City Government

Opinion: Kaplan Should Run for Mayor of Oakland

Published

7 years ago

May 5, 2018

Oakland Post

Sandré R Swanson (left) with Rebecca Kaplan.

By Sandré Swanson

I was born in the City of Oakland and I have proudly served Oakland as our Assemblymember for three terms.

I was honored to serve as Oakland’s Deputy Mayor, as chair of Oakland’s Civil Service Commission and chair of Oakland’s Reuse and Redevelopment Commission.

During my service to Oakland, City Councilmember-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan has been consistent in her hard work for the prosperity of all Oakland citizens and her vision of Oakland as one of California’s most desirable cities.

Rebecca Kaplan has challenged Oakland government to serve all of its citizens, and now it’s time for her to lead the city as Mayor.

I know that as mayor, she would support good paying job opportunities for working families. She will promote affordable housing, long term solutions for assisting homelessness, support schools with a safe and great learning environment for our children, promote small business growth and protect Oakland’s environment as a great city by the bay.

Rebecca Kaplan has been promoting and honoring Oakland’s beautiful diversity for years, supporting a growing middle class and giving needed attention to our senior citizens and the too often ignored, our poor.
Rebecca will work for real opportunity for our youth from school to work.

When I was growing up in Oakland, my parents and I enjoyed safe parks and Oakland neighborhoods that positively supported family life. Rebecca Kaplan will work for a police force that has the full confidence of the community.

She would work for the recruitment of officers from local residents with a strong commitment to community and the safety of all citizens.

I am encouraging a visionary, Councilwoman-at-Large Rebecca Kaplan, to join the race and give Oakland voters a creative, hard-working, progressive choice for mayor this November.
Sandré R Swanson served in the California Assembly from 2006 to 2012.

Oakland Post

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Activism

Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

Published

4 days ago

June 2, 2025

Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.