Politics

NAACP President Supports Obama’s Call for Prison Reform

Published

9 years ago

July 16, 2015

By Bobbi Booker
Special to the NNPA from the Philadelphia Tribune

PHILADELPHIA – Immediately following President Barack Obama’s speech in Philadelphia this week, NAACP President Cornell W. Brooks said it’s an issue the country cannot ignore.

“Just on a heart level, I could not have been more moved by the president’s speech because many of the people that were most affected by what he said couldn’t vote for him today, because they don’t have the right to vote,” he said. “Even if they could vote for him on the outside, there are millions of them locked up on the inside, out of sight and seemingly out of mind. But he made clear today they are not out of sight and they are not out of mind. And when he said there are a million fathers locked up, ask ourselves this: how many children does that represent?

“How much of America does that represent?” Brooks asked. “I thought it was an extraordinary address, and it moved me profoundly. I spent the better part of seven years in Newark, N.J., working on prison reentry; and that I have a president that says he is concerned about the issue, but not just concerned about the issue, but concerned enough to go to a prison, that’s important. Because, heretofore, no one from the White House has been in the prison, at least not while they were serving as president. So, it is very powerful.”

Since Congress enacted mandatory minimum sentences for drug crimes, the federal prison population has multiplied, from just 24,000 in the 1980s to more than 214,000, according to Families Against Mandatory Minimums. In 2010, Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act, cutting penalties for crack cocaine offenses. And, last year, the independent Sentencing Commission reduced guideline ranges for drug crimes and applied those retroactively.

“The president is taking a major risk here: he’s standing on the side of people who have been despised, dehumanized, locked away and cast out of society,” Brooks said. “For a president who resides in the White House to go to a prison is making a statement that his oath of office speaks to people who literally are out of sight and out of mind. It is a bold statement. It is a bold reform plan.

“But the president understands all to well: he cannot do this alone,” he added. “Congress cannot do it alone. We have to stand with him, stand behind those in Congress who are standing for criminal justice reform, which is why we have supported America’s journey for justice in terms of talking about our lives, our votes, our jobs, our schools matter. Our lives can’t really matter if we get profiled at will. Our lives don’t really matter if in fact we can be, as a people, sentenced under draconian drug laws. Our lives, our life as a country, matters less, if you have 2.3 million people behind bars — when African-American men are 21-times more likely to lose their lives at the hands of the police than their white counterparts. We’ve got to do something about this.”

In places like Baltimore, New York and Ferguson tensions between law enforcement and their communities have spilled out into the open, underscoring longstanding concerns among minority communities they’re treated differently in the criminal justice system. As the leader of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, Brooks has pledged to continue its mission of advocacy that began over a century ago.

“I don’t think that anyone who gathered together to create the NAACP 106 years ago could have imagined a day when we’d have the first African-American president speak to our delegates,” Brooks said. “Who could have imagined an organization, of whom only a minority were African American, to have created an iconic American institution, that being the NAACP. And, to have the first Black president stand before us and lay out a bold, visionary plan for reform?

“That was hard to imagine then, but I guess I believe today we’re called to exercise our moral and civic imagination to imagine a country in the future that represents the promise of the past,” he said. “The NAACP that we inherited is the NAACP that we should give to the next generation: bold, powerful, risk-taking, willing to do great things because we’re willing to be courageous. That’s who we are, that’s who we represent and that’s what we’re going to do.”

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Congresswoman Barbara Lee Reflects on Historic Moment Less Than One Week from Election Day

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm.

Published

19 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Congresswoman Barbara Lee.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee (CA-12) today released a piece on Medium reflecting on Vice President Kamala Harris’ historic presidential campaign 50 years after Lee worked on the presidential campaign of Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm:

“As Election Day approaches, I’m reflecting on a few dates and numbers that mean something to me.

Zero: the number of Black members in Congress 56 years ago. Next Congress, we hope to swear in over 60 members in the Congressional Black Caucus.

Three: The number of Black women to ever serve in the United States Senate since the first Congress in 1789.

Two: The number of Black women that will be elected to the Senate this year alone if we do our job.

1972: The first time a Black woman, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, ran for president in one of the major political parties of the United States.

Zero: the number of Black women to ever serve as president of the United States.

IF we do the work, we can change that with President Kamala Harris.

As I reflect on what would be Congresswoman Chisholm’s 100th birthday next month, I could not help but remember that my first official involvement in U.S. politics was working for her presidential campaign in 1972.

Over 50 years later, I have been involved in every single campaign since. Shirley was my mentor — she was a bold visionary, a progressive woman who understood that working together in coalitions was the only way to make life better for everyone, to build an equitable society and democracy that lived up to the creed of “liberty and justice for all.”

The historic moment we are in today is not lost on me. I have had the privilege to have known Vice President Kamala Harris for over three decades. She, after all, is a daughter of the East Bay. She, like Shirley, truly is a fighter for the people.

And I know she can move our country forward in a new way. As a member of her National Advisory Board, I have campaigned across our country to help take her message, her legacy of service, and her “to-do list,” as she says, to voters who were almost starting to feel hopeless, but are now feeling hopeful once again, captured by the politics joy and the bright possibilities brought upon by a possible Harris-Walz administration.

Recently, I visited churches in North Carolina with members of the Congressional Black Caucus. The chair of our CBC political action committee, Chairman Gregory Meeks from New York’s fifth district, eloquently and powerfully presented a vision of what Dr. Maya Angelou wrote in her famous poem, “And Still I Rise:” “I am the dream and the hope of the slave.”

Meeks remarked that on Jan. 20, 2025, we will observe the birthday of our drum major for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He also described that on Jan. 20, IF we do the work — if we knock on doors, if we make those phone calls, if we spread our message — standing on the podium at the U.S. Capitol will be the first Black speaker of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries.

In the wings will be over 60 members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Holding Frederick Douglass’ Bible will be the first African American woman appointed to the highest court of the land, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

She will be swearing-in the first Black woman to serve as president, Kamala Harris, in front of the shining white dome of the United States Capitol, built by enslaved Black people.

In front of her and beyond, the tens of millions of Black men and women who voted for her. The world will witness the hope and the dreams of our ancestors ushering in a new way forward.

As I sat in front of the stage this week at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., as Vice President Harris delivered remarks with the Oval Office behind her, I could not help but feel that our country was ready for this historic moment.

We are not only voting for a Black woman as Commander in Chief of the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world. We are definitively stating that we will not allow the clocks of freedom and justice to be turned back.

We are voting for our ancestors’ hopes and dreams. We are voting for the generations that will come after us, long after we are gone. We are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Let’s get this done.

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Pamela Price Appoints Deputy D.A. Jennifer Kassan as New Director of Community Support Bureau

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau. Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Published

19 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan. Courtesy photo.

Special to The Post

On Monday, District Attorney Pamela Price announced Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Kassan as the new director of the Community Support Bureau.

Kassan has over 25 years of experience as an attorney and advisor for mission-driven enterprises including benefit corporations, low-profit limited liability companies, nonprofits, cooperatives, hybrid organizations, investment funds, and purpose trusts.

Working in the DA’s new administration since 2023, Kassan was most recently assigned to the Organized Retail Theft Prosecution team.

Kassan has a master’s degree in City Planning from the University of California, Berkeley. She received a National Science Foundation Fellowship from Yale Law School, and graduated from Yale Law School in 1995. She earned her B.A. in Psychology with a minor emphasis in Ethnic Studies from UC Berkeley.

Kassan’s education, extensive legal background, list of notable accomplishments and impressive resume includes helping to found and lead multiple organizations to support community wealth building including:

Community Ventures, a nonprofit organization that promotes locally-based community economic development,
the Sustainable Economies Law Center, a nonprofit that provides legal information, training, and representation to support sustainable economies
the Force for Good Fund, a nonprofit impact investment fund
Crowdfund Main Street, a licensed portal for regulation crowdfunding
Opportunity Main Street, a place-based ecosystem building organization that supports under-represented entrepreneurs and provides education about community-based investing.

In addition, Kassan served as an elected member of the City Council of Fremont, California from 2018 to 2024, and on the Securities and Exchange Commission Advisory Committee on Small and Emerging Companies.

In 2020 she was named to the list of World-Changing Women in Conscious Business by SOCAP Global.

“We are excited to see Jenny accept the role as the new leader for the Community Support Bureau,” said Price. “She brings a wealth of talent, experience, and a vision to expand our office’s engagement with community groups and residents, that will level-up our

outreach programs and partnerships with local organizations with the aim of promoting crime prevention.

“We thank Interim CSB Director Esther Lemus, who is now assigned to our office’s

Restitution Unit, for her hard work and a great job fostering positive relationships between the DAO and the community.”

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Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao’s Open Letter to Philip Dreyfuss, Recall Election’s Primary Funder

Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund. According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

Published

20 hours ago

November 4, 2024

Oakland Post

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao

Special to The Post

Publishers note: Oaklanders Defending Democracy, a group opposing the recall of Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, shared an open letter she wrote to Philip Dreyfuss of Farallon Capital, a coal hedge fund.

According to Thao’s supporters, “Dreyfuss is the primary funder of the recall effort to remove her from office. He has not explained his motivations or answered one question about why he’s funding the recall or what his agenda is for Oakland.

“All we know about him is his firm has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022. Farallon Capital is a global hedge fund with $39 billion capital under management, headquartered in San Francisco, the supporters say.

The effort to recall Mayor Sheng Thao was built on top of an argument about a crime wave, pinning the blame for it on a newly elected Mayor. Now that crime has dropped massively, recall proponents are left with no compelling argument.

Oct. 30

Dear Philip Dreyfuss,

We haven’t met. As you know, I’m the Mayor of Oakland, elected in 2022 to serve and protect this city. Since stepping into office, I’ve tackled rising crime, homelessness, and budget challenges head-on, working tirelessly for Oakland’s future.

You are a hedge-fund manager and coal investor who doesn’t live in Oakland who is trying to buy our city government. But the people didn’t elect you, they elected me to protect them from people like you.

Shortly after my term began, you launched a campaign to remove me from office, pouring in nearly $500,000 of your own wealth. We’ll know the outcome of your campaign on Nov. 6, but let’s be clear about what’s at stake.

Since I took office, crime has dropped over 30%—we’re on track for less than 100 homicides for the first time since 2019, with 15,000 fewer crimes overall.

We’ve invested hundreds of millions into affordable housing, modernized our 911 system, streamlined construction permitting, and are fighting to make Oakland a safer and cleaner city.

If your recall succeeds, Oakland will see four mayors in just five years, another election for mayor the following year and a whopping $10 million cost to taxpayers. In other words, chaos. None of this will impact you because you don’t live here.

Oaklanders deserve to know who you are. I looked into your record and found that the hedge fund you help manage, Farallon Capital, has invested over $2 billion in coal since 2022.

For years, Oakland has stood tall against coal money threatening the health of West Oakland, Chinatown, Jack London and downtown.

Did you know that life expectancy in West Oakland is 7.5 years lower than the County average? Or that our children suffer from asthma at a rate twice as high as the rest of the County?

Philip, instead of trying to use your wealth to hijack our democracy and create chaos in our city you could have put your money where your mouth is.

Instead of investing in coal you could have invested in our young people—created scholarships for our college-bound kids, funded apprenticeships for those who want to learn a trade or helped rid our schools of lead.

Instead, you chose to divide us while you try to buy us. But I’m here to tell you, Philip, on behalf of the 450,000 residents of my city that Oakland is not for sale. NO to coal. NO to chaos. And NO to your selfish and self-serving recall.

Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao, City Hall, Oakland