Opinion
Let’s Not Censor Dr. King’s Life Even As We Glorify Him
As another year passes with celebrations marking the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, I worry about the dangers of neutering Dr. King’s life, turning him into a “dreamer” who became a martyr.
We shouldn’t forget that Dr. King was a leader, a man of conscience and of action. He sought to transform America and that forced him to be a disrupter—and to bear the wounds of being unpopular in a just cause.
With segregation the law of the land and voting rights suppressed, Dr. King understood the only way change would come would be by disrupting an unjust system. He believed in nonviolence, but not in passivity. One of my favorite quotes of Dr. King was when he was asked what his favorite demonstration was. “This week’s,” he responded, even as he planned for the next week’s demonstrations.
Dr. King opposed those who equated quiet with peace. We were told to be quiet at the back of the bus, quiet in the face of oppression. He understood that true peace came only with justice, and justice could not be achieved without disruption.
He was not an idle dreamer; he was clear about wanting to amass power. He emphasized the drive for the Voting Rights Act, to protect the power of the vote, because that would give African Americans the power to change their conditions.
Consider the 2016 election, where Donald Trump lost the popular vote nationally, but won the electoral college by the margin of less than 80,000 votes in three key states; Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. 10,704 in Michigan, 22,177 in Wisconsin and 46,765 in Pennsylvania.
In each state, eligible African American voters could have changed the election if they had turned out to vote. In 2020, Dr. King would be leading efforts to register new voters in numbers larger than those margins as a measure of their power. There are more 18-year-old voters than 81-year-old voters. If they register and vote, they can change the course of history.
Dr. King was fearless in the cause of justice. He realized early that the war in Vietnam was an unjust folly that would not be won. The cost of that war was draining the funds from the war on poverty at home. He came out publicly against the war in a dramatic speech at Riverside Church, publicly criticizing the Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson, with whom he had worked to achieve the end of segregation and the Voting Rights Bill.
He was savaged by the establishment media and criticized by leading liberals. Black leaders spoke out against him. At the height of the controversy, he was seen unfavorably by three-fourths of whites, and as “irrelevant” by a majority of blacks. The FBI intensified its covert operations against him, deeming him a national security threat. He was deluged with threats of assassination.
He knew he would spark a fierce reaction but realized that he had no choice but to speak. The Vietnam debacle would divide the country and eliminate any hope of rebuilding at home.
Dr. King, of course, was proven right. He was right about the injustice of segregation and of efforts to suppress voting rights. He was right about the need for economic justice in the United States, for basic economic rights that would extend to people of all races. He was right about the need for a war on poverty rather than war abroad. And he was right that the Vietnam War was a costly, unjust debacle that could never be won. Many more knew that he was right, but too few had the courage of their convictions, the courage to speak out, the commitment to action to make things better.
Let us not censor Dr. King’s life even as we glorify him. What made him remarkable wasn’t his dream, but his willingness to sacrifice, to act, to work to make that dream real. Those who would seek to emulate Dr. King would be well advised to launch voter registration and get out the vote drives. Use the power that he helped provide to build even more power, and more justice.
Activism
‘Jim Crow Was and Remains Real in Alameda County (and) It Is What We Are Challenging and Trying to Fix Every Day,’ Says D.A. Pamela Price
“The legacy of Jim Crow is not just a legacy in Alameda County. It’s real. It is what is happening and how (the system is) operating, and that is what we are challenging and trying to fix every day,” said D.A. Price, speaking to the Oakland Post by telephone for over an hour last Saturday. “Racial disparities in this county have never been effectively eliminated, and we are applying and training our lawyers on the (state’s) Racial Justice Act, and we’re implementing it in Alameda County every day,” she said.
By Ken Epstein
Part One
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price gave an exclusive in-depth interview, speaking with the Oakland Post about the continuing legacy of Jim Crow injustice that she is working to overturn and her major achievements, including:
- restoring and expanding services for victims of crime,
- finding funding for an alternative to incarceration and/or prosecution for substance use and mental health-related misdemeanors and
- aggressively prosecuting corporations for toxic pollution and consumer violations.
“The legacy of Jim Crow is not just a legacy in Alameda County. It’s real. It is what is happening and how (the system is) operating, and that is what we are challenging and trying to fix every day,” said D.A. Price, speaking to the Oakland Post by telephone for over an hour last Saturday.
“Racial disparities in this county have never been effectively eliminated, and we are applying and training our lawyers on the (state’s) Racial Justice Act, and we’re implementing it in Alameda County every day,” she said.
Passed by the State Legislature, this law “is an extremely helpful tool for us to address the racial disparities that continue to exist in our system,” she said.
(The law addresses) “the racial disparities that we find in our juvenile justice system, where 86% of all felony juvenile arrests in the county are Black or Brown children.
“We trained the entire workforce on the Racial Justice Act. We are creating a data system that will allow us to look at the trends and to clearly identify where racism has infected the process. We know that where law enforcement is still engaging in racial profiling and unfair targeting and arresting, we’re trying to make sure we’re catching that.”
Many people do not know much about the magnitude of Alameda County District Attorney’s job. Her office is a sprawling organization with 10 offices serving 1.6 million people living in 14 cities and six unincorporated areas, with a budget this year of about $104 million.
Asked about her major achievements since she took office last year, she is especially proud of the expanded and renewed victims’ services division in the DA’s Office, she said.
“We have expanded and reorganized the entire claims division so that we are now expediting as much as possible the benefits that victims are entitled to. Under my predecessor, they were having to wait anywhere, sometimes as long as a year, to 400 days to get benefits.
“Claims had been denied that should not have been denied. So, we’re helping people file appeals on claims that were denied under her tenure,” D.A. Price said.
“Under my predecessor, (the victims’ service office) was staffed by people who were not trained to provide trauma-informed services to victims, and yet they were the only people that the victims were in contact with. We immediately stopped that practice,” she continued.
“We had to expand the advocate workforce to include people who speak Hmong, the indigenous language of so many people in this county who are victims of crime.”
More African Americans advocates were hired because they represent the largest percentage of crime victims and we hired a transgender advocate and advocates who speak Cantonese and Mandarin. “The predominantly Chinese American community in Oakland was not being served by advocates who speak the language,” said D Price
“We reduced the lag time from the delivery of benefits to victims from 300 to 400 days down to less than 60 days.”
She increased victim advocacy by 38%, providing critical support to over 22,500 victims, a key component of community safety.
Other major achievements:
- She recently filed 12 felony charges against a man accused of multiple armed robberies, demonstrating her seriousness about prosecuting violent crimes
- In October, a jury delivered a guilty verdict in the double murder trial of former Alameda County Sheriff’s Deputy Devin Williams, showing DA Price’s commitment to holding law enforcement accountable.
- She recently charged a man and woman in unincorporated San Leandro with murder, felony unlawful firearm activity, and felony carrying a loaded firearm in public.
- A. Price’s office was awarded a $6 million grant by the state for its CARES Navigation Center diversion program. In partnership with the UnCuffed Project at a Seventh Day Adventist Church in Oakland, the program provides resources and referrals for services to residents as an alternative to incarceration and/or prosecution for substance use and mental health-related misdemeanors.
“This is the largest grant investment in the history of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office,” said D.A. Price.
She explained that the program now has a mobile unit. “We have washers and dryers. We have a living room. We have a television. It’s a place where people can decompress, get themselves stabilized,” she said.
The project has “the ability to refer people to housing, to more long-term mental health services, to social services, and to assist them in other ways.”
- Her office joined in a $49 million statewide settlement with Kaiser Health Plan and Hospitals, resolving allegations that the healthcare provider unlawfully disposed of hazardous waste, medical waste, and protected health information. The settlement, which involved the state and a half dozen counties, resulted in Alameda County receiving $7 million for its residents.
- DA Price charged a former trucking company employee for embezzling over $4.3 million, showing her commitment to tackling white-collar crime.
- For the first time, Alameda County won a criminal grand jury indictment of a major corporation with two corporate officers that have been sources of pollution. “They had a record of settlements and pollution in this community, and they had a fire that constituted a grave danger,” she said.
Attorney Walter Riley contributed to this article.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of October 30 – November 5, 2024
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Bay Area
In the City Attorney Race, Ryan Richardson Is Better for Oakland
It’s been two years since negotiations broke down between the City of Oakland and a developer who wants to build a coal terminal here, and the issue has reappeared, quietly, in the upcoming race for Oakland City attorney. Two candidates are running for the position of Oakland City Attorney in November: current Assistant Chief City Attorney Ryan Richardson and retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte.
By Margaret Rossoff
Special to The Post
OPINION
It’s been two years since negotiations broke down between the City of Oakland and a developer who wants to build a coal terminal here, and the issue has reappeared, quietly, in the upcoming race for Oakland City attorney.
Two candidates are running for the position of Oakland City Attorney in November: current Assistant Chief City Attorney Ryan Richardson and retired judge Brenda Harbin-Forte.
Richardson has worked in the Office of the City Attorney since 2014 and is likely to continue current City Attorney Barbara Parker’s policies managing the department. He has committed not to accept campaign contributions from developers who want to store and handle coal at a proposed marine terminal in Oakland.
Retired Judge Harbin-Forte launched and has played a leading role in the campaign to recall Mayor Sheng Thao, which is also on the November ballot. She has stepped back from the recall campaign to focus on her candidacy. The East Bay Times noted, “Harbin-Forte’s decision to lead the recall campaign against a potential future client is … troubling — and is likely to undermine her ability, if she were to win, to work effectively.”
Harbin-Forte has refused to rule out accepting campaign support from coal terminal interests or their agents. Coal terminal lobbyist Greg McConnell’s Independent Expenditure Committee “SOS Oakland” is backing her campaign.
In the 2022 mayor’s race, parties hoping to build a coal terminal made $600,000 in contributions to another of McConnell’s Independent Expenditure Committees.
In a recent interview, Harbin-Forte said she is open to “listening to both sides” and will be “fair.” However, the City Attorney’s job is not to judge fairly between the City and its legal opponents – it is to represent the City against its opponents.
She thought that the 2022 settlement negotiations ended because the City “rejected a ‘no coal’ settlement.” This is lobbyist McConnell’s narrative, in contrast to the report by City Attorney Barbara Parker. Parker has explained that the City continued to negotiate in good faith for a settlement with no “loopholes” that could have allowed coal to ship through Oakland – until would-be coal developer Phil Tagami broke off negotiations.
One of Harbin-Forte’s main priorities, listed on her website, is “reducing reliance on outside law firms,” and instead use the lawyers working in the City Attorney’s office.
However, sometimes this office doesn’t have the extensive expertise available that outside firms can provide in major litigation. In the ongoing, high stakes coal litigation, the City has benefited from collaborating with experienced, specialized attorneys who could take on the nationally prominent firms representing the City’s opponents.
The City will continue to need this expertise as it pursues an appeal of the judge’s decision that restored the developer’s lease and defends against a billion-dollar lawsuit brought by the hedge fund operator who holds the sublease on the property.
Harbin-Forte’s unwillingness to refuse campaign contributions from coal terminal interests, her opposition to using outside resources when needed, as well as her uncritical repetition of coal lobbyist McConnell’s claim that the City sabotaged the settlement talks of 2022 all raise serious concerns about how well she would represent the best interests of Oakland and Oaklanders if she is elected City Attorney.
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