News

Mayor Withdraws Nomination of Police Commissioner Who Defended U.S. Drone Killings

Published

5 years ago

October 22, 2020

In the face of opposition, Mayor Libby Schaaf has withdrawn her proposed appointment of an ex-U.S. District Attorney as a police commission alternate. Brian Hauck, in a former position, defended the U.S. government’s killing by drone attack of two U.S. citizens accused not of violence but of “incendiary commentary.”

These extra-judicial drone killings have been condemned internationally. In the 2013 lawsuit against the federal government, the ACLU and the Center for Constitutional Rights the family of the man and his teenaged son, who was killed in Yemen in 2011.

At last Thursday’s Rules Committee meeting, the Schaaf administration proposed that Hauck serve as an alternative commissioner on the Police Commission.

At the meeting, Schaaf’s Chief of Staff Elinor Buchen praised Hauck for his “years of experience in the Department of Justice…he brings a level of expertise on some of the more technical issues.”

Hauck said, “I do have experience in these issues and look forward to serving the community whatever way the city would find helpful.”

The resolution to appoint Hauck was placed on the consent calendar on this week’s City Council agenda, which meant that it was not considered controversial and would probably be approved with little or no discussion.

However, the proposal quickly unraveled after Hauck’s background was brought to the attention of City Councilmembers and the public by journalist Jaime Omar Yassin at “Oakland News at Hyphenated Republic” (https://hyphenatedrepublic.com).

City Council President Rebecca Kaplan took the item off the consent calendar, in a motion seconded by Noel Gallo, meaning that it would have to be debated in public. A number of public speakers spoke against the resolution. Finally, the Mayor’s Office pulled the resolution off the agenda.

“Before it was pulled by the Mayor’s staffer there was public comment including public criticism of the nomination,” Kaplan told the Oakland Post after the meeting.

“I was told about the issue by a local journalist,” she said. “I agree with many in the community who spoke on their concerns about the nomination, given the undisclosed prior role defending extra-judicial killings.”

The 2011 case received wide attention around the world, involving the extra-judicial killing of Anwar Al Awlaki and his 16-year-old son Abdulrahman Al Awlaki in a U.S. drone attack.

The family’s lawsuit argued that then- U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and then-CIA Director David Petraeus, among others, were liable for having violated the constitutional rights the Al Awlakis.

Hauk represented the U.S. government in the hearing. According to a summary of the case by journalist Yassin, Hauck argued the U.S. could not be responsible for extra-judicial assassinations of citizens because it would “distract” those officials with the fear of litigation.

He also argued that though the two did have constitutional rights, “no court was capacitated to consider those rights’ – only the executive in consultation with Congress could decide on such matters.

Rashidah Grinage of the Coalition for Police Accountability told the Oakland Post as a former U.S. attorney, Hauck could respond that he had no choice but to make the case that he was assigned to make by his employer. However, she did question why he failed to disclose the issue to the mayor or the Police Commission, when he was interviewed by the selection committee

“This seems to reflect a lack of political awareness, especially about Oakland,” she said.

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

Posts by Michelle Snider | Website

Up Next

Black Community Leaders Hold Statewide Call For Blacks to Carefully Consider Ballot Initiatives

Don't Miss

City Council Votes to Prioritize Gun Violence, End OPDs Partnership with Fed Terrorism Task Force

Michelle Snider

Associate Editor for The Post News Group. Writer, Photographer, Videographer, Copy Editor, and website editor documenting local events in the Oakland-Bay Area California area.

Click to comment

#NNPA BlackPress

Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

2 days ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

3 days ago

March 1, 2026

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

#NNPA BlackPress

Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

5 days ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke