Bay Area

Protesters Want Ex-Chief Armstrong Reinstated, Seek Meeting with Mayor Thao

A press conference in support of former Oakland Police Department Chief LeRonne Armstrong on Saturday, March 4 was held on the campus of The Lighthouse Community Charter School at 444 Hegenberger Road. Spearheaded by community activist Brenda Grisham, founder of the Christopher Lavell Jones Foundation Center, more than 40 people including faith leaders, chaplains, pastors and family members of homicide victims gathered to speak about what they believe to be an unjust firing of a chief they trusted and to demand the mayor reinstate him.

Published

3 years ago

March 13, 2023

Oakland Post

By Carla Thomas

Spearheaded by community activist Brenda Grisham, founder of the Christopher Lavell Jones Foundation Center, more than 40 people including faith leaders, chaplains, pastors and family members of homicide victims gathered to speak about what they believe to be an unjust firing of a chief they trusted and to demand the mayor reinstate him.

“We are not angry,” said Grisham. “We want answers, but more importantly we want our chief back. We are not understanding why our chief, who has brought the department back into compliance, has been fired with no explanation and no discussion with the community.”

Grisham, who lost a son to gun violence in 2010, says her multiracial coalition wants Armstrong back, not because he’s Black, but because he was a “committed and dedicated” chief.

Armstrong was fired last month after a report asserted that the former chief had failed to discipline an OPD officer whose actions violated department regulations.

Speakers described Armstrong as a leader who transformed the community’s perception of OPD and worked effectively and compassionately with family members who had lost loved ones to gun violence.

“He would get out of bed at 1 a.m. to be on the scene of homicides,” said Grisham.

Pastor Marty Peters of Victory Baptist Church and first VP of the Baptist Ministers Union of Oakland questioned the process that led to Armstrong’s suspension and later termination. He referred to the findings by a federal monitor that was appointed after the scandal that rocked OPD in the early 2000s and was projected to end in the next year.

“The moderator found 52 items to be fixed, Chief LeRonne Armstrong completed 51 of the 52. The chief was in love with his job and in love with his city, and the mayor has defamed his reputation,” Peters said.

Peters said he is also disappointed that Thao’s administration hasn’t adequately justified the chief’s firing. “He’s gone from sergeant to lieutenant, to deputy chief, to chief of police, and you refuse to tell us why you fired him when you see, Latinos, Asians, and African Americans, who stand in solidarity and in support of the chief,” Peters said, referring to Thao.

Some community members say they see a correlation between Armstrong’s termination and an increase in street violence.

Throughout OPD and the community Feb. 24 is known as “Bloody Friday,” said Daryle Allums, of “deep East Oakland” who represents Adamika Village’s Stop Killing Our Kids Movement, a victim-led violence prevention organization. There were three homicides that day with a total of five for that weekend.

Pastor Phyllis Scott, president of the Pastors of Oakland association said Armstrong went above and beyond the call of duty when he assigned a police squad to surround and protect her church during a funeral service when opposing gang members threatened to “shoot up the church.”

“Recently I performed funeral services for a young man I’d known since he was a toddler,” said Scott. “I didn’t back down and Chief Armstrong sent officers to ensure our safety.”

Scott said Armstrong helped her to re-establish the Oakland Chaplaincy Program. After approaching various churches, synagogues, the AAPI community and the LGBTQ community to recruit chaplains, the community activists were trained on how to be community chaplains.

“We then had the opportunity to assist on the scene of a homicide, visit hospitals to minister to the victims of violence, and open up our churches to perform services to families without the funds,” Scott said.

Now, Scott says he only hears about tragedy through the grapevine instead of sergeants within OPD. “We need to reinstate Chief Armstrong who had a heart and compassion for the community. The calls to our chaplaincy program have gone silent since the chief’s leave and firing.”

Several parents supported by Chief Armstrong when they had lost their children to violence were also present, holding signs of support.

Nina Carter, an East Oakland Violence Interrupter, said the mayor’s decision to fire the chief, has retraumatized the community.

“The mayor has put us in a fight, flight, freeze moment to where we don’t know what’s happening next. The mayor has not spoken on violence prevention. The message she’s sending is that she doesn’t care about the well-being of us.”

Graphic artist LeJon Loggins of Adamika Village said that Armstrong built the bridges necessary between the community and OPD. “He rebuilt the trust, so we were working with OPD better than before and bringing everyone together to solve things,” said Loggins. “Without the chief, we are back to square one — which is unfair to the community.”

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

Brenda Grisham, founder of the Christopher Lavell Jones Foundation Center speaks at a press conference in support of former Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong at the Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland. Photo By Carla Thomas.

Chaplains of the Oakland, re-created by Pastor Phyllis Scott and LeRonne Armstrong attend a press conference in support of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong at the Lighthouse Community Charter School in Oakland. (Left to Right: Pastor Mary McConn Gilmore, Minister Kevin Holden, Minister Candi Thornton, Wylie Knuckles, and Tony Grayson. Photo by Carla Thomas.

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Activism

Diabetes in Black California: Turning the Tide from Crisis to Control

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Published

2 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. Khadijah Lang is a family physician with a clinic in Los Angeles who specializes in several family medical practices, including prenatal care. Lang believes in family medicine. She says it is important to treat all members of a family. Thursday, June 5, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

By Charlene Muhammad, California Black Media

Crystal Lambert knew something was terribly wrong with her three-year-old granddaughter as she sped down the street trying to get her to the hospital.

“I thought she got a hold of some poison,” Lambert recalled.

Doctors found Lambert’s granddaughter had a blood sugar level over 800, diagnosing her with Diabetic Ketoacidosis(DKA), a state in which the body, starved of insulin, begins to shut down.

Lambert said she was born with a pancreas that was not fully functioning — it lacked the specialized cells required to produce insulin.

Her granddaughter survived and is five years old today. Now, she gives herself insulin shots, asks endless questions about her condition, and runs like the spirited child she is. But the terror of that night transformed Lambert — and ultimately inspired her to launch the We Fight Back Organization, a mobile health and food access initiative serving underserved communities across California. Lambert is the executive director.

The Crisis by the Numbers

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data, nearly 17.9% of Black adults in California have been diagnosed with diabetes — above the national Black adult average of 16.8%, and nearly five points higher than California’s overall adult rate of 12.6% across all races. California ranks 24th out of 39 states with available data for Black adult diabetes rates.

Nationally, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Black Americans were 24% more likely than the overall U.S. population to have diabetes in 2024. They also died from diabetes 78% more often than the general population in 2022. Black Americans are also more than twice as likely as the overall population to develop kidney failure caused by diabetes.

According to the California Health Care Foundation’s 2024 Health Disparities Almanac, Black Californians have the shortest life expectancy in the state at just 74.6 years — due in part to chronic conditions like diabetes and its devastating complications.

Leon Rock, co-founder of the African American Diabetes Association, believes statistics, though revealing, only tell part of the story.

“There are a whole bunch of Black folks that don’t tell you that they have diabetes — or don’t know,” he said.

And the disease itself, Rock is careful to note, is not what kills. “They die from the complications. That’s heart attack, that’s stroke, that’s amputations of legs, of feet. Going blind. All those complications are inherent in a system that has impacted Black folks with diabetes in California and across America.”

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of We Fight Back. She started the organization out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread the impact of her organization to the valley. Friday, June 6, 2026. Photo by Solomon O. Smith/California Black Media.

Crystal Lambert, creator and executive director of the We Fight Back Organization, started out of a need to learn more about diabetes on behalf of her granddaughter. Now she is looking to spread her organization to the valley, on Friday, June 6, 2026 Photo by Solomon O. Smith/ California Black Media

An Information Gap Fuels the Crisis

For Rock, part of the solution is diagnosis. He says the medical and public health systems are failing Black Californians by the absence of information designed for them.

“That is the bottom line. We need good information. Information that is culturally specific,” said Rock.

Telling people to eat healthy or exercise, he added, falls short when culturally specific alternatives are not provided, and when many residents of urban communities do not feel safe exercising in some neighborhoods – or outside at night.

Dr. Khadijah Lang, a family medicine physician and president of the Golden State Medical Association, agrees that the roots of the crisis run deeper than individual behavior — and blaming patients misses the point.

“We are not genetically predisposed to diabetes,” Lang said. “But the system under which we live increases the likelihood that we will develop it.”

What the Body Needs — What Communities Are Denied

Type 2 diabetes, which accounts for 90 to 95% of all diabetes cases, according to the CDC, develops when the body can no longer use insulin effectively to regulate blood sugar. Left unmanaged, it damages nerves, kidneys, eyes, and the cardiovascular system. The hemoglobin A1C test is a blood draw that reveals how the body has processed sugar over the previous three months — not just at the moment of the test. It is the standard tool for both diagnosis and ongoing monitoring.

That distinction matters, Lang emphasized, because patients cannot manipulate three months of blood sugar history the way they might fast for a day before a single blood draw.

“The pill is not meant to undo or control a sugar level that’s being constantly stressed,” Lang said. “It’s meant to work in conjunction with a low-carbohydrate diet and exercise.” She recommended at minimum 30 minutes of physical activity five days a week — breakable into 10-minute sessions for those who need it.

Lang stressed that education must be delivered in language people recognize and can relate to. The goal is to inform them of the choices that serve their health best, she said.

But for many Black Californians, even those informed choices remain out of reach, Lambert said.

“They need access to healthy foods and medication, too” she said.

California has made some critical policy advances. The state has expanded access to the Continuous Glucose Monitor (CGM), which has transformed diabetes care for state residents. Assembly Bill 365, introduced in 2024, proposed requiring Medi-Cal to cover the costs of CGM and other related medical equipment but it failed in the State Senate. Since then, the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) reports that the core Medi-Cal CGM benefit now available to eligible patients was solidified through previous budget actions and pharmacy policy updates.

These measures, while meaningful, have not closed the gap for the communities most at risk, according to advocates.

Control Through Community

Health care advocates conclude that the solution must be communal, culturally grounded, and sustained — not a fad, not a celebrity moment, not a single clinic visit. For example, observed Lang, lifestyle shaped by shared values and collective accountability can move the needle where individual prescriptions have not.

Rock is building infrastructure to match the urgency, establishing local chapters of the African American Diabetes Association across the country, with California next.

“We have to do for self, period,” he said. “Health is wealth. We have to eat to live.”

And Lambert, whose granddaughter unknowingly started all of this for her, keeps showing up.

“Diabetes advocacy is about dignity, education, prevention, and hope,” she said.

Video: Diabetes Disparity Exposed in California

This article is supported by the California Health Care Foundation

(CHCF). Visit www.chcf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 1 – 7, 2026

Published

3 days ago

July 5, 2026

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

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Arts and Culture

Prescott Circus Theatre Presents Free Summer Performance Series

Now in its 41st year, the Prescott Circus Theatre is a nationally recognized performing arts education program for Oakland youth. The circus offers safe environments that challenge Oakland youth, through circus arts training, to develop the skills and confidence to thrive on stage, in school, and in life.

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

Prescott Circus showcase pathways pyramid. Photo courtesy of Prescott Circus.

By Post Staff

The Prescott Circus, Oakland’s longest-running youth circus, is returning this summer with its free shows. Join the Prescott Circus’s young stars as they share their joys and talents through stilt-dancing, tumbling, juggling, and more.

At the heart of this one-hour show, which demonstrates teamwork, pride, and joy, are Oakland Unified School District students ages 8 – 17 from more than 10 different schools

This is accomplished through no-cost school and community programs for more than 300 Oakland youth each year. Performing company members from Prescott, where the program began, perform and make appearances at as many as 40 Bay Area events each year.

The summer program is funded in part by Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, California Arts Council, Port of Oakland, and the West Davis & Bergard Foundation.

Performances will be held Tuesday, July 14, 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. (ASL interpreted) and Wednesday, July 15, 11 a.m., at the Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts, 1428 Alice St., Oakland. For free reservations go to

https://PrescottCircusSummerShows.eventbrite.com

For group reservations for camps, childcare centers, senior centers, go to www.prescottcircus.org

A community show will be held Saturday, July 18, 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at DeFremery Park,1651 Adeline St., Oakland.