News

Mayor Withdraws Nomination of Police Commissioner Who Defended U.S. Drone Killings

Published

6 years ago

October 22, 2020

In the face of opposition, Mayor Libby Schaaf has withdrawn her proposed appointment of an ex-U.S. District Attorney as a police commission alternate. Brian Hauck, in a former position, defended the U.S. government’s killing by drone attack of two U.S. citizens accused not of violence but of “incendiary commentary.”

These extra-judicial drone killings have been condemned internationally. In the 2013 lawsuit against the federal government, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights the family of the man and his teenaged son, who was killed in Yemen in 2011.

At last Thursday’s Rules Committee meeting, the Schaaf administration proposed that Hauck serve as an alternative commissioner on the Police Commission.

At the meeting, Schaaf’s Chief of Staff Elinor Buchen praised Hauck for his “years of experience in the Department of Justice…he brings a level of expertise on some of the more technical issues.”

Hauck said, “I do have experience in these issues and look forward to serving the community whatever way the city would find helpful.”

The resolution to appoint Hauck was placed on the consent calendar on this week’s City Council agenda, which meant that it was not considered controversial and would probably be approved with little or no discussion.

However, the proposal quickly unraveled after Hauck’s background was brought to the attention of City Councilmembers and the public by journalist Jaime Omar Yassin at “Oakland News at Hyphenated Republic” (https://hyphenatedrepublic.com).

City Council President Rebecca Kaplan took the item off the consent calendar, in a motion seconded by Noel Gallo, meaning that it would have to be debated in public. A number of public speakers spoke against the resolution. Finally, the Mayor’s Office pulled the resolution off the agenda.

“Before it was pulled by the Mayor’s staffer there was public comment including public criticism of the nomination,” Kaplan told the Oakland Post after the meeting.

“I was told about the issue by a local journalist,” she said. “I agree with many in the community who spoke on their concerns about the nomination, given the undisclosed prior role defending extra-judicial killings.”

The 2011 case received wide attention around the world, involving the extra-judicial killing of Anwar Al Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman Al Awlaki in a U.S. drone attack.

The family’s lawsuit argued that then- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and then-CIA Director David Petraeus, among others, were liable for having violated the constitutional rights the Al Awlakis.

Hauk represented the U.S. government in the hearing. According to a summary of the case by journalist Yassin, Hauck argued the U.S. could not be responsible for extra-judicial assassinations of citizens because it would “distract” those officials with the fear of litigation.

He also argued that though the two did have constitutional rights, “no court was capacitated to consider those rights’ – only the executive in consultation with Congress could decide on such matters.

Rashidah Grinage of the Coalition for Police Accountability told the Oakland Post as a former U.S. attorney, Hauck could respond that he had no choice but to make the case that he was assigned to make by his employer. However, she did question why he failed to disclose the issue to the mayor or the Police Commission, when he was interviewed by the selection committee

“This seems to reflect a lack of political awareness, especially about Oakland,” she said.

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

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Arts and Culture

COMMENTARY: Black Music is the Sound of Black Freedom: Let Us Reclaim Both This Juneteenth

Black Music Month started when Black Music Association members Ed Wright, Kenny Gamble and his wife, journalist and radio host Dyanna Williams were able to persuade President Jimmy Carter to establish the observation on June 7, 1979.

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

Robert Johnson (1911-1938) is thought of as the godfather of blues music, especially Delta blues. The 29 songs recorded by him during his short life have been of massive inspiration to guitarists and musicians over the last 80 years. Public domain photo.

By Wanda Ravernell

Black Music Month and Juneteenth are inextricably linked – Black music is the sound of our freedom.

From the plaintive moans of the enslaved Africans’ ‘sorrow songs,’ to the fields of Civil War battle where Black soldiers picked up abandoned bugles, to the upright piano played in juke joints on Saturday night and churches come Sunday morning, our ancestors’ innovation in the face of want, fear, degradation, and hopelessness has yielded genres of music imitated ’round the world.

In 2000, Congress made it official. In 2009, Pres. Barack Obama changed the name to African American Music Heritage Month and in 2023, Pres. Joe Biden changed it back to Black Music Month, two years after he declared Juneteenth a national holiday, the result of a movement led by Opal Lee.

Our ancestors battle for freedom over these last 400 years and the music that allowed them expression of their humanity deserved to be honored.

But we may be losing sight of the value of their sacrifices.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Faith That the Dark past Has Taught Us…’

Along with the long-known exploitation of Black musicians whose recordings were stolen by record companies, the commercialization of Juneteenth feels like another kind of theft.

I had never heard of Juneteenth until I moved to the Bay Area from my hometown of Philadelphia. I didn’t know it was one of many freedom festivals celebrated by descendants of enslaved people in the United States.

Emancipation Day was Jan. 1 in Pennsylvania, April 16 in Wash., D.C., May 20 in Florida, and Aug. 8 in Kentucky. But Juneteenth, June 19, has the most renown, known in Texas as the ‘colored peoples’ Fourth of July.’

It was marked by parades, beauty pageants, rodeos, backyard barbecues and church picnics.

Yes, church.

The formerly enslaved began the day praying in thanks for their freedom just as they had prayed for Jubilee – the day of freedom – when they had chains on their feet and hands. They ‘testified’ about their past suffering and how they had managed to overcome.

And they sang.

Although, we will not hold it this year, Omnira Institute’s Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance recalled this part of Juneteenth with prayers in the languages of the African captives. In the middle of the ceremony, a soloist would lead us in singing “Many Thousand Gone” while we took turns reciting portions of the Emancipation Proclamation, the news of freedom that took more than two years to reach Texas – two months after the Civil War ended.

“Many Thousand Gone” was famously recorded by Black luminary Paul Robeson in 1947:

“No more auction block for me,

No more, no more

No more auction black for me

Many thousand gone.”

Other verses refer to the ‘pint of salt’ and the ‘driver’s lash,’ the realities of enslavement that they had survived.

‘Sing a Song Full of the Hope That the Present has Brought Us’

All of the genres of African American music have at their root songs like that, the essence being, as Stevie Wonder, wrote, “the joy inside our pain.” So Black music is not just music. It is our story, our history, our very strength.

During the Civil Rights Movement, which peaked 100 years after slavery ended, the people testified that it was the freedom songs – based on spirituals – that gave them the heart to march, face attack dogs, fire hoses, beatings, and shootouts with vigilantes.

The music reminded them that power was in the people. That music, our music, can do so again. We don’t have to accept the commodification of the products of our culture.

The power of those songs is showing a resurgence across the South as we battle again for the right to self-determination through the ballot box.

Those songs are the voices of our ancestors, voices forged in their blood, their sweat, their tears, joy and, above all, faith. Those songs, those prayers live in our blood and our very breath.

This Juneteenth, let us reclaim those holy voices expressed in Black music for ourselves. It is our birthright. It can neither be bought nor sold. No more. Never again.

Wanda Ravernell is the executive director of Omnira Institute, sponsor for 18 years of the Juneteenth Ritual of Remembrance and Oakland’s 11^th Annual Black-Eyed Pea Festival, which will take place on Sept. 12.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 3 – 9, 2026

Published

5 days ago

June 9, 2026

Oakland Post

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Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled

BLACKPRESS USA NEWSWIRE — “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”
The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

6 days ago

June 8, 2026

Oakland Post

By National Women’s Law Center

The National Women’s Law Center released its annual State Child Care Assistance Policies report, finding that the number of children placed on waiting lists for federally funded child care assistance nearly doubled between 2024 and 2025 — and that number has only continued to grow.

The report serves as a key resource for state lawmakers, advocates, and policymakers by tracking state child care assistance policies and identifying where states are strengthening support for families and early educators — or falling behind.

“This deeply troubling increase in the number of children on child care waiting lists is the result of a failure to invest in this crucial sector,” said Karen Schulman, senior director of state child care policy and author of the report. “Since the expiration of tens of billions of dollars in federal child care funding in 2023 and 2024, an already fragile child care system has been pushed even closer to the brink.”

Key findings in the report related to waiting lists for child care assistance include:

• 17 states had waiting lists or a freeze on intake for child care assistance in February 2025, up from 13 states in February 2024.

• Approximately 106,700 children nationwide were added to waiting lists between February 2024 and February 2025, bringing the total to 225,500 children in February 2025 — a 90 percent increase compared to February 2024.

• The numbers climbed even further between February 2025 and summer/fall 2025, with more than 175,000 additional children added to state waiting lists in just a few months — a 78 percent increase.

• At least seven states newly began placing families on waiting lists or freezing intake, while at least 10 additional states saw their waiting lists grow, after February 2025.

The report also includes state-by-state data on key child care assistance policies, including income eligibility limits, parent copayments, provider payment rates, and eligibility policies for parents searching for work.

Click the link to learn more: Warning Signs: State Child Care Assistance Policies 2025.

The post Study: Waiting Lists for Child Care Assistance Nearly Doubled appeared first on BlackPressUSA.