Uncategorized

Sandra Bland’s only Crime Was “Driving While Black”

Published

10 years ago

July 28, 2015

On July 9, Sandra Bland drove to Prairie View, Texas from Chicago, eager for a job interview at Prairie View A&M, the historically black college that was her alma mater.

The 28-year-old woman, described as smart and generous, had expressed solidarity with Black Lives Matter and the growing movement against mass incarceration and racially biased policing.

Then she took a big risk: she was driving while black. Four days later, she was found dead in a county jail cell.

She was pulled over on July 10 by a white police officer, officially for failing to signal a lane change. She asked why he had pulled her over.

He told her to put out her cigarette. When she questioned why, he demanded she get out of the car, threatened her with a stun gun, reached in to pull her out of the car and handcuffed her, pushing her down to the ground when she resisted and complained.

She was driven to the county jail in Hempstead, a jail run by Sheriff R. Glenn Smith. A decade ago, the New York Times reports, Smith was sued by the only full-time Black officer on the force for dismissing him after he complained about his supervisor’s racial slurs.

He was suspended in 2007 for pushing a black man he said had spit on him. He was fired in 2008 after complaints about intrusive searches of African Americans in public.

He was elected sheriff months later.

Pulled over for not signaling a lane change, Bland was charged with a felony for assaulting a police officer and hit with a $5,000 bond. She spent three days in jail, finally arranging the money needed for a bondsman.

She was found dead in her cell. Her death was ruled a suicide, a finding that her family disputes. How could a young woman, excited by the prospect of a new job, finally arranging to get out of that cell, choose to hang herself?

Waller County, an hour out of Houston, has an infamous history of racism. The Times reports on a study by the Equal Justice Initiative that found Blacks were lynched after Reconstruction more frequently than in almost any other county in the state.

No official is defending the trooper’s behavior when he pulled Sandra Bland over. He has been placed on administrative leave with pay while an inquiry goes forth. The Hempstead mayor says he was “very, very upset” with what he saw on the videotape of the incident that was captured by a camera in the trooper’s car.

U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch noted that Sandra Bland’s death highlights the fears of African Americans when they come into contact with the police.

“Many minority communities,” she said, “for so long have felt that law enforcement was coming in to essentially enforce laws against them, not to protect them.” Over 300,000 have signed a national petition calling on an independent Justice Department investigation of Sandra Bland’s death.

The fears Lynch alluded to are well founded. Sandra Bland’s is only the latest death. Across the country, more than two dozen others have died in police custody this year. As of July 26, police have killed, according to the Guardian, 657 people this year in the U.S. Nearly six of 10 (58 percent) were people of color.

As William Boardman notes, U.S. police killed 59 people in the first 24 days of 2015, compared to the police of England and Wales, who killed 55 people in the last 24 years. Texas trails only California for the number of police killings.

We don’t simply need new cameras on police; we need a fundamental change of culture. Police forces should look like the communities they patrol. Police officers should live in those communities.

Training must not only instruct police in the use of firearms, but in the mores of the community. And police cannot not be put in the position of an occupying force in desperately impoverished neighborhoods with massive unemployment and little hope.

Sandra Bland changed lanes without signaling. But that wasn’t her crime.

Her crime was driving while black. The institutionalized prejudices and distorted practices that led to her death are unacceptable in a nation of equal justice under the law.

Unacceptable and unaccepted.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Uncategorized

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

6 months ago

June 17, 2025

Oakland Post

Special to The Post

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department (Oakland HCD) announced its awardees for the 2024-2025 New Construction of Multifamily Affordable Housing Notice of Funding Availability (New Construction NOFA) today Five permanently affordable housing developments received awards out of 24 applications received by the Department, with award amounts ranging from $7 million to $28 million.

In a statement released on Jan. 16, Oakland’s HCD stated, “Five New Construction Multifamily Affordable Housing Development projects awarded a total of $80.5 million to develop 583 affordable rental homes throughout Oakland. Awardees will leverage the City’s investments to apply for funding from the state and private entities.”

In December, the office of Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 City Councilmember, worked with HCD to allocate an additional $10 Million from Measure U to the funding pool. The legislation also readopted various capital improvement projects including street paving and upgrades to public facilities.

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is the media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Housing and Community Development Department Awards $80.5 Million to Affordable Housing Developments

Published

11 months ago

January 30, 2025

Oakland Post

Rebecca Kaplan, interim District 2 city councilmember. File photo.

Special to The Post

The following Oakland affordable housing developments have been awarded in the current round:

Mandela Station Affordable

238 Affordable Units including 60 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $15 million + previously awarded $18 million
Developer: Mandela Station LP (Pacific West Communities, Inc. and Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 1451 7th St.

Liberation Park Residences

118 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $28 million
Developer: Eden Housing and Black Cultural Zone
City Council District: 6
Address: 7101 Foothill Blvd.

34th & San Pablo

59 Affordable Units including 30 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $7 million
Developer: 34SP Development LP (EBALDC)
City Council District: 3
Address: 3419-3431 San Pablo Ave.

The Eliza

96 Affordable Units, including 20 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $20 million
Developer: Mercy Housing California
City Council District: 3
Address: 2125 Telegraph Ave.

3135 San Pablo

72 Affordable Units including 36 dedicated for Homeless/Special Needs
Award: $10.5 million
Developer: SAHA and St. Mary’s Center
City Council District: 3
Address: 3515 San Pablo Ave.

The source of this story is media reltations office of District 2 City Councilmember Rebecca Kaplan.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Alameda County

Oakland Acquisition Company’s Acquisition of County’s Interest in Coliseum Property on the Verge of Completion

The Board of Supervisors is committed to closing the deal expeditiously, and County staff have worked tirelessly to move the deal forward on mutually agreeable terms. The parties are down to the final details and, with the cooperation of OAC and Coliseum Way Partners, LLC, the Board will take a public vote at an upcoming meeting to seal this transaction.

Published

11 months ago

January 11, 2025

Oakland Post

Alameda County Board of Supervisors Chairman David Haubert. Official photo.

Special to The Post

The County of Alameda announced this week that a deal allowing the Oakland Acquisition Company, LLC, (“OAC”) to acquire the County’s 50% undivided interest in the Oakland- Alameda County Coliseum complex is in the final stages of completion.

Oakland has already finalized a purchase and sale agreement with OAC for its interest in the property. OAC’s acquisition of the County’s property interest will achieve two longstanding goals of the County:

The Oakland-Alameda Coliseum complex will finally be under the control of a sole owner with capacity to make unilateral decisions regarding the property; and
The County will be out of the sports and entertainment business, free to focus and rededicate resources to its core safety net

In an October 2024 press release from the City of Oakland, the former Oakland mayor described the sale of its 50% interest in the property as an “historic achievement” stating that the transaction will “continue to pay dividends for generations to come.”

The Board of Supervisors is pleased to facilitate single-entity ownership of this property uniquely centered in a corridor of East Oakland that has amazing potential.

“The County is committed to bringing its negotiations with OAC to a close,” said Board President David Haubert.