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On October 10, 2005, Diallo Neal was murdered in Oakland when a California Highway Patrol (CHP) motorcycle officer struck the rear end of Diallo's motorcycle, launching Diallo into a bus stop, pole, and concrete bench. CHP fled the scene. After his mother, Gilda Baker discovered that the accounts of eyewitnesses and investigation documents did not match the official police report, she set out to uncover the real circumstances surrounding her son's death. On April 22, Ms. Baker and supportive community members rallied at Oakland City Hall calling for an investigation to take place and demanding justice for Diallo.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump said he would release his taxes, but that he couldn't until a supposed IRS audit concluded. Trump continues to refuse to release his tax returns, despite mounting questions regarding conflicts of interest and how much he might be beholden to those representing foreign powers such as Russian oligarchs. Protesters gathered in over 150 cities on April 15, the traditional tax filing deadline, to demand that Trump release his taxes. In Northern California, Tax Day protests were held in Santa Cruz, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, Ukiah, and other cities.

On April 15, students, anti-racists, anti-fascists, and other residents of the Bay Area clashed in the streets of Berkeley against an array of organized white supremacist and far-right forces. Trump supporters openly carried anti-Semitic signs, fascist symbols, and raised their arms in sieg heil Nazi salutes. Unlike most events and actions the far-right has organized in recent past, this time members of the Right were able to take the streets in a city regarded as a leftist stronghold. The far-right is now bragging that if it can take over Berkeley, it can do the same in any city. Meanwhile, much of the Left focused on marches around Trump's tax returns.

Pacifica Foundation is a non-profit organization which owns five independently operated, non-commercial, listener-supported radio stations known for their progressive/liberal political orientation. Its national headquarters adjoins station KPFA in Berkeley. Bill Crosier, Pacifica Foundation's interim Executive Director, addressed members of the 5-station radio network after it became known that at least one of the KPFA Local Station Board members, with others, has secretly contacted celebrities and prominent supporters of progressive causes, falsely claiming that Pacifica is “collapsing”, and asking them to be on the board of a new nonprofit organization which would seek to acquire Pacifica's assets, or at least those of station KPFA.

The staff at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, have formed the Ella Baker Workers Association, a staff union, and have selected the Communications Workers of America to serve as the EBWA’s collective bargaining representative. EBC’s management team has voluntarily recognized the formation of a union to represent its staff. Both staff and management assert that the formation of the union aligns with Ella Baker’s legacy and the organization's longstanding support for unionization, collective bargaining, and worker voice on the job.

Bay Area Committee Against Fascism asks: On April 15th, where will the Left be? A repulsive spring medley of Trump supporters, white supremacists, fascists and racists are planning yet another rally in downtown Berkeley. The threat of far-Right and Alt-Right violence isn't fun and it isn't pretty. It isn't happening "somewhere else" and it isn't found inside empty buildings that we march outside of and chant slogans at. It's real, it's in our face, and it's power is growing all around us. We need mass action to defeat them as a community. What we do, or do not do, on Saturday, April 15 will have ramifications across the country.

Miguel Masso was hired by the Oakland Police after leaving his job in New York City in 2007 in the wake of a torture lawsuit. After killing Alan Blueford in 2012, Masso resigned from the Oakland Police Department in late spring of 2014 in the aftermath of the lawsuit brought by the Blueford family against the City of Oakland. He quickly found another job with the Hollister Police Department in August of 2014. Now, after being pulled over by Masso on January 27, 2017, Hollister resident Earl Malanado was physically and verbally abused by Masso. Malanado believes he barely escaped with his life.