Crime

Booker Tells Mayors to Work for Safe Communities

WASHINGTON INFORMER — Sen. Cory Booker recently addressed a familiar audience about fighting gun violence and encouraging Americans to reach a middle ground of morality.

Published

6 years ago

February 4, 2019

Oakland Post

By James Wright

Sen. Cory Booker, who has announced a 2020 presidential bid, recently addressed a familiar audience about fighting gun violence and encouraging Americans to reach a middle ground of morality.

Booker (D-N.J.) spoke before a plenary session of the 87th annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, an organization to which he once belonged, at the Capital Hilton in Northwest on Jan. 24.

Booker, who served as mayor of Newark, N.J., before his election to the Senate in 2013, said Americans need to be more intelligent about their actions.

“We need to stop doing what is stupid and expensive and do things that reflect our values,” he said, referring to President Trump’s attempt to build a wall on the U.S. southern border. “It costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to treat a non-fatal gunshot wound and it would be cheaper to give a child an education.”

The senator somberly addressed the public-water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where thousands of residents were exposed to lead-contaminated water.

“Flint isn’t an anomaly but an ongoing reality,” Booker said.

He also spoke about making investments in the nation’s infrastructure, commenting that “other nations are out-investing us in that area.”

During his speech, Booker told two stories that many members of the audience found stirring. The first had to do with a friend who worked at an IHOP restaurant across the street from where he lived and how often she had to decide between working extra hours for money or spending more time with her child on such things as doctor appointments.

The other story dealt with when he first moved to Newark and opted to live in the inner city. The senator said one of the leaders in the community took him to an intersection and asked him what he sought.

When Booker told the female leader he saw blight, crime, poverty and lack, she quickly turned from him and walked away. When he caught up with her he asked why she left him.

“She said, ‘Boy, you can’t help me,’” Booker said. She told him that he looks at the world in a negative lens instead of focusing on its positive side and the chance to make things better.

The senator said that the country faces dark times but “we as a country will rise again.”

“And it will be the mayors that will lead America to the mountaintop,” he said in closing.

The senator served as one of the many speakers at the conference. Columbia, S.C. Mayor Steven Benjamin presided over the meeting as the president of the organization that consists of mayors of cities that have populations of 30,000 people or more.

Kenneth Gibson of Newark served as the first Black president of the organization in 1976.

The plenary sessions and symposiums focused on a range of topics such as gun violence in the cities that featured Gary, Indiana, Mayor Karen Freeman-Wilson and former D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey. While both Ramsey and Freeman-Wilson said community involvement and better police relations with people of color help the problem, Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh made it clear that more work needs to be done.

“We need to get guns off of the street and this has to be done now,” said Pugh, whose city had 309 homicides in 2018.

Flint Mayor Nancy Weaver said in a conference on women mayors that she and her female contemporaries aren’t listened to as much as their male counterparts.

“Many people in the political and bureaucratic realm want to see a man in charge and we as women mayors have to work hard to change that perception,” she said. “There have been times when men want to see the mayor and they will go over to my chief of staff. I have to tell them that I am the mayor.”

Chirlane McCray, wife of New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, talked about how her city tackles mental illness. She started an initiative NYC Thrive in 2015 that connects residents with the appropriate agency to deal with their mental health challenges.

“We need to get to people who suffer from mental illness a lot earlier than we do,” McCray said.

Some of the conference participants served as mayors such as Adrian Fenty of the District, Shirley Franklin of Atlanta, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake of Baltimore and Michael Bloomberg of New York City.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told The Informer that he enjoyed the conference. Houston ranks as the fourth-largest city in the country with 2.5 million people.

“I really like the panels especially the one on gun violence,” Turner said. “I like coming to this conference so I can learn best practices to solve problems in my city.”

Even small-city mayors found the conference productive.

“It is good to network with people and learn what others are doing in their cities,” said Port Arthur, Texas, Mayor Derrick Freeman. “I am building relationships with other mayors and seeing what they are doing.”

Freeman said he knows of past great Black mayors such as Kenneth Gibson of Newark and Richard Hatcher of Gary and honors their legacy.

“One of my mentors was the late Ronald Dellums of Oakland,” he said. “Dellums pulled me aside at my first meeting and told me what I needed to do.”

This article originally appeared in the Washington Informer.

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Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024

Published

20 hours ago

November 1, 2024

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price Announces $7.5 Million Settlement Agreement with Walmart

The settlement resolves allegations that Walmart unlawfully disposed of hazardous waste and medical waste from its facilities statewide to municipal landfills. Walmart agreed to pay $4,297,040 in civil penalties and $3,202,960 in costs, to be split among the prosecuting agencies, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, and some local environmental protection agencies. There are nine Walmart stores in Alameda County.

Published

5 days ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Oakland Post Staff

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, the California Attorney General’s Office, and eleven other prosecutors’ offices secured a $7.5 million settlement with Walmart on behalf of the People of the State of California.

“Large corporations must be held accountable when they do not follow the law and put the health and safety of Alameda County residents at risk,” said Price. “I commend my office’s Consumer Justice Bureau’s active involvement in this investigation, which helped bring this settlement forward and holds Walmart to account.”

The settlement is the result of over 70 covert waste inspections conducted by the district attorneys’ offices statewide from 2015 through 2021, including many assisted by Alameda County District Attorney’s Office environmental protection investigators. During those inspections, the offices inspected the waste that Walmart sent from its stores to local landfills and found hundreds of containers of toxic aerosols and liquid wastes (including spray paints, rust removers, bleach, and pesticides), as well as medical waste (such as over-the-counter drugs).

Improperly disposed of private consumer information was also found.

The People filed a civil law enforcement complaint against Walmart in 2021, wherein those unlawful disposals were alleged to violate the Hazardous Waste Control Law, Medical Waste Management Act, and Unfair Competition Law.

The civil action and stipulated judgment were filed in Alameda County Superior Court. The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office has been involved in the investigation and civil case preparation since 2015.

The settlement also imposes injunctive terms, which require Walmart to maintain an independent, third-party auditor to conduct three annual rounds of waste audits at its facilities throughout California during the next four years. Walmart’s auditor must use specific requirements in the settlement to ensure that hazardous waste is properly classified, handled, disposed of, and transported according to California law.

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Activism

Black Tulip Calls for Action and a Cultural Shift in Oakland for Black Women’s Safety

Anyka Howard, founder of the Betti Ono Foundation and visionary of Black Tulip, expressed the core value of the movement and urgent need for change. “We’re not going to tolerate Oakland being a hotbed for dysfunction and violence, and perpetuating harms against Black women and girls,” Howard said. “We deserve better, we are worthy, our lives matter, and it’s time for us to boldly, and collectively proclaim that and expect the appropriate response.”

Published

5 days ago

October 28, 2024

Oakland Post

Jada Imani and another Black Tulip attendee building an altar at the Lake Merritt Amphitheater in honor of artist Zoe Reidy Watts, 25, who was killed in Oakland in March. Courtesy photo.

By Kristal Raheem
Special to The Post

Last week, Oakland City Council voted to adopt a resolution supporting the federal Protect Black Women and Girls Act, (H.R. 7354). The federal law would establish an interagency task force to examine the experiences of Black women in U.S. society, from education to health care to jobs to housing.

A 2020 study by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation reported that 40% of humans being trafficked in the U.S. are Black women. In 2022, the FBI reported 97,000 Black women were missing. That same year in Oakland, 400 Black women were reported missing.

The Council vote on Oct. 15 was just the latest reflection of a blossoming movement in Oakland demanding greater protection for Black women and girls.

From Oct. 3-5, the Betti Ono Foundation, in partnership with the Black Arts Movement Business District and Community Development Corporation (BAMB CDC), hosted their inaugural Black Tulip Cultural Week of Action.

The Black Tulip event series included a write-in at the BAMB CDC, an Oakland’s First Friday partnership, and a Day of Action at Lake Merritt.

Howard said everyone must support Black Tulip’s mission, regardless of race and other social identities. She specifically called for men to show up more as allies.

West Oakland native and founder of Black Terminus AR, Damien McDuffie, said the Town’s “pimp culture” has warped how Black women are treated. “Oakland has a complex history around sexual assault and pimp culture, so I think we have a warped sense of what safety might look like, especially for women and girls,” Damien saud. “I think a real impact on how women are treated here in Oakland or in the Bay Area will come from a culture shift.”

The Black Tulip Day of Action took place on Saturday, Oct. 5. Healers, poets, and musicians joined forces to amplify joy, remembrance, and hope.

Oakland educator and healer Venus Morris co-hosted the event alongside honorary guest speaker and singer Dawn Richard.

Richard is the artist relations director with the Hip Hop Caucus, an organization that helps artists use their platform to advocate for important issues. She is also one of 120 people being represented in a lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs for alleged sexual assault and abuse.

Despite the media frenzy regarding the legal case, Richard showed up in Oakland to stand in solidarity for the mission of Black Tulip. “I think our narrative has been stolen from us,” Richard said. “We’ve lost the narrative of what we represent in this culture and in this society. We are more and I think this event exemplifies that.”

Participants gathered to honor the lives of Black women who lost their lives to violence while also celebrating one another as the journey for justice continues.

“We are the mothers, the womb of this earth. There is no America, no globalization, no capitalism, without us,” Howard told Oakland Voices. “People are taught to see us in a particular way that does not honor who we are. Black Tulip is a reclamation of our sacredness. It’s an affirmation, a calling, a demand.”

This story was initially published by Oakland Voices (http://oaklandvoices.us). The author previously worked as a communications and public relations manager for Councilmember Treva Reid.