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Indybay Feature

Chip Johnson Just Doesn't Get It With His Broad Call to "Back the Badge"

by concerned citizen
It was inevitable that Chip Johnson -- the San Francisco Chronicle's reliable source for a never-ending stream of hyperbolic Oakland bashing -- would chime in on the shooting deaths in Oakland on Saturday. With the deaths of five people, including four Oakland police officers, Chip Johnson has turned in a doozy this time, going so far as calling for Oakland residents to wear black armbands with police badges on them, "so everyone knows where we stand." Never mind his obliviousness to the nasty historical antecedents of citizens wearing armbands in solidarity with police or military forces. One has to wonder if he's lost his mind when he writes such things with seemingly serious intent.

Chip Johnson Just Doesn't Get It With His Broad Call to "Back the Badge"

Monday March 23, 2009
by concerned citizen
indybay.org

Chip Johnson had apparently already worked himself into a lather as he began to write his latest rant published today: "The deaths of four Oakland police officers... are undisputable, immutable, irrevocable proof of the chaotic level of predatory violence on the streets of this city." No, Chip, if these deaths were proof of that, then we wouldn't be talking about a single suspect who has already met his fate here. If it was proof of that, you probably wouldn't have written just a week before, on March 13th, that the "sun seems to be shining a bit brighter than usual on Oakland's often-violent streets." It can't be the apocalypse and the beginning of Oakland's salvation at the same time. But in Chip Johnson's world there is generally little room for subtlety or grey areas and plenty of room for Chicken Little histrionics and bipolar mood swings from week to week.

It is the overall premise of today's piece, though, that requires addressing here. Basically, Chip Johnson is saying that the ongoing hagiographies published and broadcast across the corporate media spectrum are not enough. The candlelight vigil called for by City officials at 6 p.m. Tuesday at 74th Avenue and MacArthur is not enough. He wants to see "moral outrage in every single resident in this city." He wants the City to declare a day of mourning and request that everyone in Oakland wear a black armband with a badge on it. He wants us all to walk in lockstep and blindly "back the badge."

But Chip Johnson just doesn't get it.

The citizens of Oakland, especially those who live in East and West Oakland, cannot instantaneously forget the abuse and murders they have experienced at the hands of Oakland police for decades. While many are indeed sympathetic to any loss of life, including police, the lives of four police officers are no more important than the lives of Oscar Grant, Andrew Moppin, Lesley Xavier Allen, Mac "Jody" Woodfox, Anita Gay, and many other people of color who have been gunned down by East Bay police forces in just the last year. The only "moral outrage" Chip Johnson displayed in all of his columns regarding the murder of Oscar Grant was not about the shocking video of the police abuse and murder, nor was it about the murder of yet another person of color by the police, nor that the primary perpetrator had not even been questioned by authorities at the time. His outrage was that nearly "300 businesses were struck" on January 7th during the Oscar Grant Rebellion. Of course, he never even bothered to correct that grossly exaggerated count of businesses with broken windows in later columns.

Indeed, considering where his "outrage" priorities appear to be, it's highly insulting when Chip Johnson presumes to have "any real notion of what social justice means" and takes it upon himself to declare what Uhuru and other "so-called" activists should be doing now in reaction to the deaths of four Oakland police officers. He wants everyone to stop what they are doing and "denounce" the shooting of the officers on Saturday because he says so, because he is wearing his black armband with a badge right now.

He should not hold his breath waiting. Not only can people not forget the family members, neighbors, and co-workers who have been abused or killed by a completely unaccountable police force, those attuned to the corrupt inner workings of police departments in regard to brutality and cover-up cannot forget that Capt. Ed Poulson, head of Internal Affairs at the Oakland Police Department, is currently on paid leave as a result of his personal involvement in the 2000 beating death of Jerry Amaro. You see, in the OPD you can be involved in beating someone to death and then get promoted to the very position in charge of investigating such killings. Or you can shoot to death two unarmed citizens within a year of each other and go a permanent paid vacation, as is the case with Officer Hector Jimenez. Even casting aside the Oakland Riders or the 11 officers fired in January for frequently lying in search warrant requests, is it a coincidence that Oakland police have shot 45 people of color in the last five years, killing 15, and not a single officer to have shot someone has been disciplined in any way?

Yet Chip Johnson seriously expects Oakland citizens to forget all that and fall in lockstep behind a police department with such an atrocious history. Perhaps Chip Johnson said it best himself when he wrote about the outrage expressed by citizens on January 7th over the murder of Oscar Grant and the lack of accountability demanded of the BART officer the whole world saw shoot him in the back -- "I don't get it - on several levels."


articles cited:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/23/MNPG16L7DK.DTL,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/13/MN0R16EF2K.DTL,
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/09/BAV915687Q.DTL,
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/01/24/18565434.php,
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/07/18568854.php, and
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/03/22/18580461.php
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Comments (Hide Comments)
by just sayin'
"I'm sorry my car was burned but the issue is very upsetting."

- Ken Epstein, assistant editor of the Oakland Post, who was finishing an article about Grant's death, watched from the 12th story of his office at 14th and Franklin streets as his 2002 Honda CR-V disintegrated in a roar of flames on January 7th (http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11401338)


Johnson had zero skin in the game but was more upset about broken windows than a police murder. He's tired. And always predictable. Show faux horror over broken glass at rebellion. Show faux support for killed cops. Boring.

And for all of his reports twice every week complaining about crime, he's not an advocate for about anything other than more police as the solution to everything. If we all just get behind the cops, everything will be perfect. He's no advocate for structural reform to deal with poverty and joblessness, and he's certainly no strong advocate for police accountability or even community policing, which could go a long way toward repairing community relations. He just wants us all to bow down and accept the street justice they violently deal out to our people.
by me
Homicide is leading cause of death of black men under 35. 99% of those homicides aren't by the police. While police abuse issues are an issue, crime is a bigger issue times a hundred in Oakland.

While I'm not down with everything Johnson says, I am down with keeping violence/crime front and center as the top issue facing this city. When they do polls of Oakland residents crime is the top issue by far, police abuse doesn't even register.

Arresting people like Mixon Lovelle is important. The dude probably murdered other people. Getting people like him in jail is very much a major part of the solution.
by me too
and neither does "Chip" is that police are a huge part of the problem

Chip wrote today: In the city's most troubled communities, it's clearer than ever that the fear of retaliatory violence has cowed law-abiding citizens and left the police standing alone against the bad guys.

he, and you, act like police are completely apart from the problem -- as if they are just overlord good guys impotent to do anything. you should know that people are not just afraid of gangsters, they are legitimately afraid of police as well, regardless of what any poll says

if police bothered to get out of their cars and walk around neighborhoods, community policing as it's known, including sticking to certain beats for long-term periods, they could build personal relationships with folks and greatly improve mutual trust. if those policing oakland actually lived in oakland, maybe they'd have greater respect for it's poorer citizens, and a greater sympathy for those trying to make a better life after having been snagged by the system, usually for minor drug offenses that forever hold them back. if the oakland police could ever get serious about policing its own instead covering up for them as they usually do, maybe the police violence against residents would decrease and people cold become less afraid of cops and feel safer in standing up. if the city would get serious about rehabilitation and jobs programs instead of just pumping more and more money into police enforcement, things might get better

it's a messy complicated world we live in and trite calls for more police or respecting cops as they kick the shit out of people ain't gonna do it
by me
Simply put, you're helping to enable the fraticidal violence that is plaguing the Oakland flatlands and killing young black and brown men. 99% of the death isn't by police violence. The cops are a small problem quantitatively speaking.


Cities like Chicago, NYC, and LA are experiencing 40 year lows in violence because those cities implanted policing strategies that work. They didn't eliminate poverty or create some magical social program. They arrested the Mixon Lovelle's of the world and through their damn asses in jail. Oakland needs to the same thing.

also, California locks up more of it's own than any other state, so we've got far more ex-cons running around who can't find work due to the stigma of having a record. and crime is down in Oakland now as well. it is across the country

besides, it wasn't really fair of you to glom onto the one single point I made about city responsibilities when I had made several about police that you just ignored. at least you owned that police had to change their strategies to become more effective. it wasn't just the people snapping in line as Johnson expects that improved things


I want to point out a couple of things I ran into today on Youth Radio, a pretty good operation...

these are excerpts from longer articles that show the general distrust of police in Oakland. you can poo-poo it all you want, and demand folks just snap in line, but it's real as can be, and the police need to learn to deal with it from a position of mutual respect rather than just try to control the situation through force alone, which only breeds more distrust. are they supposed to be a part of the community or just overlords with guns and badges?


March 23, 2009

When you live in a dangerous place, everyone is a potential criminal. No one can tell the difference. Police are like a gang or the mafia. They are family and when one dies, they take that personally. I’m worried about what the ripple effects will be. I’m too busy to hang out on the streets of East Oakland, but I know a lot of young people who do. What will happen to them when the innocent are mixed with the guilty?

http://www.youthradio.org/news/cops-shot-my-neighborhood



March 23, 2009

23-year-old Brandon McFarland, who lives in the East Oakland neighborhood where this weekend's shootings occurred, isn't so optimistic.

He said, "I don't think anything is going to change in the minds of the people in the neighborhoods...Somewhere along the line, police stopped being personable. They stopped knowing how to talk to people. The people who patrol, they don't have relationships with the neighborhood. If they do, they are the exception."

http://www.youthradio.org/news/oakland-reacts-death-police-officers
by LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF LOVELLE MIXON!!
-

***************************************

LONG LIVE THE SPIRIT OF LOVELLE MIXON!!

***************************************
by OTOH
To take out four of them before going down... I mean, I'm telling you, that was one hell of a good warrior as far as warriors go. I don't know his reason. He might have been fed up with the crap cops pulled on him in the past. He might have had perfectly valid personal reasons for doing what he did. But to take out four, including two from the SWAT team who were on the offensive, that guy was one bad ass dude. I'll tell you what. If I had to go to battle with someone, I'd want a guy like that right next to me! I don't care what anyone says about him. I'd have wanted that guy covering me.
by Jonathan
I'm sick of hearing about the New York success. There is a tried and true way of reducing crime - it's called a police state. That's what they turned my home town New York into.

There are more cops in NYC than there are troops occupying Iraq. Of the five largest police forces in the country, two are in NYC (NYPD and NY Transit Police).

Sure, many have liked it and feel more secure. Many others, mainly the poor and young, particularly of color, are hassled by police every day, as is the nature of a police state. NY cops will hassle you for anything, even the smallest infraction under their "Zero Tolerance" policy.

The massive NY police forces have also been used against protesters, penning them in, denying permits, making mass arrests, and in other ways limiting people's free speech rights. That comes with a police state too.

Is that what we want here in Oakland? We have to find better ways to combat crime.

by yep
You' like him standing next to you? Looks like your buddy might have been a rapist - remember i said "might have" - check other local news stories - are you so sure you want to side with him now?
by chrongone
I styopped reading his stuff years ago. Does the Chron just keep him there for a joke? He writes like he's in high school, at least compared to the others over there. I can't imagine having him there is going to increase the paper's chances of getting any more paid subscribers, that's for damned sure.
by cp
Weird. I had CNN on in the background, and on the Anderson Cooper show, part of the angle of the police shootings story was 'and some Oakland residents thought they had it coming". I have to try to find a transcript.
by a-feminist
Ah, ah, AH...

*TOKEN*

Much better. Nothing like a good purging sneeze.
by me
I don't agree with everything Chip Johnson writes however he has correctly been on Dellums and the Oakland city council asses, to do something about the outrageous and out of control levels of violence in Oakland. It is unacceptable to allow this violence to continue unabated. Arresting these criminals is part of the solution.

Perhaps the dingbats here should take some their sillyass ideas to some community meetings in Oakland flatlands and see what the response is. Why don't you see if the black and brown folks really want less police enforcement. When the laugh your ass out of their meeting, you might realize how utterly you are of touch with Oakland residents feelings about crime.

And to the idiots celebrating that piece of shit Lovelle Mixon, be thankful he didn't kill someone you love. Besides his heinous killing of the cops, the press is reporting he was a suspect in at least one other homicide. Guys like Mixon need to have their asses thrown the fuck in jail.



by a-feminist
No, that's what the police and the military are for:

http://www.friendsofbradwill.org

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcella_Grace_Eiler

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/09/30/18542081.php

Definitely true in Brad's case, unresolved in the other two. Don't try to play the "you can't possibly understand" thing with us, you have no idea.
by me too
Giving police carte blanche to do as they please, stomp on people, roll around without building any relationships or community bonds, is one of the main reasons things are like they are in Oakland now. When you say, "unleash the hounds," it only aggrevates the situation.

As for the less police thing you said, that's a straw man as there has not been a single comment here, nor the post itself, that says "less police" in any shape or form. More police accountability, more community policing were mentioned. And, by the way, I've been to community meetings all over Oakland for the last 20 years and both of those are things the community desperately longs for. They know too many people have no respect for cops for a reason. I can assure you that Johnson is far from representing the 99% of people he arrogantly thinks he does.

Your overly simplistic black and white thinking (like Johnson's) is what got us into this mess in the first place. Police accountability = violence enabling? That's ridiculous. You want better relations between cops and citizens, well then the cops need to start making more of an effort to earn respect. Maybe then people will be more willing to work with cops to solve violent crimes. As it is now, cops are one of the sources of violence in lower income areas like East and West Oakland and therefore they are not trusted allies, even of so-called law abiding citizens. The cops are largely perceived as militarized outsiders, which they are as few actually live in Oakland or have ties to it besides the paycheck.

As longs as you resist police accountability, you, sir, are the true violence enabler. You choose to throw out pap responses like "throw them all in jail" to a complex situation without regard to building true community security that includes a police force citizens can have faith in.
by me
Yes some paramilitary goons in Oaxaca murdered Brad Will. Celebrating the deaths of some traffic cops in Oakland is still no less fucking sick.

Back to the USA. I'm not saying that there aren't problems with the police in general or the OPD in particular, however by switching the conversation away from the fact that 99% of Oakland homicides aren't by the OPD you are helping to enable the continued spiral of death happening in Oakland flatlands to predominately black and brown youth. Why aren't you outraged by that?

I have a black nephew in the flatlands and I don't want to see become a statistic most likely by someone in his peer group and not by the OPD. That's the real life percentages.

by me
Thanks for the facts. The speak for themselves.
by another concerned citizen
Funny how many comments are getting censored by Indybay editors today! What, free speech a problem for you? Good thing I saved my crime stats - here they are again, with my editorial comments removed in case that was the problem. You guys like information, right? Speak truth to power, right? Well here ya go...

In case any of you actually care about numbers instead of ideology, here are recent stats from one year in our beloved Oaktown:

Oakland Murders 145
Oakland Rapes 306
Oakland Robberies 3534
Oakland Aggravated Assaults 3614
Oakland Burglaries 5070
Oakland Larceny/Thefts 8725
Oakland Motor Vehicle Thefts 10549
Oakland Arsons 307

Know what that adds up to? 32,250 crimes. Thirty-two thousand two hundred fifty.

Know how many police shootings happened that same year? 7. No extra zeroes, just 7. Not all fatal, either. And I won't even get into arguing with you whether any of those were justified, provoked, suicide by cop, etc.

In case you're curious, here's where I got that number, look familiar?: http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/02/07/18568854.php

Y'all got some weird priorities for people who claim to care about excessive violence in your community. Oh wait, I forgot, the police committed all of those 32,250 crimes. That's why they're so damn busy!
by Sludge
The Chron comments have been very aggressive in deleting ANY Balanced references to Police initiated Violence in underpriveleged areas. They are assertive in hosting nasty racist hate flames against any suspects of color...even leaving comments calling for summary execution (LYNCHING) on their pages.


Tell the San Francisco "Chronicle" Yellow Hearst Tabloid what racists and thug supporters they are. Better yet SHOW THEM. Nothing gets results like a little direct action.

Try not to bump into me at the SF Chron building OK, you might screw up my aim.
by a-feminist
"Yes some paramilitary goons in Oaxaca murdered Brad Will. Celebrating the deaths of some traffic cops in Oakland is still no less fucking sick."

I'm not big on the eye for an eye thing. I understand people's anger, but the cops in my view are agents of the system, not the system itself, and the system is the problem. The murder rate must go down, *and* the cop violence, disrespect and overall attitude of "everybody's a perp, you're all subhuman until I decide otherwise" has to go. It's my view that this is due to cop culture, which is also an extension of military culture, and the system perpetuates that. In lieu of dismantling the prison industrial complex altogether, the answers lie in genuine community-based policing -- cops actually having an on-the-ground relationship with the people on their beat (including living in the neighborhoods they police), coupled with civilian oversight with actual power to do something, as well as a complete overhaul of the culture of violence and corruption within the police force. I don't think that's the solution, but it would be truckloads better than what we have now.

"switching the conversation away"

Not quite - the inference was that we wouldn't understand what it's like to lose someone due to violence. Many of us do.

"you are helping to enable the continued spiral of death happening in Oakland flatlands to predominately black and brown youth. Why aren't you outraged by that?"

I'm not outraged, I'm deeply saddened. Black on black crime is pointless, and yes, kids killing other kids is completely unacceptable, you got that right. Where we disagree is why that's happening, and what the solutions are. You have your suggestions, I have mine - having a diversity of opinions doesn't decrease the likelihood of finding solutions, it increases it. Which is what you want, amirite?

"I have a black nephew in the flatlands and I don't want to see become a statistic most likely by someone in his peer group and not by the OPD. That's the real life percentages."

Believe me, whoever he is, I don't want to see him become a statistic either.
by another concerned citizen
I happen to agree this is the way to go, and I'm glad there's something we can agree on. A lot of other things need to happen to...and the economy ain't helping at the moment...but count me in on community policing.

But I disagree the cops are out there causing or provoking all the crimes. Check the stats I just posted. Oakland doesn't even have enough cops to be involved in crime on that scale.
by a-feminist
Glad we found something we agree on.

"But I disagree the cops are out there causing or provoking all the crimes. "

I didn't say that - in fact, what I said is that the system is the problem, not the cops. Funding more police and hoping it's all going to get better (or for that matter, writing some tepid post about "honoring the badge") isn't going to deal with a problem that has its roots in societal problems, especially not with the police system that we have at present. The neocon right and centrist liberals always rail against spending money on "big government," except when it comes to the kind of big government that they like - not saying that describes you per se, but they are the ones who drive the whole more cops = less crime paradigm which you seem to be espousing, at least in part.
by another concerned citizen
"Glad we found something we agree on."

Me too. And I'm not going to pretend police are the solution to all of this. For the record I dislike most government, view it as a last resort for most problems, and am radically libertarian on most issues you could name. But that doesn't mean I'll waste my time idealizing sociopaths and dancing on the graves of cops. In practical terms it loses sites like this one all credibility with people like me, and there are a lot of people like me.

If it were up to me we'd be treating violence like a public health problem, with people from the community and NGOs taking the first steps to stop violence before cops ever need to get involved. There's been good work in Chicago with ex-cons who know the streets intervening in situations before they get really bad. I could get behind that approach and community policing in a second.

Alright I'm tired of thinking about this because it'll been on my mind all day and I need to get back to my real life. Specifically, sleep.
by I don't think so
"The citizens of Oakland, especially those who live in East and West Oakland, cannot instantaneously forget the abuse and murders they have experienced at the hands of Oakland police for decades."

Most Oakland residents I know want more police presence in their communities, not less. That is especially the case for law abiding citizens who live in high crime areas.
by me too
they want BETTER police, more EFFECTIVE. police that treat the community with respect, not as an object of scorn or derision.

it would be a start if this city valued community policing or hired cops that actually live here

when I hear people talking about more police as THE solution, I hear people talking about military solutions to a complex people problem. I hear some of the same arguments made about our occupation of Iraq, but here in my city. if we just bomb more, everything will work out. such overly simplistic thinking i find offensive, as it dehumanizes and leaves too many casualties. solely military solutions make no account of how to help those without hope, such as the shooter on saturday
Chron, Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Mourning the gunman

At the apartment building where Mixon was fatally shot by SWAT team officers, a large crowd gathered to pay respects to Mixon, also known as "Vell," and discuss the circumstances they believe led to his death, things they say they deal with on a regular basis.

Mandingo Hayes said he came out to support Mixon and his family. He called the 26-year-old "a soldier."

"I know how frustrating it feels to be on parole," Hayes said of Mixon. "I offer condolences to the families of the officers, but they can't expect us to feel too much sorrow when eight men were killed by police last year and no one came to our communities to express their sadness."

Lavette Jones, who lives in the neighborhood, said many people don't understand what it's like to live in East Oakland and the amount of violence she deals with.

Getting shot 'part of life'

"We can't be expected to feel for the police the way we feel for people from our community," Jones said. "Getting shot and killed is part of life when you live in Oakland.

"Think of it like New Orleans, even after the floods, people didn't want to leave their homes or their community. It's the same for us. We are in a disaster zone, but we don't want to move."

Many in Oakland say they won't give up on the city. From attorneys to students to retirees to the unemployed, most residents say they're proud of the city's tolerance, natural beauty and lack of pretension.

Most mourners interviewed Monday said they regularly volunteer and make extra efforts to help their neighbors.

"I've lived all around the U.S., and there's no better place than Oakland," said Joe Cokes, a teacher at Oasis charter high school downtown, who brought his class to City Hall to sign the condolence books. "And right now we have to come together."
by wit us or aginst us
if you're not for flattening an area with cluster bombs, you are soft on terrorism

same kind of thinking led California to pass some of the most draconian "crime" laws in the nation in the 1990s, and now we can't build prisons fast enough to hold everyone.

yet has that solved the issue of murder in low income neighborhoods? me thinks not
by T. Gunther
Whether the BART tragedy was an error or intentional, I prefer our justice system decide rather than East Oakland gangs backed by the NRA.
The ignorance and hatred of the people responding to that tragedy was an assault on our entire city. And what about the assault on the BART passengers who rode the train that night in terror while miscreants brawled? To infer that a BART officer's misdeed entitles East Oaklanders to riot in the streets, smash our cars, trash our businesses, destroy our property and threaten our safety is to sanction anarchy. But to hear the shrill screams of bloodlust and ignorance justifying this vicious slaughter of four of our civil servants as payback chills me to the bone.
They're now trying to rationalize their decision to charge in and kill Lovelle Mixon without first attempting safer alternatives. Similarly, the BART cop tried to rationalize shooting Oscar Grant in the back.
by M
Your counter to Chip's nonsense is right on point. I was too annoyed to write a response to him so I'm glad to see yours. Thanks!
"Oakland Murders 145
Oakland Rapes 306
Oakland Robberies 3534
Oakland Aggravated Assaults 3614
Oakland Burglaries 5070
Oakland Larceny/Thefts 8725
Oakland Motor Vehicle Thefts 10549
Oakland Arsons 307
= 32,250"

Now if we separate out property-related crimes, the total stat goes down to 4,065. According to your numbers, a redistribution of wealth would get rid of 80% of "crime"!
by Cuñado
Whether the BART tragedy was an error or intentional, I prefer our justice system decide rather than East Oakland gangs backed by the NRA>>>

Huh.
It's about "gangs" now eh?
You should just say "colored men" to drop your code.
Funny that you think we have a "justice" system too.


"...the assault on the BART passengers who rode the train that night in terror while miscreants brawled?"

Terror?! Watching a couple of guys mix it up ?
You don't know what terror is, T.


To infer that a BART officer's misdeed entitles East Oaklanders to riot>>>

Christ. This again.
You weren't there, you have no idea, and if you paid the slightest bit of sincere attention, you would at least have picked up that our OUTRAGE and response isn't to a single officer's misdeed but the regularized systemic coverup and propaganda around the shooting and the everyday reality of police violence for us.


>> in the streets, smash our cars, trash our businesses, destroy our property and threaten our safety>>>

"Our-, our- our- our- our...."
Hmmmm,... Pretty tidy 'us and them" mythology.... with you and yours on the side of property, I see.

30 or so undeserving small business got windows smashed and some windows were righteously targeted.... You ridiculously whining harpie. If you had a clue about the sea of utter rage and frustration that is roiling out here, that is stoked by day in day out injustices, (your typified) ignorance and police violence, you would be amazed that City Hall and every cop car downtown wasn't burnt to the ground.

by radical
chip johnson plays the world-weary reporter ferreting out penny-ante corruption in city hall while being conspicuously silent about the conditions poor and working class folks face in oakland.

for chip, the name oakland gives him street cred as he bravely criticizes the feckless dellums administration, after having never said a word of criticism about jerry brown's corporate rulership of the early- to mid-2000's. fellating brown apparently won him brownie points with his bosses at the chon.

chip should be careful about talking about "following the law" as he himself is a stoner of the first order. isn't that true, chippy?
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