No on Y Press Conference Thursday (tomorrow) 5:30PM at City Hall Before CPRB Hearing

Education Not Incarceration

A coalition of teachers, students, parents and concerned community members
ednotinc [at] riseup.net – http://www.ednotinc.org

PRESS ADVISORY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information:

Wednesday, October 27, 2004
More Information: 510.530.2448

No on Measure Y Campaign to Hold Press Conference Before Citizen Police Review Board Hearing on Oakland Police Use of Tear Gas at Carijama Festival
“Education, Housing, Jobs and Health Care Will Make Our Communities Safer, not 63 More Police” Campaign Slogan Resonates with Oakland Communities


WHAT: A press conference before the Citizen Police Review Board hearing on the use of tear gas at the Carijama Festival

WHEN: Thursday, October 28th, 5:30PM

WHERE: Oakland City Hall, Frank Ogawa Plaza, 14th and Broadway, Oakland


Oakland, CA The No on Measure Y Campaign will be holding a press conference prior to the hearing of the Citizen Police Review Board on the use of tear gas by police. The Board will hear complaints from victims and witnesses to the Oakland Police Department's brutal use of tear gas at this year's Carijama festival, and defending the department at the hearing will be Lt. David Kozicki, the operations commander who oversaw Carijama.

Complaints of excessive force and other police misconduct in Oakland are up 43 percent during the first half of 2004 compared with the same period a year ago. Â At the same time the Oakland Police Officers Association has filed suit against the city to close the hearings of the Review Board to the public.

Measure Y is the November ballot initiative in Oakland that puts funding police ahead of funding programs. Californians for Justice is the latest endorser of No on Y. The “No on Measure Y” campaign, headed by the Education Not Incarceration Coalition, has lit a spark in Oakland, for groups demanding public accountability and community control. Local groups and concerned community members, such as Councilwoman Desley Brooks, Wilson Riles, the Oakland Education Association, ILWU 10, SEIU 24/7, AYPAL (Asian/Pacific Islander Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership), and the Xicana Moratorium Committee are currently mobilizing to defeat Measure Y, a November ballot initiative that will direct 60% of newly raised taxes to hire more police officers in Oakland.

”Increasing police presence within our city will not curb violence nor make anyone safer” said Aaron Shuman, Oakland organizer and a member of the Education Not Incarceration. “Most Oakland police do not live in Oakland; they are a scandal-ridden department and do not want to be accountable. They are walking out of Review Board meetings, and trying to close this process of accountability to the public.”


”True violence prevention begins by investing in the people of our communities,” said Wilson Riles Jr. “We know that what builds strong, safe communities are the investments we make in education and other basic social services.”



“We need better trained police, not more police,” said Marylon Boyd, whose disabled son Cammerin Boyd suffered police brutality in Oakland, days before he was killed by police in San Francisco on May 5, 2004.



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