In an unprecedented move, the Berkeley City Council is considering fully withdrawing their support for local agency participation in the Urban Areas Security Initiative and Urban Shield. The Stop Urban Shield Coalition has been fighting Urban Shield on every front. We’ve been at Berkeley City Council Meetings to convince representatives that Urban Shield hurts Berkeley residents, particularly in Black and Brown communities. This meeting is critical for the fight against Urban Shield. A decision in favor of pulling out of Urban Shield by the Berkeley City Council paves the way for other cities in the Bay Area to do the same.

6:30pm — free guided mindfulness meditation with Buddhist Peace Fellowship, led by Sarwang Parikh of Seeds of Awareness and East Bay Meditation Center. We can prepare for emergencies by enhancing our own ability to respond.

7pm – 10pm – Berkeley City Council Meeting. Come ready to give public comment (or cede time). Talking points provided!

Join us as we demand answers from Sheriff Ahern for arresting a Street vendor in San Lorenzo!

All people deserve the right to be treated with respect and dignity. Stand up against the criminalization of street vendors, against deportations, and pol-ICE collaboration!

Bring one piece of fruit to share and a luggage (*the luggage is to exposed Ahern’s past racists’ comments about how he can tell who’s undocumented based on clothing, language, and luggage.)
#NotMySheiff

At the Finance Committee meeting on June 13th, fund allocation and approval of the feasibility study contract will be discussed. Because the funding for the study will impact the city budget, we are asking supporters to not just contact Finance Committee members directly, but to attend all budget meetings hosted by councilpersons and voice your support for funding the study as soon as possible. Upcoming meetings are:

Wednesday, May 17: 6:30-8:30 pm, District 7 and at-large, Councilpersons Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland Zoo, Snow Building, 9777 Golf Links Road

Thursday, May 18: 6:00-8:00 pm, District 6, Councilperson Desley Brooks, Eastmont Police Department Substation, 2651 73rd Avenue, Oakland

Monday, May 22, 6:00-8:30 pm, District 3, Councilperson Lynette McElhaney, West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline Street, Oakland

Thursday, May 25, 6:30-8:30 pm, District 2, Councilperson Abel Guillen (member of the Finance Committee) [Cantonese interpretation available], Lincoln Recreation Center, 261 11th Street, Oakland

Sponsored by the League of Women Voters.

Co-Sponsored by the Oakland Bay Area Chapter of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women

Speakers include:

• Pamela Hall, City of Oakland Housing Advocate

• Charmaine Curtis, Curtis Development
• Margaretta Lin, Executive Director of the Dellums Institute for Social Justice
• Alan Dones, Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Strategic Urban Development Alliance, LLC (SUDA)
• RSVP here!

Have you ever wondered:

• What do police really spend their time doing?
• How much do they make, and why do they get paid so much?
• Could we shrink OPD and make Oakland an even safer, better place to live?

The process of allocating Oakland’s 2.6 billion dollar budget for 2017-2019 has begun.  We believe that the scandal-ridden and dysfunctional Oakland Police Department consumes far too many of our city’s resources.  It’s time to audit police spending and performance, and redirect wasted funds to community-building, constructive strategies for making Oakland a safer and better place to live.

Our Demands:

• INDEPENDENT AND THOROUGH COST SAVINGS AND PERFORMANCE AUDIT OF THE POLICE DEPARTMENT
• DEFUND OPD BY 50%

PLEASE COME OUT TO YOUR LOCAL BUDGET FORUM:

Monday May 8, 6:30-8:30 pm, Councilmember Abel Guillen
St Paul’s Episcopal Church, 114 Montecito Ave

Wednesday May 10, 6:30-8:30 pm, Councilmember Annie Campbell
Bret Harte Middle School, 3700 Coolidge Ave

Saturday May 13, 10am-12pm, Councilmembers Lynette McElhaney & Dan Kalb
Beebe Memorial Church, 3900 Telegraph Ave

Wednesday May 17, 6:30-8:30 pm, Councilmembers Larry Reid & Rebecca Kaplan
Oakland Zoo- Snow Building, 9777 Golf Links Road

Thursday May 18, 6-8pm, Councilmember Desley Brooks
Eastmont Police Dept. Substation, 2651 73rd Ave

Monday May 22, 6-8pm, Councilmember Lynette McElhaney
West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline St

Thursday May 25, 6:30-8:30 pm, Councilmember Abel Guillen
Lincoln Rec Center, 261 11th St. (cantonese interpretation)

Defund OPD will be at each of these budget meetings with information about the police budget, questions to ask, and our demands!  Please show up 15 minutes early if possible.  More information is available at defundopd.org.

#DefundOPD
In the last few weeks we’ve built a ton of momentum and had some significant successes:

-With incredible and wide-ranging community support, we’ve succeeded in making sure that the city’s outrageous and unaccountable spending on police is the #1 topic of discussion at every single city council member budget forum.
-We’ve already gotten the mayor to stand down from her effort to increase the police force to 800 officers, and now the discussion is turning to maintaining the current staffing levels (near 750) instead of the fully budgeted levels (792).
-We’ve gotten almost every council member to commit, on the record, to supporting an independent, thorough audit of police spending, and the city auditor’s office is on board.
-We’ve built a huge amount of synergy and mutual support with dozens of organizations who are calling for various budget priorities that will ACTUALLY make Oakland a safer and more just city — and many of them are now making explicit connections between the bloated police budget and the lack of funding for these crucial measures to support housing affordability, education, homeless services, youth programs and employment, and cultural initiatives.

Monthly APTP meeting, held on every 3rd Wednesday of the month.

The Anti Police-Terror Project is a project of the ONYX ORGANIZING COMMITTEE that in coalition with other organizations like Idriss Stelley Foundation, Community READY Corps and Workers World is working to develop a replicable and sustainable model to end police terrorism in this country.

We are led by the most impacted communities but are a multi-racial, mutil-generational coalition.

At the Finance Committee meeting on June 13th, fund allocation and approval of the feasibility study contract will be discussed. Because the funding for the study will impact the city budget, we are asking supporters to not just contact Finance Committee members directly, but to attend all budget meetings hosted by councilpersons and voice your support for funding the study as soon as possible. Upcoming meetings are:

Wednesday, May 17: 6:30-8:30 pm, District 7 and at-large, Councilpersons Larry Reid and Rebecca Kaplan, Oakland Zoo, Snow Building, 9777 Golf Links Road

Thursday, May 18: 6:00-8:00 pm, District 6, Councilperson Desley Brooks, Eastmont Police Department Substation, 2651 73rd Avenue, Oakland

Monday, May 22, 6:00-8:30 pm, District 3, Councilperson Lynette McElhaney, West Oakland Senior Center, 1724 Adeline Street, Oakland

Thursday, May 25, 6:30-8:30 pm, District 2, Councilperson Abel Guillen (member of the Finance Committee) [Cantonese interpretation available], Lincoln Recreation Center, 261 11th Street, Oakland

Join the Statewide Healthy CA Lobby Day & Rally!

Walk #4 in July

Sunday, July 16th
Rodeo Conoco Phillips 66 Refinery to Richmond Chevron Refinery California

We encourage folks to walk with us the entire day.  It is truly a beautiful, profound and inspiring way to make a difference.

We will begin at Lone Tree Park in Rodeo

8:00 a.m. Water Ceremony – Feel free to bring water from your watershed!
9:00 a.m. Registration
9:30 a.m. Walk Begins
There are several places along the walk where folks can join the walk – please see the details of the route below.

The walk will end at Keller Beach in Richmond 

You can join us at any time during the day of the walks.
Call this number to find out where we are: (510) 619-8279

Make sure to keep the phone number on you if you are joining us on the walk!

Registration for the walk will begin at 8:00 a.m.  Walkers will be asked to agree to the Nonviolent Principles.  For details on what to bring/not bring, please go to “What To Expect” in the tabs above.

This walk is approximately 13 miles from beginning to end.  There will be vehicles available for people who wish to take breaks during the walk.  Medics will also be available.   Water will be provided – Please bring your own refillable water bottle.

Everyone will be taken back to their vehicles at the end of the walk.  If you are coming to the walk with friends and have two vehicles, please consider leaving one vehicle at the end.   Carpool:  Sign up to drive or be a passenger here: CARPOOL

There will be two points where folks can get rides back to the beginning in Rodeo, at the Hilltop stop in Richmond and at the end at Keller Beach.

We will begin at Lone Tree Park in Rodeo within sight of the Conoco Phillips 66 Refinery and walking to Richmond, stopping to pray at several places including the Kinder Morgan facility and the gates of the Chevron refinery.  We will end at Keller Beach in Richmond, the last natural beach left in the San Francisco Bay where we will all enjoy a delicious meal made by Mike Bear and his family and  youth from Urban Tilth in Richmond!

Can’t come but want to support?  Welcome us at Keller Beach in Point Richmond and feel free to bring a dish to share if you would like. 

Join us to support and welcome newly arrived refugees and asylees to the Berkeley community. Connect with friends and community members, while supporting 1951 Coffee Company’s innovative vision to help local refugees and asylees settle into life and work in the Bay Area. Enjoy great wine, music, and delicious appetizers catered by a newly arrived Syrian family.

1951 Coffee Company is a nonprofit specialty coffee organization whose name derives from the 1951 Refugee Convention where the United Nations defined and set forth its first guidelines for the protection of refugees. 1951 Coffee Company was founded in 2015 in the spirit of these conventions to give refugees resettling in the Greater San Francisco Bay Area assistance in starting their new lives.

The United Nations estimates that a record 65 million people are fleeing war and persecution around the world. The newly opened coffee shop currently employees refugees and asylees from a variety of nations including Afghanistan, Bhutan, Eritrea, Iran, Kachin (Burma), Syria, and Uganda.

Let us come together and help 1951 grow and expand their model of job-training in the coffee industry for our new neighbors.

*$65.00 OF EACH TICKET PURCHASE IS TAX DEDUCTIBLE. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO PAY WITH CASH OR CHECK, EMAIL AIDA@1951COFFEE.COM*

Read more about 1951 Coffee Company on their Website

Here’s a write up in LA Times about the Coffee Shop

Many thanks to our lovely hosts of the evening!

Fatima Angeles and Ray Colmenar
Ozlem Ayduk and Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
Linda Berkowitz
Bliss Family
Cathy Cha and Dara O’Rourke
Kerry and Leila Gough
Asha Harikrishnan and Iswar Hariharan
Stacie Ma’a and Brad Battson
Sarah McWhirter and Russell Vance
Weekly Wanderers Hiking Group
Jaz Zaitlin & Mark Nienberg
Webster & Fredrickson, PLLC

Fundraising Committee Members:

Linda Berkowitz
Kat Bliss
Michele Brusseau
Kay Englund
Asha Harikrishnan
Colleen Neff
Anne Poirier
Abby Rutchick

I was one of the curators for this year’s @oaklandbookfest and tbh it’s gonna be historic. May 21. Be there~ https://t.co/3DWn6i2DNI pic.twitter.com/2Rzp3Of8g2

— Sarah Burke (@sarahlubyburke) May 9, 2017