Crime

Mayor, City Administrator, City Council Still Failing to Implement “Fair and Consistent” Police Discipline

Published

9 years ago

January 28, 2016

Federal Judge Thelton Henderson, who has been overseeing the Oakland Police Department (OPD) for almost a dozen years, has issued a new order reinstating a “court investigator” to look into the city’s failure to institute meaningful discipline of police officers who violate the rights of local residents.

In a three-page ruling issued on Tuesday, Judge Henderson said he originally had ordered the city to hire an investigator in April to look into the city’s handling of police discipline.

“There are many steps (OPD) and the city can take to improve the manner in which discipline cases are prepared both internally and for arbitration,” he said in April. “It is difficult to imagine how, absent these steps, the goals of accountability and fair and consistent discipline will ever be achieved.”

Based on the investigators report, the court ordered the city to file a report last September, as well as quarterly reports on the city’s progress on improving its disciplinary system.

In his order this week, Henderson said the city is saying the court investigator’s recommendations have been implemented and that the remaining recommendations are scheduled for implementation.

“However, in many instances, the descriptions of the steps the city has taken do not reflect full and sustainable implementation,” Henderson said.

“Most concerning is that the city apparently believes that having the mayor and city administrator attend parties’ meetings in this case, and having the mayor and City Council receive updates on the city’s compliance efforts, are sufficient to satisfy the recommendation that the city establish sustainable accountability procedures that will outlive this litigation,” he said. “This response falls far short of the accountability that is so fundamental to this case.”

Henderson pointed to one case that the city described as a “victory” although the discipline in that case had been reduced from termination to a 30-day suspension – “a reversal that resulted in the reinstatement of an officer whom the city believes is unfit to police its community.”

“While the City expressed disappointment in the outcome, it has not identified any steps it has taken to try to avoid similar outcomes in the future,” the judge said.

“(Though) The majority of the [internal affairs] cases we reviewed comported with NSA requirements and OPD policy, the exceptions noted in our relatively small sample should serve as a caution against complacency, he said, pointing to case where “a supervisor involved in the incident conducted the investigation.”

The re-appointed court investigator will file a report on his findings and recommendations or before March 7.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Up Next

Historic Settlement Ends CA Indefinite Solitary Confinement

Don't Miss

Supreme Court Says Prisoners Can Seek Parole Who Were Sentenced to Life as Juveniles

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.