Activism

OPINION: What’s Really Driving the Oakland Police Department’s So-Called Staffing Crisis?

After decades of overspending on law enforcement, our nation’s police forces have now grown so large there’s simply no way they can keep themselves fully staffed. So, they’ve resorted to cannibalizing each other, poaching officers from neighboring departments. And Oakland residents are left to pay the price tag of training cadets who ultimately go on to work elsewhere, or out-of-towners whose records of conduct are difficult to unearth.

Published

2 years ago

March 30, 2022

Oakland Post

Cat Brooks

By Cat Brooks

Police forces around the country are complaining about staffing shortages. By and large, they’ve blamed the community and city leaders for not being sufficiently supportive — even though law enforcement receives the lion’s share of every city budget in the country.

We heard such disinformation recently when Oakland Police Officers Association President Barry Donelan blamed declining OPD staffing levels on “anti-police rhetoric” which is driving hard-working, dedicated Oakland police officers to leave in droves.”

While this is an obvious falsehood, it remains important to ask: why are so many cops leaving, who are they, and what is OPD spending its time on?

One major reason staffing is down is because so many cops have quit the force to escape discipline. “Heavy discipline” was among the top factors cited by departing officers in exit interviews, which OPD started conducting last fall.

What this means is that between OPD’s nonstop scandals — which range from sharing racist, sexist Instagram memes and pro-Trump insurrection posts, to teargassing kids, to overtime fraud, to murder — and Oakland’s community-led demands for accountability, the environment has become unfriendly to corrupt cops who could easily go do their dirt elsewhere without consequence. Good riddance.

Oakland’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for city workers has also had an impact. On March 8, OPD Deputy Director Kiona Suttle revealed that 15 sworn officers will either be fired or forced to quit because of noncompliance with the mandate.

This seems to confirm the widely-held suspicion that vaccine refusal has contributed to the reduction in officer staffing in Oakland like it has everywhere else — a suspicion that grew when officer attrition spiked by 160% in October, the month the vaccine mandate took effect.

The top reason for leaving listed in exit interviews is “dissatisfaction with OPD leadership.” This shows that, despite Libby Schaaf’s gaslighting of Oaklanders with tall tales of OPD reform and the police association’s false narrative spin, OPD remains as dysfunctional as ever. Yet the City of Oakland fills their unaudited budget of almost $350 million every year.

Let’s be clear — while OPD is a terrible place to work, it is not unique in falling below its budgeted number of officers. A similar trend is happening all over the country. A national survey of nearly 200 law enforcement agencies last summer found that retirements went up by 45% and resignations went up by almost 20% in 2020-21.

Oakland will never be able to fill so many empty positions. Period. There’s just not enough people interested in working for OPD. The only solution is to scale back our police force. We’ve got to make do with fewer officers.

We can do this by ending the practice of making police be the ineffective first responders to every single social ill. They are not counselors, therapists, mental health workers, or animal welfare specialists. Sending them to do these jobs has proven not only costly but also deadly to Black and brown communities.

It won’t be a difficult shift. Right now, OPD only spends a fraction of its time on violent crime. The Anti Police-Terror Project published a report last year which found that OPD wastes significant amounts of time and money responding to nonviolent and non-criminal issues instead of focusing on violent crime.

The Department could free up the equivalent of over 60 full-time officers and save millions if it was no longer responsible for matters that don’t require an armed officer — like towing abandoned cars and catching stray dogs — as well as situations like mental health crises or interacting with unhoused neighbors.

The truth is we have too many cops, not too few. But OPD doesn’t want you to know this. That’s why they’re dragging their feet on releasing updated data about how they spend their time, which City Council demanded and is already past due.

We know what keeps us safe, and it’s not more police. It’s meeting the needs of our most vulnerable community members. That means housing, schools, jobs, mental health care, and violence prevention.

The way out of this manufactured staffing crisis is to tell OPD to do less with less — and to invest in what really keeps us safe instead.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Schools Honor Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice. His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.

Published

3 hours ago

April 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Fred Korematsu. Courtesy of OUSD.

By Post Staff

Every Jan. 30, OUSD commemorates the legacy of Fred Korematsu, an Oakland native, a Castlemont High School graduate, and a national symbol of resistance, resilience, and justice.

His defiant stand against racial injustice and his unwavering commitment to civil rights continue to inspire the local community and the nation. Tuesday was “Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution” in the state of California and a growing number of states across the country.
One OUSD school is named in his honor: Fred T. Korematsu Discovery Academy (KDA) elementary in East Oakland.

Several years ago, founding KDA Principal Charles Wilson, in a video interview with anti-hate organization “Not In Our Town,” said, “We chose the name Fred Korematsu because we really felt like the attributes that he showed in his work are things that the children need to learn … that common people can stand up and make differences in a large number of people’s lives.”

Fred Korematsu was born in Oakland on Jan. 30, 1919. His parents ran a floral nursery business, and his upbringing in Oakland shaped his worldview. His belief in the importance of standing up for your rights and the rights of others, regardless of race or background, was the foundation for his activism against racial prejudice and for the rights of Japanese Americans during World War II.

At the start of the war, Korematsu was turned away from enlisting in the National Guard and the Coast Guard because of his race. He trained as a welder, working at the docks in Oakland, but was fired after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. Fear and prejudice led to federal Executive Order 9066, which forced more than 120,000 Japanese Americans out of their homes and neighborhoods and into remote internment camps.

The 23-year-old Korematsu resisted the order. He underwent cosmetic surgery and assumed a false identity, choosing freedom over unjust imprisonment. His later arrest and conviction sparked a legal battle that would challenge the foundation of civil liberties in America.

Korematsu’s fight culminated in the Supreme Court’s initial ruling against him in 1944. He spent years in a Utah internment camp with his family, followed by time living in Salt Lake City where he was dogged by racism.

In 1976, President Gerald Ford overturned Executive Order 9066. Seven years later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco vacated Korematsu’s conviction. He said in court, “I would like to see the government admit that they were wrong and do something about it so this will never happen again to any American citizen of any race, creed, or color.”

Korematsu’s dedication and determination established him as a national icon of civil rights and social justice. He advocated for justice with Rosa Parks. In 1998, President Bill Clinton gave him the Presidential Medal of Freedom saying, “In the long history of our country’s constant search for justice, some names of ordinary citizens stand for millions of souls … To that distinguished list, today we add the name of Fred Korematsu.”

After Sept. 11, 2001, Korematsu spoke out against hatred and discrimination, saying what happened to Japanese Americans should not happen to people of Middle Eastern descent.
Korematsu’s roots in Oakland and his education in OUSD are a source of great pride for the city, according to the school district. His most famous quote, which is on the Korematsu elementary school mural, is as relevant now as ever, “If you have the feeling that something is wrong, don’t be afraid to speak up.”

Oakland Post

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Activism

WOMEN IMPACTING THE CHURCH AND COMMUNITY

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Juanita Matthews

Sister Juanita Matthews

55 Years with Oakland Public School District

The Teacher, Mother, Community Outreach Champion, And Child of God

Juanita Matthews, better known as “Sister Teacher,” is a walking Bible scholar. She moved to California from the great state of Arkansas in 1971. Sister Teacher has a passion for teaching. She has been a member of Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church since 1971. She followed her passion for teaching, and in 1977 became the lead teacher for Adult Class #6. Her motto still today is “Once My Student, Always My Student”.

Beyond her remarkable love for the Lord, Sister Teacher has showcased her love for teaching by working for the Oakland Unified School District for 55 years, all but four of those years spent at Emerson Elementary and Child Development School. She truly cares about her students, making sure they have the tools/supplies needed to learn either at OUSD or Bible Fellowship Missionary Baptist Church.

She’s also had a “Clothes Closet Ministry” for 51 years, making sure her students have sufficient clothing for school. The Clothes Closet Ministry extends past her students, she has been clothing the community for over 50 years as well. She loves the Lord and is a servant on a mission. She is a loving mother to two beautiful children, Sandra and Andre. This is the impact this woman of God has on her church and the community.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland’s ‘Green the Church,’ Others, Host a Climate Revival

On April 20, Oakland’s Green The Church California (GTC) and the Center For Food, Faith and Justice will celebrate Earth Day and present a Climate Revival event titled “Growing Healthy Communities From Soil To The Soul” at McGee Avenue Baptist Church at 1640 Stuart St, Berkeley, CA. The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

The revival will take place at McGee Avenue Baptist Church in Berkeley on April 20. Courtesy image.

Growing Healthy Communities from Soil to the Soul in Berkeley

By Y’Anad Burrell

The day will include inspiring talks, interactive workshops, networking opportunities, and a special panel on Food Sovereignty and Global Food Resilience.

The keynote speaker is Rev. Danté R. Quick, PhD, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Lincoln Gardens in Somerset, N.J. Quick is well known in the Bay Area, having served for more than 10 years as pastor of Friendship Missionary Baptist Church in Vallejo, CA.

Green The Church, founded in 2010 by Rev. Dr. Ambrose Carroll, Sr., and headquartered in Oakland, helps galvanize Black churches and their local communities and leaders to address issues critical to populations historically disengaged from conversations around pollution and health, climate change, and sustainability and energy efficiency.

The organization collaborates with major environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, and is committed to “creation justice”—care and justice for God’s people and the planet—and building the Beloved Community.

Environmental justice has long been a pressing concern for communities of color who bear the brunt of pollution and ecological degradation. Climate change exacerbates these issues, disproportionately impacting vulnerable communities. Recognizing this urgency, Black churches across the country are taking action.

With deep roots in the African American community and its commitment to social justice, the Black Church has become an essential advocate for sustainable practices and policies.

Over the past 14 years, in a powerful collaboration with significant environmental, sustainability, food security, faith, and community-based non-profit organizations, GTC has created a cadre of Black churches engaging in the environmental justice, climate, and sustainability movement.

GTC presently works with more than 1,000 pastors and congregations across the U.S., and groups in the Bahamas, Ghana, Nigeria, and the UK, showing that we can make a difference together.

The partnership between environmental justice advocates and the Black Church extends beyond individual congregations. Green The Church provides resources and support for faith communities seeking to address climate change and promote environmental justice.

Through collaboration, initiatives such as energy efficiency programs, solar installations, and environmental education have been implemented in Black churches nationwide. These efforts reduce the carbon footprint and save money on energy bills, benefiting the congregations and their communities.

The involvement of the Black Church in the fight against climate change is not just a participation, it’s a powerful message that galvanizes action across communities.

By integrating environmental justice into their ministry, Black churches are demonstrating that addressing climate change is not only a matter of science but also of social and moral responsibility, inspiring change at a grassroots level.

For more information, go to: www.greenthechurch.org.