The Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee hearing is tomorrow at 1:30 pm; public comment will be at the beginning. We hope for a unanimous vote of support, which could mean the ordinance goes on the full City Council’s consent calendar, as early as next week. This may be the principal time for telling City Council why we have worked for this measure.
We have two asks of you to put this over the finish line:
1. Join us tomorrow Tuesday at 11:30 am for a brief Facebook Live event with Vice-Mayor Rebecca Kaplan and community sponsors of the military equipment ordinance. We will voice the broad community support for this ordinance
2. Show up on zoom on Tuesday at 1:30 pm to make a public comment in support of the military equipment ordinance. This is our chance to make ourselves heard. If the ordinance passes unanimously in Public Safety with no harmful amendments, it could go onto the full City Council’s consent calendar. See talking points on the ordinance here. The zoom link is here. A graphic for social media is attached also.
Berkeley passed a similar ordinance in April, and California is considering another, but neither is as encompassing as the Oakland ordinance, which explicitly applies to mutual aid deployments from other city’s police in Oakland, has a private a right of action, and stronger reporting requirements. Let’s make this ordinance a reality.
American Friends Service Committee
California Healing Justice Program
Tel: 510-282-8983