City Government

OP-ED: Ferguson Is a Wake-Up Call for America and Oakland

Published

12 years ago

August 29, 2014

In 2013, police killed 400 people in the United States. Most died with barely a blip on the world’s screen.

Michael Brown’s death was not unique. He was African American, young, male – and unarmed.

Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson shot him six times in broad daylight – apparently for running away when Officer Wilson tried to arrest him for jay walking.

The rage of a community sick and tired of poverty, unemployment, bad schools, bad housing and hopelessness exploded.

It happens all over. In Oakland, Alameda County sheriffs recently shot, and killed, apparently unarmed 23-year-old African-American Jacorey Calhoun. Calhoun was allegedly a suspect in a crime that had occurred almost a month earlier, but no one is explaining why he was killed.

Deputy Derek Thomas, who killed Mr. Calhoun, has a history of misconduct complaints.

The police play contradictory roles – people want them to safeguard our lives and property. Society employs them for social control.

Oakland’s police are not members of the community. The vast majority do not live in Oakland. And they do not solve the majority of violent crimes that afflict our neighborhoods.

Being a member of the Oakland community would mean a level of mutual accountability between officers and residents – with a zero tolerance for rogue officers who run roughshod over vulnerable community members.

Oakland is infamous for the police violence that led to 541 police abuse lawsuits from Jan. 1, 2000, to Aug. 21, 2012. According to the City Attorney, Oakland paid out $11,466,868 to resolve 20 of these cases.

This does not include the $10.9 million spent to settle the Riders case and millions more spent to monitor and continue to argue about OPD’s compliance with it. Or the $7 million spent to resolve the Occupy Oakland cases.

Oakland’s police, like those in Ferguson, were transformed by the military hardware that began to arrive with the “war on drugs” in 1980 – tanks, helicopters and assault rifles.

Like Ferguson, this equipment is used to suppress protests – as it did against the Oscar Grant movement in 2009-2010 and the Occupy movement in 2011

What about the social contract, the unwritten agreement between individuals and the government under which people accept the government’s authority over aspects of their lives in exchange for the security and other benefits the government is supposed to provide?

When tens of millions of people are excluded from the benefits provided to the privileged and the wealthy – social decay and disorder are inevitable.

In the U.S., the richest one percent control more wealth than the bottom 90 percent. In Oakland, the top 20 percent of households receives 49 percent of the total income; the bottom 20 percent receives three percent. Unemployment in Alameda County is 11 percent; for African Americans the number is doubled.

Three-quarters of our Oakland students qualify for free-or-reduced lunches; 42 percent are Hispanic, 29 percent are African American. Only 50 percent of African-American and Latino students graduate from Oakland high schools within four years of starting.

The state average is 80 percent.

This situation is a recipe for disaster. The health of American society will depend upon its ability to close the income and privilege gaps that divide the rich and the poor, particularly people of color clutched in the devastating grip of poverty.

We can make the changes we need. We can re-focus the police department on serving our communities and protecting us from violent crime. We can return the military hardware to the federal government and adopt a zero tolerance policy for police misconduct.

We can improve our schools and insist on the right of every child to learn. We can raise the minimum wage to $15 and create good jobs for working people in our new hotels and restaurants, installing solar power, and providing other 21^st Century services.

We can protect tenants’ rights against evictions and build affordable housing for working people with contributions from the developers who want to create high-end housing.

Changing the world is tough. But so are Oaklanders. Together, we can create an Oakland grounded in principles of social and economic justice. And we can start on Nov. 4.

Dan Siegel

Dan Siegel is a civil rights attorney in Oakland and a candidate for mayor.

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Oakland Post: Week of July 22 – 28, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 22 – 28, 2026

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2 hours ago

July 27, 2026

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Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 15 – 21, 2026

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1 week ago

July 18, 2026

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From Disparity Study to Solutions: Oakland Coalition and Mayor Barbara Lee Renew Commitment to Reform City Contracting

She committed to ensuring the coalition has direct access to City leadership by designating Assistant Deputy City Administrator Chuck Baker the primary liaison. Working alongside Deputy City Administrator Sofia Navarro, DWES Director Emylene Aspilla, Race and Equity Director Darlene Flynn, and other City departments, the coalition will continue advancing these priorities while maintaining regular communication with City leadership.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 15, 2026

Oakland Post

Present at the recent meeting on implementing recommendations on Oakland’s Disparity Study on city work contracts were (first row, l. to r.): Chuck Baker, Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee and Darlene Flynn. Second row, l. to r.) Samuel Adams, Erica Astrella, Chadwick Spell, Cathy Adams, Stanley Cooper, Maria Wagner, Len Turner, Derek Barnes, Paul Cobb. Photo courtesy of Oakland Mayor’s Office.

Special to The Post

On June 30, a coalition of minority business leaders, contractors and others met with Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee to discuss the City’s commitment to implement recommendations outlined in Oakland’s Disparity Study and eliminate barriers that have historically prevented Black and minority-owned businesses from fully participating in public contracting opportunities.

Representatives of the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce (OAACC), National Association of Minority Contractors Northern California (NAMC NorCal), Construction Resource Center (CRC), and the East Bay Rental Housing Association (EBRHA) said the meeting represented an important milestone in a process that has been underway for several months.

On April 21, the Oakland City Council’s Life Enrichment Committee received a progress report from the Department of Workplace and Employment Standards (DWES), where Director Emylene Aspilla presented the coalition’s working document and outlined a collaborative implementation plan between the coalition and the City. That report established 30-, 60-, and 90-day objectives focused on five key priorities:

Reforming Local and Small Local Business Enterprise (L/SLBE) waiver practices
Strengthening prompt payment compliance
Improving procurement forecasting and transparency
Expanding contractor capacity building and business development
Increasing oversight, accountability, and public reporting

A series of working sessions was scheduled between coalition representatives, DWES, and the City Administrator’s Office to begin implementing those priorities but were temporarily delayed by the resignation of former City Administrator Jestin Johnson.

Rather than allowing that momentum to stall, OAACC President and CEO Cathy Adams requested a meeting with Lee to gain clarity on the City’s direction and reaffirm its commitment to implementing the recommendations contained within the Disparity Study.

Coalition leaders described the meeting as productive, candid, collaborative, and encouraging.

During the meeting, Lee spoke not only from her role as mayor but also from her experience as an 8(a) contractor and business owner, sharing that she understands firsthand what it takes to build and grow a successful company, employ a substantial workforce, compete for public work, and navigate the complexities of municipal contracting.

Mayor Lee also expressed her commitment to personally participate in future working meetings with the coalition.

“This meeting represents a renewed commitment to partnership,” said Adams. “Mayor Lee listened, engaged, and demonstrated that she wants to move beyond conversation and into implementation.”

CRC’s Len Turner said the roadmap is already in place. ““The City already has the evidence. What’s been missing is execution. …Now it’s time to deliver results.”

Mario Wagner, president of NAMC NorCal agreed that the next phase must focus on implementation, funding, and accountability.

“The coalition is ready to get to work. …The next step is ensuring these initiatives receive meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle. Just as important, the City must establish transparent reporting mechanisms that keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and accountability.”

Coalition leaders also acknowledged that while City leadership has indicated it is reviewing Local and Small Local Business Enterprise waiver practices, the community continues to seek a formal response regarding existing long-term waivers, including waivers extending 10 and 25 years. The coalition believes those waivers should be comprehensively reviewed and, where appropriate, rolled back as part of the City’s broader contracting reforms.

The coalition is also calling on the City to include meaningful funding in the upcoming fiscal budget cycle to support implementation of the Disparity Study recommendations and establish better methods and mechanisms to keep the public informed through regular progress reports, measurable benchmarks, and transparent accountability.

The coalition’s immediate next step is to schedule a working meeting with Baker, Aspilla, Lee, and the appropriate City staff to review what has already been accomplished under the implementation framework.