No on Y: Riders Trial Re-Starts Monday, 9:30AM

Education Not Incarceration
A coalition of teachers, students, parents and concerned community members
ednotinc [at] riseup.net  http://www.ednotinc.org


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE For more information:
Friday, October 29, 2004
No on Measure Y Campaign to Hold Press Conference and Rally
Before Beginning of the Re-Trial of the Oakland Riders

“No on Measure Y: 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 and rally prior to the start of the retrial of Oakland’s “Riders”
WHEN: Monday, November 1st, 2004, 9:30AM
WHERE: Outside the Rene Davidson Oakland Court House, 1225 Fallon Street


Oakland, CA The No on Measure Y Campaign will be holding a rally and press conference outside the Oakland Court House on Monday, November 1st prior to the opening remarks in the retrial of three former police officers accused of being law-breaking "Riders". The retrial will be a shorter version of the original, which lasted over a year before ending Sept. 30, 2003, with jurors acquitting the men of eight charges and deadlocking on the remaining 27. The Riders were known to many as a law-enforcement gang in West Oakland for false arrests, filing false police reports, planting evidence and kidnapping suspects in West Oakland in 2000.

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.

Many feel that the Riders are representative of the Oakland police force, rather than exception to the rule. ”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. “Oakland police are not accountable to the community which they serve. Most are from outside of the City, they are walking out of Police Review Board meetings and suing the City of Oakland in attempt to close these hearings 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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