Community

NAACP: Keep speaking out against police misconduct

MINNESOTA SPOKESMAN-RECORDER — The NAACP Minneapolis has called for an apology and additional action from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office after the arrest of two Black women last month by sheriff’s deputies.

Published

7 years ago

June 27, 2019

Oakland Post

By Stephenetta (isis) Harmon

The NAACP Minneapolis has called for an apology and additional action from the Hennepin County Sheriff’s office after the arrest of two Black women last month by sheriff’s deputies.

Makala Moore, 19, and Taylor Kueng, 20, were charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of the legal process after speaking out against the May 31 detainment of two Black men on Minneapolis’ Nicollet Mall for an open bottle infraction. The men, who the women did not know, were not charged or arrested.

In a video of the arrest, captured by Kueng, Moore exclaimed, “You’re hurting me, you’re hurting me,” as one of the deputies throws her to the ground.

“Two men take me down, put their knees in my back, twist my wrists, [while] I’m wearing a dress,” said Moore at a June 14 press conference addressing the “violent mishandling,” in her words, that she and Kueng endured.

An officer is then seen in the video threatening Kueng with a Taser after she resists arrest. When asked what she is being arrested for, the officer replies, “Because.”

“We want the sheriff’s office to apologize to these young women — and to Black people — because we recognize this is a systemic issue,” Leslie Redmond, president of the Minneapolis NAACP, told the MSR.

“For every Makala and Taylor, there are 1,000 other Makalas and Taylors that the NAACP doesn’t know about,” continued Redmond. She added that she wants the officers disciplined and actions put in place to better address police interactions with people of color.

“We also want them to have better protocols when people do come to them with these issues,” she said, in addition to funds for culturally-based training. “We want them to put the money where their mouth is…to make sure that their officers know that you can’t interact with the community like this. We need better results.”

Courtesy of Facebook Makala Moore & Taylor Kueing

Redmond described the roadblocks she faced after the incident was brought to her attention by a Mankato State University employee (who requested anonymity), where Kueng is a student. She began her inquiry by contacting Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo.

“Yesterday, I had a meeting with Chief Arradondo. He looked at the video and was very concerned.” She said Arradondo sent a text to Hennepin County Sheriff Mike Hutchinson, who simply responded that he was out of town. She was then sent to Chief Sheriff’s Deputy Tracey Martin.

“I give her [Martin] a high overview [of the incident] — she doesn’t even ask to see the video,” said Redmond. “So now the top boss [Hutchinson] didn’t want to see the video, the second one [Martin] didn’t see the video, and they send me to internal affairs.”

Redmond said after not receiving a satisfactory response from the sheriff’s office, she took her complaints to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), requesting they use their relationship with the county prosecutor’s office to address the issue. This eventually led to the dismissal of all charges against the two witnesses.

“Record, record, record,” said Redmond regarding any interactions with police. “Get your own data. Don’t wait on theirs,” she said. “This video saved the day.”

Redmond noted that many people are afraid to record such incidents because of potential repercussions. “The people recording typically get arrested, too — if not on the scene, later on. They [police] don’t want you recording their activity. They don’t want anybody questioning their authority. We must question their authority. We must record.

“They are trying to silence us. I personally want to advocate for people to not be silent. When you see something, say something. MLK said, ‘Our life ends the day we remain silent about the things that matter.’”

Moore said that despite the arrests, “I would do it again. It was definitely traumatizing to go through all of it, but I am not going to stop speaking up for people who don’t know their rights and [have] police bullying them.”

Kueng added, “We need to keep speaking up so that this doesn’t become normalized.”

After viewing the video, City attorneys dropped the charges hours before the young women were to appear in court. In addition, after pressure from the NAACP, fees for the women’s expungement process were also waived.

“My disgust is with the sheriff’s office and how they handled it,” said Redmond. “My disgust is with the officers and the dismissal of the NAACP’s inquiry. If you handle the NAACP like this when they come to you with an issue, what are you going to do with a regular civilian when they come to you?”

The sheriff’s office released a statement following the press conference: “The sheriff’s office treats all matters of this nature seriously and will thoroughly investigate all formal complaints.”

Assaults on Black bodies continue

Blacks being wrongfully arrested with unnecessary force in Minnesota is nothing new, says Mpls NAACP President Leslie Redmond. “We know police officers and sheriff officers in Minnesota know how to police. They just don’t know how to do it when it’s Black bodies,” she said during a press conference.

Alarms continue being sounded across the country for these violent police interactions. A June 17 episode of former CNN contributor Roland Martin’s Facebook Live “Daily Digital Show” addressed the issue with attorney Keith White. He represents Nicholas Simon, a 17-year-old teen who was assaulted and falsely charged by the New York Police Department June 12 while walking down the street dribbling a basketball.

“This is the type of policing that’s allowed to go on in marginalized communities,” said White. “It’s the most straightforward example of police abuse. I think the reason why it hasn’t gotten more uproar is because he survived.”

“Why do we need to have our young Black boys hashtagged in order for people to care?” continued White. “We have to continue to make noise in order for us to see changes.”

In another recent incident in Phoenix, police drew guns and violently arrested a man and his pregnant wife in front of their two young children. The officers were responding to a call that the couple’s four-year-old daughter walked out of a store with a doll without her parents’ knowledge. The mom was so frightened for her children’s safety that she gave them to strangers who witnessed the event.

Both events were captured on video.

Activating community

Redmond also is using this incident to encourage more proactive versus reactive responses from members of the community.

“It can’t just be me. It can’t just be the NAACP. This is not my fight — this is a collective Black people fight. I can’t help everyone on an individual level. We have to change the system. So, if there are good people — it doesn’t just have to be Black people — help us. Work with us to create changes.”

She further called for communities to stop living in silos. One place to connect, she said, is at the church. “I know people have different perspectives, but the church is fundamental to any revolution, any movement,” she said. “You can find Black people on Sunday in the church. There would be no Civil Rights Movement if it wasn’t for the church. There would no NAACP if it wasn’t for the church.”

Redmond added, “In addition to that, we can support Black businesses and plan. So let’s go to the Sammie’s Avenue Eateries, let’s go to the Heritage Tea Houses. Let’s go to the Golden Thymes and just be intentional.”

This article originally appeared in the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.

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Activism

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses. The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Published

5 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Toks Omishakin, secretary of the California State Transportation Agency, was one of the speakers at the event. Photo by Shellee Fisher Photography and Design.

By Calvin Naito, Special to The Post

On June 4, a national nonprofit named the Equity in Infrastructure Project (EIP) – which aims to increase public construction contracting opportunities for small and historically underutilized businesses – held a day-long event in downtown San Francisco to rally supporters and build momentum to its cause.

It was attended by more than 100 individuals from public agencies, private firms, and other organizations committed to increasing contracting opportunities with governmental agencies, thereby creating more competition and lowering public costs.

The EIP event was held the Hyatt Regency San Francisco in conjunction with BuildIT, which aims to increase contracting opportunities for LGBT-owned businesses.

At the event, 16 entities signed the EIP pledge, vowing to take steps to increase public contracting opportunities in their spheres for small and historically underutilized businesses.

The pledge signees included Hub International, the Port of San Francisco, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, California High-Speed Rail Authority, the Port of Oakland, Robert Graham of Webcor Builders, Holder Construction, the Weitz Company, Sky Blue Builders, Hornblower, Swinerton, Luster National, Talson Solutions, Center for Community Wealth Building, and the Construction Contractors Alliance.

Following the workshop, BuildIT hosted a VIP evening reception honoring EIP, whose principals – Phil Washington, John Procari, and Rick Jacobs – accepted the award.

The event also set in motion the coalition’s efforts to implement recommendations from EIP’s “Procurement for Prosperity: A Playbook.”

The Playbook is a practical guide for public agency leaders and procurement and contracting practitioners to grow the capacity of small and first-time contractors, strengthen competition, and deliver better value for taxpayers.

Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA), a long-time EIP supporter, also told attendees, “This is about commitment. This has been a life’s work. This is a tailwind moment.”

The event’s presenting sponsor was Hub International, one of the largest insurance brokerages in the nation, which was joined by partners Travelers Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund.

After the pledge-signing ceremony, attendees participated in a workshop in which they examined the policies, practices, and programs needed to meet EIP goals, learned from practitioners, and identified next steps toward utilizing the Playbook.

Ingrid Meriwether, formerly of Merriwether & Williams Insurance Services (MWIS) and current president of Hub International’s Aligned Risk Management, MWIS, described the hard-fought lessons she and her MWIS team have learned over the last three decades administering contractor development programs (CDPs) for the City and County of San Francisco, Alameda County, City of Los Angeles, LA Metro, and other municipalities.

The CDPs help small and local construction firms win public infrastructure contracts with these government agencies. The program provides bonding assistance, contract financing, technical support, training, and other services to underrepresented businesses funded by public agencies who seek greater contracting participation with these firms.

Merriwether said programs like these “break down systemic barriers, create greater fairness, and save taxpayers money by enabling more competition. The contractor development programs have, cumulatively, over two decades, helped contractors access over $1 billion in bonding, supporting over $380 million in awarded contracts, and maintaining a loss ratio 250 times lower than the industry average – while saving participating municipalities more than $27 million in contracting costs as a result of enabling more competition.”

Rick Jacobs, EIP co-founder and co-chair urged attendees make plans to meet again in the near future “to continue building on this work, share progress on organizational commitments, and discuss how we can collectively advance the goals of the EIP pledge.”

For more information on the EIP and to access a copy of the Playbook, go online to https://equityininfrastructure.org/

Calvin Naito is communications manager for Equity in Infrastructure Project.

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Oakland Museum Presents Landmark Retrospective Celebrating Beloved Bay Area Artist Mildred Howard

“Poetics of Memory” coincides with a year of major recognition for Howard. In 2026, she received the California Arts Council’s 50th Anniversary Award, honoring artists whose work has shaped California’s cultural and civic life, as well as the Museum of the African Diaspora’s Artist Impact Award. In 2025, she was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in recognition of her transformative contributions to American cultural life.

Published

5 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Mildred Howard. Photo by Christine Cueto for the Oakland Museum of California, 2025.

Special to The Post

The Oakland Museum of California (OMCA) opened “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory,” the first major museum survey of Bay Area artist Mildred Howard, on June 12.

The exhibition spans five decades of Howard’s influential work, bringing together immersive installations, found-object sculptures, archival materials, and new commissions that explore memory, identity, and power in American life.

Howard was born in San Francisco in 1945 and raised in the East Bay, where she went on to study Afro-Haitian dance, make and sell clothing, and experiment with collage and sculpture.

Her multimedia art practice emerged from these experiences, later becoming associated with West Coast conceptual art, San Francisco funk, and a vibrant community of artists like Oliver Jackson, Betye Saar, and Raymond Saunders. Since the 1970s, she has used found materials and family stories to explore memory—both individual and collective.

At OMCA, visitors enter “Poetics of Memory” through a series of intimate galleries featuring Howard’s early mixed-media pieces and sculptures, along with a large video projection of a number of her public artworks.

Together, they emphasize Howard’s interest in everyday objects as powerful carriers of individual and shared stories. Highlights include collages that remix images of the artist herself; found-object sculptures like The History of the United States with a few Parts Missing (2007) that address omissions in dominant narratives; and public works like “Locks and Keys for Harry Bridges” (2001) that transform urban space into a meditation on access and labor.

This culminates in a richly detailed “studio” environment, where works in progress, archival exhibition flyers, historic photographs of Howard and her community, postcards from fellow artists, and other materials offer insight into her creative process and daily life.

The exhibition then opens into a high-ceilinged, dramatically lit space that brings together Howard’s signature immersive installations. On one end, “Crossings” (1997/2026) – a field of hundreds of ceramic eggs leading to an ornate mirror – suggests cycles of birth, motherhood, and transition, while drawing on the emotional echoes of the Middle Passage. On the other end, “Blackbird in a Red Sky” (a.k.a. “Fall of the Blood House”) (2002) – a red glass shack bordered by a pond – also uses reflection and transparency to draw viewers into the work and prompt consideration of themes of identity and home.

Howard’s newest video installation, “Moving Stills” (2026), repurposes never-before-seen family footage she took as a teenager on a train trip to the American South. Projected onto cascading layers of translucent fabric that stretch across an entire gallery wall, the piece immerses viewers in a layered meditation on memory, migration, and time.

The “Mildred Howard: Poetics of Memory” exhibit will be on display through Oct. 11 at the Oakland Museum of California, 1000 Oak St., Oakland, CA 94612. Museum hours are Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., with extended hours on Fridays to 9 p.m.

This story is sourced from the Oakland Museum of California press office.

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Alameda County

Ferry Fares to Increase July 1 as Ridership Hits Record Highs

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

Published

5 days ago

June 24, 2026

Oakland Post

Courtesy photo.

By Mike Aldax, The Richmond Standard

Starting July 1, the standard adult fare for the San Francisco Bay Ferry route between Richmond and San Francisco will increase to $5.20, up from the current $4.90.

Discounted fares for eligible passengers, including youth, seniors, people with disabilities, and Clipper START users, will rise to $2.60 from the current $2.40. Children under 5 will continue to ride for free.

The Oakland and Alameda routes will increase from $4.90 to $5.10, the South San Francisco route will go up from $7.40 to $7.60, and the Vallejo route will increase from $9.90 to $10.

The adjustments are part of a systemwide fare update approved by the agency’s Board of Directors, which is moving away from a flat 3% annual increase to route-specific pricing for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years.

This fare update arrives as San Francisco Bay Ferry celebrates a historic May, transporting 301,270 passengers. The record-breaking figure represents an 8% increase over May 2025 and marks the third consecutive month of record-setting ridership.

Furthermore, it is the sixth month in a row that passenger numbers have exceeded pre-pandemic levels. Weekend travel has been a primary driver of this growth, with average weekend ridership seeing a 56% increase compared to pre-pandemic trends.

The agency states that the fare adjustments are necessary to ensure the long-term fiscal sustainability of public ferry services. By shifting to route-specific adjustments, the agency aims to offset rising operating costs while maintaining the high levels of service frequency and reliability.