500 14th St.
Oakland
CA
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