City Government

Pastor Emeritus J. Alfred Smith Sr. Backs Desley Brooks

Published

7 years ago

August 10, 2018

Allen Temple Baptist Church’s Pastor Emeritus J. Alfred Smith, Sr., has issued a strong statement of support for Councilmember Desley Brooks’ bid for reelection to represent District 6 on the Oakland City Council.

“It is plain why we need tough legislators like you with fearlessness and fire who fight evil,” Pastor Smith wrote in an email.
“Stay strong and keep speaking up for the last, the least and the lowest,” he wrote.

Pastor Smith, a widely respected and beloved community leader, led Allen Temple from 1971 to 2009 before retiring and continuing his ministry as pastor emeritus.

Brooks has recently been endorsed by Assemblymember Rob Bonta, former Black Panther Party leader Bobby Seale and former Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, who served as Deputy Mayor in Jean Quan’s administration.

According to City Hall observers, Brooks most recently earned the wrath of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Police Chief Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick after Brooks took a courageous stand, going out on a limb to defend immigrant rights and the Oakland sanctuary city policy late last year.

At issue was the support OPD provided in August for an ICE raid in Oakland, a violation of the Sanctuary City resolution, forbidding OPD to cooperate with ICE, passed by the City Council.

As the news of the raid spread, hundreds of angry Oaklanders attended the Council’s Public Safety Committee chaired by Brooks, where she took the police chief to task for violating the policy and pointed out that both the chief and mayor Schaaf had made false statements to cover up OPD’s participation in the raid.

Joined by Councilmembers Noel Gallo and Rebecca Kaplan, Brooks successfully pushed for a stronger policy.

In the wake of the public criticism, Chief Kirkpatrick admitted to calling at least one City Councilmember to raise concerns about Brooks’ leadership of Public Safety.

Several councilmembers backed rule changes that would allow for removal of a sitting committee chair, which many saw as a thinly veiled attempt to punish Brooks.

The maneuver failed in the face of an outpouring of community support for Brooks.

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

13 hours 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.