Calendar

Agenda Items of Note:

IV. Draft Ordinance on Military Police Equipment
The Coalition for Police Accountability will present a draft ordinance for review. OPD will
also present their response to the draft ordinance.

IX. Subpoenas Regarding OBOA Allegations of Racial Discrimination
The Commission will discuss and possibly take action on whether or not to serve
subpoenas relating to the Oakland Black Officers Association’s allegations of racial
discrimination.

X. Report on Policing of Oakland’s Unhoused Communities
The Commission will discuss the report which was prepared on behalf of the Coalition for
Police Accountability by students at the University of California, Berkeley. This is a new
item. (Attachment 10).

XI. Vote to Submit Request to City Council to Create Standing Policy and Legislation
Committee
The Commission will vote to authorize the submission of a request to the City Council for
approval of a Standing Policy and Legislation Committee.

The Oakland Police Commission will consider the proposed ordinance on militarized equipment. Please come to the first part of this meeting to show support for this ordinance and make a short public comment. BAY Peace organizers will also present video testimony of youth violated by police military equipment.

Oakland PD has submitted a response to the proposed ordinance falsely claiming that it currently requests listed equipment through the Police Commission, City Council and Council’s Public Safety Committee. OPD says that the ordinance would remove these three bodies from their part in governing Oakland and the OPD! In fact, the ordinance will give the City Council and Police Commission authority for reviewing police equipment, with community input, that they have never had.

Please join us on Thursday at 6:30pm and consider asking others to come out on Thursday as well. The militarized equipment ordinance is the first item on the agenda. You can speak during Open Forum at 6:30, and/or right after the ordinance is presented.

You can share this online Petition to Regulate Police Military Equipment in Oakland.

We want civilian control over OPD’s use of military equipment, including sound cannons known as LRADs (Long Range Acoustic Devices). A federal court ruled last year that NYPD’s indiscriminate use of LRADs at a Black Lives Matter protest, where it caused damage to people’s eardrums, was illegal. An LRAD was used in Oakland against Occupy in 2011, causing some protesters to fall over and vomit. Yet, OPD states that “LRAD is not a weapon LRAD is a communication device…” OPD says it has no use policy for the LRAD, and appears to suggest that it doesn’t need one.

We’ve created this interactive map of deployments of the tank-like BearCat in Oakland in 2018 and 2019.

The more we learn, the more clear it is that the militarized equipment ordinance is necessary. Please join us on Thursday.

American Friends Service Committee
California Healing Justice Program
Tel: 510-282-8983

• Information about recent dramatic radio network conflicts, resulting lawsuits, and proposed new bylaws
• The shut down and lock out of staff at New York affiliate WBAI
• The elimination of various independent programs at KPFA
• The truth about the Pacifica network’s financial state
• “Why can’t we all just get along?”

Whether you are a member or an occasional listener, Pacifica’s survival is essential to everyone’s free speech.
Please come and learn more if you value free independent media. Join us in protecting the fierce independence of KPFA’s local and Pacifica’s national programming, which speaks truth to power.

KPFA:

Is It the End of Our Local

.

A substantial debate on single payer:

The pro side will be represented by a professor from the UC school of Public Health.

The con side will be represented by Sally Pipes from the Pacific Research Institute. She used to work for the Fraser Institute in Vancouver, Canada.

JOIN US TO SAVE CHELSEA & JULIAN EVERY FRIDAY

SAVE CHELSEA AND JULIAN FROM TORTURE AND DEATH
NEWS LETTER 10/11/19

Please sign up for our emails and alerts at:
https:/bayaction2freeassnge.org and watch “XY CHELSEA” go to SHOWTIME
“XY CHELSEA” clk free 7 day suscription.or free @
https://archive.org/details/XYChelsea

The Main Stream Media (MSM) is so full of lies, it’s got the masses confused!!
There are only a few places we can get the truth.Chelsea and Julian were two of
the most important WHISTLE BLOWERS to tell the truth about USA’s illegal,
immoral WARS. USA is one of the largest TERRORIST countries in history,
killing, wounding, and forcing emigration on millions of folks (did you know there
are 65 million migrants?) all over the world!!

Saving Chelsea and Julian is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! To the Working
class and it’s Allies.They told us the truth about the wars! And all the NEW
McArthyism (phony Russia Gate conspiracy led by the New York Times) is
blaming Julian for being a puppet of Russia. So much of all our issues stem from
the honesty of Chelsea and Julian!! That’s why the RULING CLASS imprisoned
them and want’s them DEAD.

Please write letters to Chelsea (only hand written and no post cards or
pictures, or anything written on the outside of the letter) Write to: Chelsea
Elizabeth Manning, William Truesdale Adult Detention Center, 2001 Mill Road,
Alexandria Va. 22314. Also write julian writejulian.com

We need to hip people to YouTube shows, web sites and twitter feeds ie. –
twitter.com/xychelsea, twitter.com/defendassange, and wikileaks.org

– Definitely check out these specific links, and add comments and tell your friends:
– Real News Network – “Federal judge continues Chelsea Manning’s confinement
and $1000/day fine” https://youtub.be/qjywz_U_x1c
– The Jimmy Dore Show – “Chelsea Manning jailed again for
protecting journalism” https://youtu.be/bTqVNKXZYAY (89,000 hits)
– Chelsea Manning “Abolish ICE” https://youtu.be/R7qpQGGQqa8
-Orion song”WE will keep fightin everyday even though our tears won’t
go away!” youtube/DnF6pvX4478

– Chelsea’s scathing 7 page letter to the judge about the history of the SECRET GRAND
JURIES: – https://www.aaronswartzday.org/chelsea-manning-letter

Tamarack and Commune Magazine invite you to a video presentation by the Vitalist International:

BE WATER : WORLD

Lessons from the freedom movements in Hong Kong and Catalonia

Magic and Technology In the Revolution of Our Times

Umbrellas, laser pointers, and cardboard boxes, black blocks using encrypted platforms to vote live on escape routes and designers quitting their day jobs to make Pepe memes full time: The movement in Hong Kong is a signal fire showing us the future of resistance in an increasingly digital world.

From low tech solutions against the most advanced surveillance state on Earth to mesh networks and live mapping software, two participants in the movement will discuss the revolution in Hong Kong, from a user’s perspective.

Catalunya Fall 2019

After the Spanish Supreme Court convicted 9 Catalans of “Sedition” for their roles in the 2017 independence referendum, a wave of revolt crashed over the region. Drawing on lessons from the laboratory in Hong Kong, millions of people have built a movement that goes beyond its nationalist framework and questions the meaning of democracy in our time.

Beginning on August 10th, the Strike Debt Bay Area Economics Book Group began discussing Banking on the People: Democratizing Money in the Digital Age. We tackled the introduction and first chapter, available through the ‘Look Inside’ feature on Amazon, for the August 10th meeting.

For our September 7th meeting, we will be discussing the rest of the first section, Chapters 2-6.

For our October 12th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 7-9, the first part of the second section.

For our November 16th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 10 – 13.

For our December 14th meeting, we will be discussing Chapters 14 and through to the end.

All are welcome!

The Economics Book Group began with Doughnut Economics and continued with Take Back the Economy.  We read a few chapters every month.

“Today most of our money is created, not by governments, but by banks when they make loans. This book takes the reader step by step through the sausage factory of modern money creation, explores improvements made possible by advances in digital technology, and proposes upgrades that could transform our outmoded nineteenth century system into one that is democratic, sustainable, and serves the needs of the twenty-first century.”

“In Banking on the People, attorney Ellen Brown provides a much-needed roadmap for reforming monetary and credit systems and the central banks now strangling our common human future. More lucidly that any other expert I know, she shows how we can break the grip of predatory financialization now extracting value from real peoples’ productive activities all over the world. Her in-depth research and systemic overview of the global and local politics of money-creation and credit allocation include all the viable proposals of global experts and reformers. She reviews many of these reforms: from financial transaction taxes, to a universal basic income to provide purchasing power for the cornucopia of goods and services now produced, to expanding the public banks she so ably promotes via the Public Banking Institute, to returning the Fed and all banks to serving the public utility functions that economies require. This book is a must read for citizens in all societies who see the promising future as we seek to widen democracies and transform to a cleaner, greener, shared prosperity, based on the renewable abundance of free daily energy from our sun.” – Hazel Henderson, CEO of Ethical Markets Media and author of Mapping the Global Transition to the Solar Age and other books.

Sun, Nov 10, 2019
Open Mic/Political Karaoke

What’s bugging you, politics-wise? Here’s your chance to talk about any and every thing from the PG&E Power Shutdown to Brexit, from Nancy Pelosi to Greta Thunberg, maybe even the riots in Chile. Sign up for 5 minute slots!

Sun, Nov 17, 2019
Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter.
Representatives of the Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and State Repression have been invited to discuss their position on this matter.
Awaiting better blurb..

Sun, Nov 24, 2019
Women and War
Women have a long association with violent intergroup conflict and war going back to early human times.  This presentation will survey women in the highly genderized institutions of war and the military in various periods and types of societies.  Although women have been impacted in multiple ways and played many roles, the focus of this talk is on women’s role as fighter/combatant and direct supporters of this activity.  Also covered are women in some of the revolutionary wars and militaries in the past two centuries.  The fighter/combatant perspective on women is usually omitted or “hidden” in accounts by both conventional and feminist analysts who stress women as victims, survivors, peacemakers and supporters of men who fight.  Women as fighters not only redresses this imbalance but indicates a role whose impact is as significant as the other roles that are more widely promulgated.
Presented by Al Sargis, Founder/Director of the Friedrich Engels Institute of Marxist War and Military Analysis (FEIMWAMA).

The workshop is 2-6pm.

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP
Building alternatives to policing include equipping our communities with the skills to respond to mental health crisis and physical emergencies, including overdose. Too often calling 911 for a mental health or physical emergency brings police attention along with it. In this workshop we will cover mental health crisis intervention, first aid, CPR, and overdose intervention.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS
The Oakland Power Projects (OPP) are an initiative of Critical Resistance to engage Oakland residents in building community power and wellbeing without relying on cops. CR Oakland has been fighting against the violence of policing for more than 10 years, and we hope you’ll join us in this next phase.

ABOUT THIS WORKSHOP SERIES

A growing coalition of organizations in the Bay Area is coming together to explore alternatives to calling the police to our campuses and into our neighborhoods. Over the coming year, we will be offering a series of workshops to explore alternatives to calling the police. Some of these workshops will provide deepening analysis and a grounding in alternative ways of thinking about community safety. Others, like this one, will provide practical skills. All of them will lift up a transformative justice framework and emphasize the importance of self care.

The Coalition includes First Congregational Church of Oakland, Kehilla Community Synagogue, Qal’bu Maryam, Jewish Voice for Peace, Skyline Community Church, Oakland Peace Center, Oakland LBGTQ Community Center, and the Omni Collective. We are eager to partner with additional organizations so please contact us if you are interested!

Join us for our National Day of Action to #FreeRodneyReed. Join other members of your community in solidarity with Rodney and his family as we join the national movement to demand Justice for Rodney.

Sign up here

“As many of you know, I favor strong First Amendment protections for journalists and protesters and especially students. But I’m also very much against the President of the United States’ and his followers’ repeated attempts to get Congresswomen of color harmed or killed.

Legally, these two ideals appear to be in conflict. Would you like to see me try to square them? Would you like to hear a fully thought-through articulation of why free speech does not, or at least should not, include personal threats made against any person who dares to oppose Donald Trump? Would you like to hear an expert in First Amendment law tell me why I’m wrong?

If so, please join me and Ken White (aka @Popehat) at Berkeley Law on Monday, November 18th at 5:30 p.m. We will be having a spirited debate about what free speech does mean, should mean, and must mean in the age of Donald Trump. We’ll be playing some of our old hits like: Can a gun store suggest killing Congresswomen if it didn’t actually threaten them? And some new ones like, well, whatever dangerous, hateful thing Trump says in the next 10 days, probably.

We’re being hosted by Director Catherine Crump of the Samuelson Clinic for Law, Technology, and Public Policy. We will try very hard not to break any of the technology or public policy lying around.

Click here to RSVP. Especially if you agree with me! But, even if you don’t. I will defend forever your right to oppose me… just so long as you don’t think you can use the n-word without catching some hands.”

Join immigrants and their allies in fighting for a pathway to permanent residency for over a million longtime U.S. residents who are at risk of losing their legal status under the Trump administration’s attacks on programs such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), Temporary Protected Status (TPS), and Deferred Enforced Departure(DED).

The El Cerrito City Council will hear and vote on a proclamation titled “In Support of Protections from Deportation and a Path to Permanent Residency for Beneficiaries of DACA, TPS and DED” at its November 19 meeting in City Council chambers, 10890 San Pablo Ave., El Cerrito. The meeting begins at 7:00 PM. Read the entire draft proclamation at this pdf link. The City Council’s agenda isn’t available yet, but will appear at this link closer to the date of the meeting, and should include a final draft of the proclamation.

Local community organizations El Cerrito Progressives, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant,and NorCal TPS Coalition will hold a rally/vigil outside City Hall before the meeting, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Come hear local speakers tell their stories and explain how we can all work to keep families together and our communities intact. El Cerrito Mayor Rochelle Pardue-Okimoto is also slated to speak at the beginning of the rally. Come even if you live outside of El Cerrito! TPS Coalition has been working with several cities on the issue; you can read the Berkeley City Council’s 10/15/19 resolution, “Protect from deportation and a path to permanent residency for beneficiaries of DACA, TPS, and DED,” at this pdf link.  

pic.twitter.com/8KpyZVhGxt

— Anti Police-Terror (@APTPaction) November 19, 2019

We already know that we desperately need single payer for health care. But the recent failures of PG&E show how we need a single-payer system for our energy grid, too — to stop the reckless, dangerous behavior of private companies getting rich off what should be a public good, and to fight climate change. Only one of the Democratic candidates running for President has unequivocally called for bringing PG&E under public control. Bernie Sanders’s Green New Deal proposal isn’t just the boldest proposal to save the planet that any candidate has made yet. It also includes the United States moving to 100 percent public ownership of our power grid.

How can the growing democratic socialist movement win demands that stave off the worst of the climate crisis and move us towards a more sustainable future? Solving the ecological crisis requires a mass movement to take on hugely powerful industries. Yet the environmental movement’s base in the professional-managerial class and focus on consumption has little chance of attracting working-class support. The seminal essay by Matt Huber included in the class readings argues for a program that tackles the ecological crisis by organizing around working-class interests.

The readings for the upcoming Night School class can be found here: https://www.eastbaydsa.org/night-school/

This important discussion between two major American whisteblowers will focus on the urgent need to end unaccountable government power.

Daniel Ellsberg is an American activist and former United States military analyst formerly employed by the RAND Corporation. He precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War, to The New York Times and other newspapers. In1973, Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act  along with other charges of theft and conspiracy, carrying a total maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, and the defense by Leonard Boudin and Harvard Law School Professor Charles Nesson,  all charges against Ellsberg  were dismissed. He was awarded the Right Livelihood Award in 2006. He is also known for  voicing support for Wikileaks, Chelsea Manning, and Edward Snowden.  Ellsberg was awarded the 2018 Olof Palme Prize for his humanism and exceptional moral courage.

Jeffery Sterling is a former CIA agent convicted under the Espionage Act for talking to a New York Times reporter. He was released from prison after serving more than two years of his 42-month sentence. Sterling’s case drew nationwide attention because the Obama-era Department of Justice unsuccessfully tried to force the reporter, James Risen, to divulge the identity of his sources for “State of War,” his book that revealed just how the CIA had botched a covert operation against Iran’s nuclear program. Risen reported that instead of undermining the Iranians, the CIA had provided them with useful information on how to build a nuclear bomb. The case had a racial dimension, as Sterling was one of the few black undercover operatives at the CIA. After several years of what he believed was discriminatory treatment, he filed a complaint against the agency, followed by a lawsuit. The CIA fired Sterling in 2002. His lawsuit was blocked by the courts after the government argued successfully that proceeding with the suit would expose state secrets. As a whistleblower, Sterling subsequently met with Senate investigators about the mismanaging of a classified program he worked on at the agency.

Norman Solomon is the author of a dozen books including “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is also the Founder and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, where he coordinates the ExposeFacts.org program for whistleblowers and press freedom. He is co-founder of RootsAction.org.  Kevin Cartwright has since 1994 handled many important positions for Pacifica Radio station KPFA-FM. He is a communications strategist who continues working with various social change organizations across the country to help improve their communications.

Give Us Something to be Thankful For

A Visit to Governor Newsom, to Expedite Healthy California for All Commission for Single-Payer Healthcare!

-We are providing a charter bus – capacity 56, first come,, first served – that will pick up at the Larkin Street main libraryy in San Francisco and then at Ashby BART before heading to Sacramento. We ask for those able to carpool to please do so! We will also have box lunches once we arrive. So that we have a headcount to submit the lunch order in time, and to know who will be on the bus and who will need to carpool, the deadline to RSVP is November 8th. (You are welcome to complete the RSVP after the 8th, the more the merrier, but we cannot then guarantee a ride or a lunch.)

San Francisco Main Library
100 Larkin St.
10:30am

Ashby BART
3100 Adeline St.
11:00am

Governor’s Office
1315 — 10th St.
12:30pm

Meeting at Gov’s Office at 1pm // Rally on North Steps at 2pm
Bus capacity is 56; carpool caravan
encouraged! RSVP and info: tinyurl.com/HCN-Newsom

We will meet at Castro St & Chevron Way at 10 am and walk over together to Gate 19 on Castro St.

Featuring:
Bernadette Demientieff (ED of Gwich’in Steering Committee),

Gwich’in Youth Council Leaders – Quannah Potts, Araya Stoffa, Isaiah Horace

Michael Brune – Sierra Club

Local Youth and Indigenous Activists from Idle No More SF Bay, Youth vs. Apocalypse

Right now, we are fighting for the future of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Trump administration wants to raid the Refuge for oil, but they know that their window of opportunity is closing, so they’re scrambling to sell out the Refuge while they still can. They are aiming to hold a lease sale as early as this December.

Chevron has emerged as a top contender and potential bidder. So let’s take the fight to them and send a resounding message that Arctic drilling is bad business. Join us at the Chevron Richmond Refinery on November 22nd from 10:00 am – 11:30.

The Gwich’in Nation of Alaska and Canada have been leading the fight to protect the Refuge, and they’re asking for widespread support from people in the Lower 48 this fall. We are honored to have four representatives from the Gwich’in Steering Committee leading this action in Richmond. Come join us and learn more about how you can help protect the Arctic Refuge from destructive development.

WE CAN SAVE CHELSEA MANNING AND JULIAN
ASSANGE FROM TORTURE AND DEATH

Please sign up for our emails and alerts at: https://bayaction2freeassange.org and watch the
INCREDIBLE “SHOWTIMES” Manning doc.free @ https://archive.org/details/XYChelsea

The Main Stream Media (MSM) is so full of lies, it’s got the masses confused!!
There are only a few places we can get the truth.Chelsea and Julian were two of
the most important WHISTLE BLOWERS to tell the truth about USA’s illegal,
immoral WARS. USA is one of the largest TERRORIST countries in history,
killing, wounding, and forcing emigration on millions of folks (did you know there
are 65 million migrants?) all over the world!!

Saving Chelsea and Julian is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!! To the
Working class and it’s Allies.They told us the truth about the wars! And all the
NEW McArthyism (phony Russia Gate conspiracy led by the New York Times) is
blaming Julian for being a puppet of Russia. So much of all our issues stem
from the honesty of Chelsea and Julian!! That’s why the RULING CLASS
imprisoned them and want’s them DEAD.

Please write letters to Chelsea (only hand written and no post cards or
pictures, or anything written on the outside of the letter) Write to: Chelsea
Elizabeth Manning, William Truesdale Adult Detention Center, 2001 Mill Road,
Alexandria Va. 22314. Also write julian writejulian.com

We need to hip people to YouTube , Web sites and twitter feeds ie. –
#xychelsea,#defendassange, and wikileaks.org – Please check out these specific
links, and add comments and tell your friends:

– Real News Network – “Federal judge continues Chelsea Manning’s
confinement and $1000/day fine” https://youtub.be/qjywz_U_x1c –
The Jimmy Dore Show – “Chelsea Manning jailed again for
protecting journalism” https://youtu.be/bTqVNKXZYAY (89,000 hits)
– Chelsea Manning 2min “Abolish ICE”https://youtu.be/R7qpQGGQqa8
-Orion song”WE will keep fightin everyday even though our tears won’t go
away!” https://youtu.be/T5-3db8GDFY
– Chelsea’s scathing 7 page letter to the judge about the history of the SECRET GRAND
JURIES: – https://www.aaronswartzday.org/chelsea-manning-letter