“As long as our criminal justice system is stuck in the mentality and practices of the 1950s, our country is not going to move forward,” she said.

By Ken Epstein

Part Two

District Attorney Pamela Price, facing a recall that began before she took office in January 2023, explained in an exclusive interview with the Oakland Post how she came to dedicate her life to transforming a deeply flawed criminal justice system into one that provides equal justice and public safety for all and ends mass incarceration for African Americans and other working-class people.

She summarized her life experiences as someone who was “traumatized and radicalized” by Dr. King’s murder, joining the Civil Rights Movement full force, getting arrested when she was 13 years old in a civil rights demonstration, being tracked into the juvenile justice and the foster care systems, and making it as a foster kid from the streets of Cincinnati to Yale College.”

“I understand a lot of things about struggle, about sacrifice, about trauma and fortunately survived all of that, and as a survivor learned some important lessons, and I brought all of that with me into the law and have been able to become a civil rights attorney in Alameda County,” she said.

“That’s been the joy of my life; I’ve lived every lawyer’s dream,” she said.

“Years ago, when I first decided to run for district attorney, I realized that mass incarceration was so destabilizing to our communities,” she said.

She saw that the “criminal justice system has so many impacts on our community, the safety of our community, the stability of our community, the growth of our community, the direction of our community.”

“As long as our criminal justice system is stuck in the mentality and the practices of the 1950s … our society is going to be mired in discord, and we will not have social justice, racial justice, economic justice, none of the things that actually make our communities worth living in.”

Speaking about the destructive impact of mass incarceration, Price asked people to consider “how many children have incarcerated parents, where the practice has always been to isolate and eliminate connections between people who are incarcerated and their children and their families and the community. So, when we bring people home, they have no more connection.”

It is crucial to address the needs of “young people in the juvenile justice system when they are more likely and able to be rehabilitated and redirected,” she said. Young people are much more able to be rehabilitated before the age of 18, really before the age of 26, and before they end up in an adult prison.

D.A. Price’s predecessor, Nancy O’ Malley, joined the D.A.’s office in 1984, where she remained for 39 years. She was promoted to a leadership position after just six years in the office during the era of mass incarceration when there was an explosion of prison construction in California.

“Prosecutors like my predecessor were the ones who filled (those prisons) up.  She became a leader in the office around 1990. And what is very important for the public to know is that prior to becoming the district attorney in 2009, she was the chief assistant district attorney for 10 years under Tom Orloff.

“O’Malley worked very closely, hand-in-hand with him for the period of time that included the illegal conduct or the unconstitutional exclusion of Jewish people and Black people from death penalty juries.”

Commenting on the recall campaign against her, she said that had not a handful of multimillionaires and billionaires “put millions of dollars into this, we would not be having this recall. It is not a grassroots movement. It’s a platinum movement.”

“People have no idea what the vision is for the next district attorney, or where the office will go if I am, in fact, recalled, she continued. “I’m just running against a billionaire,” who does not show his face in public, she said.

If they successfully paint Oakland as a failed city, then hedge fund billionaires and real estate developers can come in and buy up the property cheap, she said.

Though D.A. Price has been bombarded by a massive tsunami of lies, slanders, and misrepresentation, she remains strong and positive because she is a woman of faith, she said.

“I’ve been saved and guided by (a) higher power since I was 13 years old. So, I’m not a new person to faith, and I’m grounded in that,” she said.

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By Magaly Muñoz

Los Angeles County hosted its seventh annual United Against Hate Week with community partners to rally against the growing hate incidents that are occurring across the country.

United Against Hate Week (UAHW) is used as a call for local civic action to stop hate, discrimination, and implicit biases that negatively impact our diverse communities across the state.

Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission Executive Director Robin Toma said the event is usually held in November, but they decided to move the event up to September because of the fall election and the negative rhetoric it has brought to certain groups.

“We knew that with this special election year there would be a lot of things said that would foment hate, foment division, foment hostility and scapegoating of others,” Toma said.

Following the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, where Trump spread misinformation about Haitian immigrants eating animals, hate crimes against Haitians grew in Springfield, Ohio.

Although the group will not publicly endorse a candidate, Toma encouraged everyone to “vote against hate” because who and what people vote for can contribute to whether hate continues to rise or not.

While hate crime reporting is still very underreported, mainly due to fear from victims, Toma said the LA vs Hate reporting line has changed the way people view reporting crimes because victims are now given the option to receive resources, such as counseling, to help get them through their trauma. Before the reporting line existed, victims felt ignored by police because often no action was taken from the report.

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LA County District Attorney George Gascón, who has served as San Francisco District Attorney and Police Chief, said the DA’s office is taking two major actions against hate crimes.

The first action is prosecution where the case calls for it, but Gascón said this is not the sole approach he wants to rely on.

The DA’s office also prioritizes education and restorative justice programs for hate crimes to offenders who qualify. This could involve offenders visiting the communities where they committed their crime so that they may learn the severity of committing these hateful acts.

“In a county as diverse as Los Angeles, my office is extremely proud of our partnership with this important community coalition to take strong action against hate crimes, and to encourage acceptance and understanding among Angelenos,” Gascón said.

LA County recently had a reported spike in hate crimes by 18% from 790 to 929 reported crimes in 2022. Gascón said the county has the highest prosecution rate for hate crimes in all counties across California.

Hate crime victim Frankie Aguirre also spoke at the United Against Hate event, sharing his experience as a gay man in Los Angeles.

Aguirre was the victim of harassment by his neighbors for six years because of his sexuality. He often felt he could not invite family and friends to his home for fear that residents in his building would bully them too.

Aguirre said he decided to call the 211 LA Hate hotline number to report the harassment he’d been receiving. After calling, he was connected to a care coordinator that connected him to services and resources, which he said he wouldn’t be here without.

The team at LA vs Hate helped him get out of his toxic living situation and he urged others in a similar place to contact the team to receive help.

LA vs Hate has received more than 2,700 reports of hate, over 800 during the last year, according to the organization. Nearly 90% of callers have requested personal assistance through case management.

This resource was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library via California Black Media as part of the Stop the Hate program.  The program is supported by partnership with the California Department of Social Services and the California Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs. To report a hate incident or hate crime and get support, go to https://www.cavshate.org/

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By Antonio Ray Harvey, California Black Media

Two years after racist comments in a leaked recording of Los Angeles City Council members emerged, members of Los Angeles branches of the National Advancement Association of Color People (NAACP) on Oct. 7 gave councilmember Kevin de León’s a “failing” grade for his performance in office.

The announcement was made on the south lawn of the Los Angeles City Hall by leaders of the NAACP branches of Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Watts, Beverly Hills-Hollywood, Santa Monica-Venice, and San Pedro-Wilmington.

De León was on a conference call with other council members who made racial comments about Indigenous people and one of their colleague’s son, who is Black.

The leaked audio led to Council President Nury Martinez’s resignation on Oct. 12, 2022, former Councilmember Gil Cedillo’s ouster, and Ron Herrera stepping away on Oct. 11, 2022, as president of a powerful Southern California labor organization.

The branches and CA/HI State Conference of the NAACP President Rick Callender first asked all persons involved to resign from their positions in October 2022. The civil rights leader expressed concern that that the disparaging remarks coming from top city officials could impact hiring and other decisions of the City Council.

“We will not sit idly by and allow our elected representatives to engage in these kinds of disgusting and racist behaviors,” stated Latricia Mitchell, President of the Los Angeles Branch of the NAACP.

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