illnesses, “who were languishing in Santa Rita County jail,” she said.

She created a public accountability bureau with more lawyers, paralegals, and investigators to investigate in-custody deaths, “to enforce the constitutional rights of every resident of Alameda County.”

She seeks to reform “racialized justice mechanisms,” establishing new guidelines and procedures for charging, sentencing and plea disposition.

Her office is creating community-based commissions to advise on “how to transform this broken system,” a mental health commission, a re-entry commission, a victim-witness advocacy commission and a gun violence task force.

Concluding her remarks, District Attorney Price said, “I’m not fearing the backlash that they call a recall, because I believe in the engagement and the activism of this community. In Alameda County, we know what democracy looks like.”

For a copy of the report produced by her volunteer transition team, go to https://bit.ly/41II5ld

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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.

Published

1 day ago

May 30, 2023

Oakland Post

Geoffrey Pete went to City Hall to appeal the city Planning Commission’s approval of the high-rise development that threatens the closure of his 44-year historic cultural mecca. Photo by Jonathan ‘Fitness’ Jones.

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).

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.

Published

1 day ago

May 29, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland City Councilmember Dan Kalb

Tuesday, May 30, 2023
6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Oakland Technical H.S. Auditorium
300-340 42^nd St.
Oakland, CA 94611

For more information, contact District 1 Chief of Staff Seth Steward: ssteward@oaklandca.gov, 510-238-7013.

Activism

Emil Guillermo: ‘Strong Like Bamboo’ Stories of AAPI Resilience at Oakland Asian Cultural Center

The name from the project came from the husband and partner of Nancy Wang, a psychotherapist as well as an ASIA member and a founder of Eth-Noh-TEC, Robert Kukuchi-Yngoho, who came up with ‘Strong Like Bamboo.’ “There’s an ancient anecdote that a single bamboo piece can be bent and eventually broken,” said Kukuchi-Yngoho. “But when you put together many bamboos, they are strong like iron. As Asian Americans that’s who we are as a community.”

Published

4 days ago

May 27, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St, Oakland, CA 94607

By Emil Guillermo

During the pandemic, I was in a group of Asian American storytellers based in the Bay Area on a weekly Zoom call when six Korean American women were killed in what has come to be known as the Atlanta Spa killings in March of 2021.

From that point on, the storytellers of Asian American Storytellers in Action (ASIA) realized we all had stories of discrimination and hate worth sharing.

The group’s discussion through the pandemic has resulted in “Strong Like Bamboo: Stories of Resilience for Healing in the Era of Anti-AAPI Violence,” a community event Sunday May 28 at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center from 2:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m.

“I asked myself ‘how do we heal?’ How do we respond to the crises we’re going through,” said Nancy Wang, a psychotherapist as well as an ASIA member and a founder of Eth-Noh-TEC, a storytelling theater based in San Francisco.

“I thought it would be great to gather to hear other people’s stories about discrimination they have experienced but came through it somehow as an inspiration for others to also find solace and support and strength in dealing with what’s going on.

“We all need to know we’re not alone,” she added. “That we have each other and we have allies.”

The name from the project came from Nancy’s husband and partner Robert Kukuchi-Yngoho, who came up with “Strong Like Bamboo.”

“There’s an ancient anecdote that a single bamboo piece can be bent and eventually broken,” said Kukuchi-Yngoho. “But when you put together many bamboos, they are strong like iron. As Asian Americans that’s who we are as a community.”

The free, three-hour event will feature storytelling from six professional storytellers (including yours truly) and others from the national AAPI community like Alton Takiyama Chung from Portland, Ore., MJ Kang from Los Angeles, and Linda Yemoto from the Bay Area.

Afterward, Russell Jeong, professor of Ethnic Studies at San Francisco State, will lead a group discussion of the stories. Jeong is also the co-founder of #StopAAPIHate which recorded more than 14,000 instances of self-reported hate transgressions during the pandemic.

Some say it was the remarks of former President Donald Trump scapegoating Asians for the spread of the virus that led to the violent reaction toward AAPI.

The audience will then break into groups where people can share their stories.

The afternoon will also include two short movies on the Asian American experience. The event closes with a reflective song by Kukuchi-Yngoho, and a number by a well-known group of rappers made up of senior women known as the Follies.

I look forward to sharing my stories and hope to see you all at the free event.

JOIN IN PERSON:
Date: Sunday May 28th, 2022
Time: 2:00-5:00 pm PDT
Where: Oakland Asian Cultural Center, 388 9th St, Oakland, CA 94607
Register to attend this Free live, in-person event: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/strong-like-bamboo-tickets-509561551317
*Recording of the live event will be made available for those unable to attend.

– or –

JOIN ON ZOOM:
This event will be livestreamed on Zoom and recorded, same date and time!
To register for the live virtual event on Zoom, please visit:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwpceyrpjIoHtGozoJo7reCVDGg2PRXkGKi#/registration
*Our Zoom links have not worked in past emails, so let us know if our long link doesn’t work.

If you have any questions, please reach out to contact@ethnohtec.org.

The program is funded in part by the California Arts Council.