Bay Area

Mayor Fires Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announced this week that she has fired Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who had been on paid administrative leave pending results of an investigation into allegations that he mishandled two internal affairs misconduct cases against a police sergeant who was involved in a hit-and-run car crash and fired a gun in a police department elevator.

Published

2 years ago

February 18, 2023

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao (pictured left) announced this week that she has fired Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong

By Ken Epstein

“I am no longer confident that Chief Armstrong can do the work that is needed to achieve the vision,” said Thao at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “Oakland needs a police department that welcomes opportunities for improvement rather than immediately rejecting criticism.”

The mayor said she was concerned that Armstrong’s public statements in his defense minimized the significance of the misconduct cases that had been covered up during internal affairs investigations.

In a written statement, Mayor Thao said:

“I made a commitment, as your mayor, to ensure that the Police Department and the City can prove, once and for all, that Oakland is ready to ensure constitutional policing without federal oversight.

“Within days of being notified that the city needed time to carefully review the findings and evidence in these very serious cases, Chief Armstrong made a number of statements that troubled me.

“In response to a public report that concluded that OPD had repeatedly failed to rigorously investigate misconduct and hold officers accountable, Chief Armstrong said these were not incidents where officers behaved poorly. He stated that he did not believe these incidents reflected systemic problems,” she said.

“Instead, Chief Armstrong described the underlying incident as a minor vehicle collision. He said that officers made ‘mistakes.’ He publicly stated that the sergeant involved in a vehicle collision was held accountable, disregarding the independent investigator’s findings of serious flaws in the disciplinary process.”

“It is clear to me that there are systemic issues the city needs to address and that we cannot simply write them off as mistakes,” she said.

Following his termination, Armstrong released the following statement to KTVU:

“I am deeply disappointed in the Mayor’s decision. After the relevant facts are fully evaluated by weighing evidence instead of pulling soundbites from strategically leaked, inaccurate reports, it will be clear I was a loyal and effective reformer of the Oakland Police Department.

“It will be equally clear that I committed no misconduct, and my termination is fundamentally wrong, unjustified, and unfair,” Armstrong continued. “I anticipate releasing a more detailed statement soon once I have the chance to fully digest the mayor’s remarks.”

The mayor had placed Armstrong on administrative leave on Jan. 19 following an investigation conducted by an outside law firm hired by the city into how the police Internal Affairs department conducted two investigations into Sgt. Michael Chung.

The report by the outside law firm, which was confidential but released by several news outlets, found that Chief Armstrong’s denials of involvement in the internal affairs case were not “credible” and that he had committed “gross dereliction of duty and performance of duty” for failing to hold subordinate officers accountable and to ensure the integrity of OPD’s discipline process.

In March 2021, Chung was involved in a crash in San Francisco in which his OPD vehicle tore off the bumper off his neighbor’s Mercedes. According to the outside lawyers’ report, the internal affairs investigation downplayed its findings, saying that Chung was involved in a “preventable collision” rather than a hit-and-run that caused $14,000 in damage and that he did not report to either the San Francisco police or OPD.

Armstrong signed off on this report without reading it, and Chung received counseling and training.

A year later, Chung fired a gun in an elevator in a police department building and threw the shell casings off the Bay Bridge.

According to the law firm’s report, Armstrong displayed a “lack of attention to internal processes that should have been laser-sharp and focused on an investigation involving a pattern of criminal misconduct,” adding that there is a “problem with the tone at the top — at least when it comes to the department’s commitment to policing itself.”

Defending Armstrong, District 5 City Councilmember Noel Gallo told the Oakland Post that he opposed his firing:

“I have the greatest respect for Chief Armstrong — I’ve known him for many years,” said Gallo. He’s the first police chief I’ve seen walking the streets with me, attending community events, and visiting schools. He’s an honorable man who has created respect in the communities.

“He was able to create a positive feeling among police officers, both among those who have been on the force for years and those who are new recruits,” Gallo continued. “Chief Armstrong made a difference.”

Gallo also said that police oversight is costing Oakland over $1 million a year and should be ended. “Federal Monitor Warshaw just shows up every three months and writes us up negatively. It’s time for the federal oversight to end.” Oakland has been under federal oversight for more 20 years.

Supporting the mayor’s decision, the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) issued a statement:

“Over the past few weeks, we’ve observed Chief Armstrong attempt to strongarm the media and local politicians to push for reinstatement. Armstrong hired the discredited local PR consultant, Sam Singer, in an attempt to bully the mayor to give him his job back … (while) many local media publications regurgitated the Singer press releases.”

“This was a bold and courageous move,” said Cat Brooks, executive director and co-founder of the APTP. “Despite attempts by Armstrong, who was more busy being a political actor than a police chief, to coerce the mayor into preserving his job, Mayor Thao remained rooted in the facts of the investigation. This is an important first step in decades of little-to-zero accountability for this department,” said Brooks.

According to APTP, this latest scandal was not Armstrong’s first. “He lied about the department being defunded when in reality its budget increased by $38 million. He lied about his officers using excessive force (including tear-gassing children), even though OPD just lost a lawsuit for precisely that. He knew that his officers were sharing racist, sexist memes but did nothing to stop it.”

On Thursday, some of Armstrong’s supporters held a press conference on the steps of City Hall to demand that he be given back his job.

Speakers called for the former chief’s rehiring, include former mayoral candidate Seneca Scott, who spoke for the Oakland branch of the NAACP.

Brenda Grisham, who helped organize the event, said, “(Chief Armstrong) loves us, and we love him as well. What we want to see is his job back. We’re going to fight for his job, and he’s going to fight for his job – because we need to fight for ourselves.”

When the Mayor Sheng Thao’s name was mentioned at the press conference, many in the crowd began chanting, “Recall, Recall!”

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Bay Area

Chevron Richmond Installs Baker Hughes Flare.IQ, Real-time Flare Monitoring, Control and Reduction System

While the sight of flaring can cause concern in the community, flares are essential safety systems that burn pollutants to prevent them from being released directly into the atmosphere. They activate during startup and shut-down of facility units or during upsets or equipment malfunctions. The typical flare stack is about 200 feet high so that vapors are well above street levels.

Published

4 days ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

Image courtesy The Richmond Standard.

The Richmond Standard

Chevron Richmond recently installed flare.IQ, a real-time, automated system that will improve the facility’s flaring performance.

The technology, developed by Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business, uses sensors to monitor, reduce and control flaring in real time. It collects and assesses data on refinery processes, such as temperature, pressure, gas flow and gas composition, and adjusts accordingly to ensure flares burn more efficiently and cleanly, leading to fewer emissions.

“The cleaner the flare, the brighter the flame can look,” said Duy Nguyen, a Chevron Richmond flaring specialist. “If you see a brighter flame than usual on a flare, that actually means flare.IQ is operating as intended.”

“A key element in Baker Hughes’ emissions abatement portfolio, flare.IQ has a proven track record in optimizing flare operations and significantly reducing emissions,” said Colin Hehir, vice president of Panametrics, a Baker Hughes business. “By partnering with Chevron Richmond, one of the first operators in North America to adopt flare.IQ, we are looking forward to enhancing the plant’s flaring operations.”

The installation of flare.IQ is part of a broader and ongoing effort by Chevron Richmond to improve flare performance, particularly in response to increased events after the new, more efficient hydrogen plant was brought online in 2019.

Since then, the company has invested $25 million — and counting — into flare minimization. As part of the effort, a multidisciplinary refinery team was formed to find and implement ways to improve operational reliability and ultimately reduce flaring. Operators and other employees involved in management of flares and flare gas recovery systems undergo new training.

“It is important to me that the community knows we are working hard to lower emissions and improve our flaring performance,” Nguyen said.

Also evolving is the process by which community members are notified of flaring incidents. The Community Warning System (CWS), operated by Contra Costa County is an “all-hazard” public warning system.

Residents can opt-in to receive alerts via text, e-mail and landline. The CWS was recently expanded to enable residents to receive notifications for “Level 1” incidents, which are considered informational as they do not require any community action.

For more information related to these topics, check out the resources included on the Chevron Richmond, CAER and Contra Costa Health websites. Residents are also encouraged to follow @chevronrichmond and @RFDCAOnline on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter), where additional information may be posted during an incident.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Published

4 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

4 days ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.