Community Forum for Testimony on Oakland Police — Federal Monitor Wants Your Feedback

We were asked by the Federal Monitor team to convene a community event in which folks who had had encounters with OPD in the last two or three years would give testimony about their experiences. The Monitor are interested in hearing directly from those who had negative experiences. They want to know what happened — when, where – and whether or not a complaint was filed, and, if so, what was the outcome, so they can do follow up.

We promised to convene such a meeting. This is an opportunity we should not miss to counter the Schaaf cheerleading about how much progress OPD has made, despite the fact that there were 7 killings of African-American males in the last year! The City is anxious to get out from under Federal oversight and the Monitor wants an ‘on the ground’ assessment of whether OPD behaves differently than they did in the ‘Riders’ era, or whether things are basically still the same.

Please share this widely — especially with those who are likely to have been impacted directly, or even indirectly, as observers, and we hope youth will be encouraged to attend, along with their parents.

No City officials (including police) have been invited to attend — only the Federal Monitor team.

There will be no panel discussion — the whole evening will be devoted to hearing testimony from the community!!!