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Commentary: Siegel Is Mayoral Candidate Best Suited to Make Needed Changes

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This series has been an attempt to only compare the mayoral candidates’ positions on crime policy . But policy concerns are rarely independent from each other.

To reasonably apportion your votes in our rank choice voting system, considering candidates’ capabilities in all areas of concern and in the mix is crucial.

I do not recommend that anyone should maketheir mayoral vote selections totally from what I have written in this series.

Dan Siegel has presented a complete crime policy plan. Dan’s plan covers a multiplicity of municipal functions, and it offers corrective plans to hot issues currently drawing attention of city leadership.

I am convinced that he has knowledge of what is going on in the criminal justice system, including with cops. He is a trained, practicing civil-rights attorney. He is an “insider” who represents “outsiders.”

He is an intellectual warrior, for hire. He works for the side where money has to be “raised,” not only to pay his fee but also to pay his costs.

Or at least he started out that way.

Siegel is also the closest to fulfilling the community policing approach that I have laid out in my columns.

Dan was a member of the Oakland Community Policing Taskforce that crafted the language of the community policing ordinance (Council Resolutions 72727) in 1993.

He was quoted in the S.F. Chronicle speaking of former Chief Joe Samuels, who was being hired at the time, “It has taken some time to work up to that, but I think that now he has gotten the [community policing] religion.”

Samuels was a police chief beloved in Oakland’s African American community. He was the chief most likely to fully implement community policing and heal the negative dynamics between the department and the Black community.

Despite the resistance from the officers’ union and the negative influences on the local implementation of community policing caused by the Federal Justice Department’s COPS grants, Chief Samuels is the reason that Oakland have gone as far as they have in fulfilling the dictates of the legislation.

Mayor Jerry Brown fired Samuels shortly after his election in fulfillment of his stated pledge to fracture Black influence in Oakland’s politics.

Although Siegel does not spell out the Community Policing details in his policy paper, he says enough so that we know he still has “the religion.”

Dan’s anti-crime policy paper speaks to Oakland’s needs: jobs for Oakland residents, early childhood education, completing the Negotiated Settlement Agreement(NSA)mandating federal oversight of OPD, full support for restorative justice programs, civilianization the department by getting officers out of the building and on to the streets, neighborhood clean-up, bringing the crime lab “up to snuff” and a zero tolerance of the department’s abuse of people’s rights.

Siegel does NOT call for the hiring of more officers, and, therefore, does not need to justify the leveraging of more tax dynamics between the department and the Black community.

He hints at a less political and more rational use of crime statistics. The Oakland Moving Forward/Dellums’ Community Taskforce Report – which Quan has almost completely ignored – would be fulfilled by the Siegel plan.

Dan is not perfect; no candidate is. When “turned around” his assets can become deficits. His long engagement in Oakland politics means a depth of experience and understanding, but it also means scars from past struggles and a gaggle of old enemies.

He could be painted so far into the progressive/left camp that too many people would not hear him or deal with him honestly. The police officers’ union could severely frustrate positive changes.

Despite these concerns I believe that Siegel is the candidate for mayor best suited to make needed changes in the culture, character and behavior of the Oakland Police Department.

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Oakland Post: Week of June 4 – 10, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of June 4-10, 2025

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)
Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 30, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 28 – June 3, 2025

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