6/8/20 Oakland Police Commission Meeting Public Comments
The online meeting was called on Monday, June 8 to address the treatment of protesters by the Oakland Police Department during the recent George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter Movement in Oakland, California, which began on Friday, May 29, 2020. Below are comments made by several individuals who made speeches, while the rest are from the public made over the course of roughly three hours. The transcripts are lightly edited for clarity and brevity. If you feel the transcript misrepresents you, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter: @SarahBelleLin Instead of cherry-picking statements and trying to summarize/paraphrase people’s thoughts, I’d rather do justice to those who spoke and lay all their thoughts bare. This is a long document - 23 pages long. The statements may be triggering for those sensitive to police violence and brutality, so please take caution in proceeding if you believe you might be negatively impacted. For additional context, the Oakland Police Commission is not to be confused as part of the Oakland Police Department. The Commission is made up of community members who “oversee Oakland Police Department’s policies, practices, and customs to meet national standards of constitutional policing and to oversee the Community Police Review Agency which investigates police misconduct and recommends discipline,” as stated on the City of Oakland’s website. *Although the meeting was public, I will not provide the identities of those who made the comments. If you would like to verify the identities yourselves, visit https://www.oaklandca.gov/boards-commissions/police-commission/meetings for the link to the meeting video*
The online meeting was called on Monday, June 8 to address the treatment of protesters by the Oakland Police Department during the recent George Floyd protests and Black Lives Matter Movement in Oakland, California, which began on Friday, May 29, 2020.
Below are comments made by several individuals who made speeches, while the rest are from the public made over the course of roughly three hours. The transcripts are lightly edited for clarity and brevity. If you feel the transcript misrepresents you, feel free to reach out to me on Twitter: @SarahBelleLin
Instead of cherry-picking statements and trying to summarize/paraphrase people’s thoughts, I’d rather do justice to those who spoke and lay all their thoughts bare. This is a long document - 23 pages long. The statements may be triggering for those sensitive to police violence and brutality, so please take caution in proceeding if you believe you might be negatively impacted.
For additional context, the Oakland Police Commission is not to be confused as part of the Oakland Police Department. The Commission is made up of community members who “oversee Oakland Police Department’s policies, practices, and customs to meet national standards of constitutional policing and to oversee the Community Police Review Agency which investigates police misconduct and recommends discipline,” as stated on the City of Oakland’s website.
*Although the meeting was public, I will not provide the identities of those who made the comments. If you would like to verify the identities yourselves, visit https://www.oaklandca.gov/boards-commissions/police-commission/meetings for the link to the meeting video*
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mostly young women, in all honesty. It seemed as if the Oakland Police Department was
targeting young women. I treated a number of rubber bullet injuries. One of the women I
followed up with said she couldn't feel her body after being hit. Her hands had both been hit and
were gravely injured. Later the following day, she sent me photos. She had been shot over 20
times for saying, “fuck you” to the police. And I would like to echo her voice and say, fuck you to
the police for brutalizing, our children in the street. It was her first protest. She's a 22-year-old
woman. She's you may have seen her photographs because I know that they've been shared
with the police chief. I'm angry on behalf of people of color in our communities. I am angry on
behalf of our youth, but this has continued to go on, but they are being threatened and
demoralized by the police department. Shame on all of you for allowing this to continue and for
not abolishing the police long before this, this is not a new issue. This has been going on for
ages. We know you're corrupt. We all know you're corrupt. People do not trust you. They do not
feel safe in their own neighborhoods, not because of their neighbors, but because of the police
department. I would like to say that you are creating a public health crisis in the middle of a
public health pandemic.”
“I'm a resident of Oakland. I work in Alameda. Last Monday I was leaving my office in Alameda,
shortly after 8:00 P.M. and as soon as I walked out of my office door, I was just like, ‘what is that
smell?’ And then when I breathed in further, my nose started burning and I realized that I was
smelling tear gas in Alameda. Tear gas wasn't deployed in Alameda that night. The closest
place that was deployed was an Oakland, over a mile away from where I was. So the OPD had
to have released an immense amount of tear gas for me still to be able to smell it and for it to
physically affect me. It really does break my heart to hear the testimony of the people that were
there in that vicinity. I have also heard that it got into buildings in the surrounding area. I'm also
very worried about the health and safety of the people that live in that area and that work in that
area. There is just absolutely no reason whatsoever for the OPD to ever use a chemical weapon
that is banned in warfare. Tear gas is banned in warfare and there is absolutely no reason
whatsoever at any time for them to be using it on our citizens.”
“I'm a white resident of Oakland demanding the firing of all OPD and law enforcement. We can't
reform a state terrorist group. That's like staying with your abuser and expecting them to
change. It's pretty clear that they're not going to change. At protests and on the street, I see
OPD escalating situations and inciting violence, just generally terrorizing people like a terrorist
group would. OPD and all cops are a white supremacist military group meant to uphold white
supremacy and make rich, white people feel comfortable. The only way forward to have a
somewhat healthy community would be to release the budget towards reparations for everyone
who's been severely impacted by OPD. Obviously Ohlone land tax, schools, food, housing,
health services, everything that people need to survive, unlike being chased around by cops. If
you think that Oakland has a problem of like violence, then pull the fucking police off the street.
They're out of control. If anything, we need mediators, which I've literally never seen a cop be a
mediator. And to all the white people who are in this meeting, be mediators in your
neighborhood for people who are out on the street, who might get the cops called on them and
get fucking killed. It’s surprisingly easy to intervene and look out for your neighbors. I know you
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