City Government

Will an Independent Police Oversight Commission Make the November Ballot in Oakland?

Published

10 years ago

July 1, 2016

The Oakland City Council, operating under the cloud of a continuing police child sex abuse scandal, is set to decide July 19 whether to place a measure on the November ballot to create a civilian police oversight commission.

At issue is not only whether the measure will go on the ballot but also whether the ballot proposal will create a commission that will be sufficiently independent of the influence of the police union and the city administration, which have been accused of undermining police discipline and accountability for many years.

In a letter to city officials, the Coalition for Police Accountability urged the council to create an independent police commission.

“The community is especially committed to the core principle that the commission must be independent,” said Larry White, who signed the letter for the coalition.

“There is a universal perception that if commissioners are directly appointed by elected officials, they will owe allegiance to and be susceptible to influence from those who appointed them, and to that extent, they will not function independently.”

In addition, the coalition wants the commission to be separate from the City Attorney’s Office, which has repeatedly lost police discipline hearings, resulting in the rehiring of officers who had been fired.

“We are … convinced that the commission must be served by legal counsel that is not part of the City Attorney’s office, as is the case currently with our Citizens’ Police Review Board,” according to the letter.

A major question will be how members of the commission will be selected. A compromise proposal would allow the mayor to appoint three of seven members of the commission.

However, the coalition is arguing that in the wake of the present police scandal, such as compromise is not necessary.

The coalition’s proposal is that the mayor and council members would appoint a selection panel, which in turn would interview and select a diverse commission.

“No individual would be appointed directly by a councilmember or the mayor and would have no allegiance to any of them—that is the way to have a commission that is independent,” said Rashidah Grinage of the coalition.

In a following issue, the Post will feature Councilmember Dan Kalb’s promise to the community to support an oversight commission.

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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

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Inaugural Juneteenth Awards Ceremony Celebrates the Fillmore’s Black History, Leadership and Resilience

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

Published

2 weeks ago

June 26, 2026

Oakland Post

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown, Pastor Emeritus of Third Baptist Church, SF Mayor Daniel Lurie. Photo by Linda Parker Pennington.

By Linda Parker Pennington

The Fillmore Community Ambassadors held its first annual Juneteenth Wesley Johnson White Horse Awards ceremony on June 19 inside the newly reopened Fillmore Heritage Center.

The event featured awards for former San Francisco mayors London Breed and Willie Brown, along with Third Baptist Church Pastor Emeritus, Rev. Dr. Amos Brown.

The Koret Heritage lobby at the newly reopened center at 1330 Fillmore St. held a standing-room-only, culturally diverse and multi-generational audience while the art gallery featured photos of Fillmore community members in action, red Japanese lanterns, art and calligraphy, and Chinese artwork, giving the space a multicultural feel.

Addressing more than 100 Black and Asian attendees, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie stated “San Francisco is reliant on the Black community, and we must invest in this community.”

District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood acknowledged that “the Fillmore community has had a difficult history. Thanks to Rev. Amos Brown’s continuous focus on accountability and resistance, you hold us accountable and continue to inspire us.”

Mahmoud is referring to the Fillmore’s Japanese residents who were forced from their homes and sent to concentration camps during World War II. Black people occupied those homes until the return of their Japanese neighbors and then gave them back, while homes that had been unoccupied were lost. The presence of the Asian community on Juneteenth is a testament to that shared history.

In receiving his honor, Amos Brown elicited a powerful spontaneous call-and-response, where members of San Francisco’s many Black churches proudly shouted out the names: “Bethel AME! Providence Baptist! Jones Memorial! Glide!”

Awards program Master of Ceremonies Shawn Richards of Brothers Against Guns warmly introduced Breed, highlighting her many accomplishments, particularly on “March 16, 2020, when she became the first mayor to shut down a major U.S. city due to COVID-19, saving thousands of lives.”

The audience was captivated by Breed’s emotional speech touching on past traumas, present conditions, and future hopes for the neighborhood where she grew up.

She recalled another trauma of the neighborhood during the City’s redevelopment era in the 1960s, where Black residents were forced to move with a promise of being able to return that was largely unfulfilled.

“We remember when this land was just a field because they bulldozed hundreds of Victorian homes that Black people owned. They built the Fillmore Center, where most Black people can’t afford to live or start their own business. But we are still here.”