Concern about the AC Transit proposed F bus line closure continues to ripple across the East Bay. Today, the Daily Californian editorial board staff weighs in:
A new proposal being considered by the AC Transit Board of Directors to cut the system’s F line could mean the end of a direct and economical bus route to Emeryville, a premier destination for shopping and dining for many UC Berkeley students. This is cause for concern.
In place of the F line, AC Transit is considering a shorter, more frequent transbay line that would run through the south side of the UC Berkeley campus and down Telegraph Avenue into Oakland. This line, however, would not run to the north side of Berkeley.
This spring, UC Berkeley students voted to keep the Cal 1 Card Class Pass in order to continue to be able to travel around Berkeley and the rest of the Bay Area. Emeryville, for example, is home to Ikea and Target, which are both staples for college students’ shopping needs. With the F line, students who work or live in Emeryville have a direct route to and from campus.
Without the F line, students will have to find alternative methods to travel to Emeryville — methods that might be expensive and time-consuming due to the lack of a BART station there.
The F is also a way for students to travel to the edge of downtown San Francisco for free instead of taking BART, which costs a minimum round-trip price of $7.40 to get to Embarcadero station.
Additionally, there are already multiple buses that frequently run through Berkeley and into Oakland — including the 1 and 1R, which go down Telegraph, and the 51A and 51B, which head down College Avenue in both directions. Adding another bus line would serve little purpose other than possibly creating a faster way for students to travel around Southside.
AC Transit leadership is rightfully cautious in regards to cutting the line. Chris Peeples, the system’s director at large, expressed reservations about the proposed Telegraph line being an adequate replacement for the F line. Peeples also said that an analysis of Title IV — the 1964 federal legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin — needs to be conducted before any further decisions are made regarding the F line. We agree with Peeples.
The board of directors will hold a public hearing as well as several community meetings before making its final decision. But it needs to make sure that students and the ASUC are adequately represented at these meetings and notified about them before the beginning of the fall 2013 semester.
UC Berkeley students voted to keep the Class Pass for a reason. The AC Transit board needs to heed the concerns of students when making its final decision regarding the fate of the F line.
Friends and family of the young Emeryville resident murdered Wednesday evening after a traffic accident in Oakland were distributing flyers today in the Pak & Save parking lot and other locales. The flyer asks anyone with any information about the incident to contact the Oakland police.
The Washington Post reveals how a culture of educational entrepreneurialism has descended on America's urban schools. This entrepreneurialism presents a way for privatization to happen at the public schools margins without a wholesale closure and abandonment of the public school experiment. Better, it represents a way to shuttle public money to politically connected private corporations. Much has been made of the specter of private 'crony consulting' at school districts as a way to mine public money. Now the Washington Post shows us how the pernicious effects of educational entrepreneurialism are resulting in urban school districts morphing into real estate speculative land development private/public partnerships. This story seems especially relevant in Emeryville as the School District starts its secretive task force to deal with newly transformed "surplus" real estate; Anna Yates Elementary School and Ralph Hawley Middle School. It's part of the newly evolving urban school exigency of "cut, shut and charter", endemic in Oakland and coming to Emeryville.
Ed school dean: Urban school reform is really about land development (not kids)
Here is a provocative piece from Leslie T. Fenwick, dean of the Howard University School of Education and a professor of education policy, about what is really behind urban school reform. It’s not about fixing schools, she argues, but, rather, about urban land development. Fenwick has devoted her career to improving educational opportunity and outcomes for African American and other under-served students.
By Leslie T. Fenwick
The truth can be used to tell a lie. The truth is that black parents’ frustration with the quality of public schools is at an all time righteous high. Though black and white parents’ commitment to their child’s schooling is comparable, more black parents report dissatisfaction with the school their child attends. Approximately 90 percent of black and white parents report attending parent teacher association meetings and nearly 80 percent of black and white parents report attending teacher conferences. Despite these similarities, fewer black parents (47 percent) than white parents (64 percent) report being very satisfied with the school their child attends. This dissatisfaction among black parents is so whether these parents are college-educated, high income, or poor.
The lie is that schemes like Teach For America, charter schools backed by venture capitalists, education management organizations (EMOs), and Broad Foundation-prepared superintendents address black parents concerns about the quality of public schools for their children. These schemes are not designed to cure what ails under-performing schools. They are designed to shift tax dollars away from schools serving black and poor students; displace authentic black educational leadership; and erode national commitment to the ideal of public education.
Consider these facts: With a median household income of nearly $75,000, Prince George’s County is the wealthiest majority black county in the United States. Nearly 55 percent of the county’s businesses are black-owned and almost 70 percent of residents own homes, according to the U.S. Census. One of Prince George’s County’s easternmost borders is a mere six minutes from Washington, D.C., which houses the largest population of college-educated blacks in the nation. In the United States, a general rule of thumb is that communities with higher family incomes and parental levels of education have better public schools. So, why is it that black parents living in the upscale Woodmore or Fairwood estates of Prince George’s County or the tony Garden District homes up 16th Street in Washington D.C. struggle to find quality public schools for their children just like black parents in Syphax Gardens, the southwest D.C. public housing community?
The answer is this: Whether they are solidly middle- or upper-income or poor, neither group of blacks controls the critical economic levers shaping school reform. And, this is because urban school reform is not about schools or reform. It is about land development.
In most urban centers like Washington D.C. and Prince George’s County, black political leadership does not have independent access to the capital that drives land development. These resources are still controlled by white male economic elites. Additionally, black elected local officials by necessity must interact with state and national officials. The overwhelming majority of these officials are white males who often enact policies and create funding streams benefiting their interests and not the local black community’s interests.
The authors of “The Color of School Reform” affirm this assertion in their study of school reform in Baltimore, Detroit and Atlanta. They found:
Many key figures promoting broad efficiency-oriented reform initiatives [for urban schools] were whites who either lived in the suburbs or sent their children to private schools (Henig et al, 2001).
Local control of public schools (through elected school boards) is supposed to empower parents and community residents. This rarely happens in school districts serving black and poor students. Too often people intent on exploiting schools for their own personal gain short circuit the work of deep and lasting school and community uplift. Mayoral control, Teach for America, education management organizations and venture capital-funded charter schools have not garnered much grassroots support or enthusiasm among lower- and middle-income black parents whose children attend urban schools because these parents often view these schemes as uninformed by their community and disconnected from the best interest of their children.
In the most recent cases of Washington D.C. and Chicago, black parents and other community members point to school closings as verification of their distrust of school “reform” efforts. Indeed, mayoral control has been linked to an emerging pattern of closing and disinvesting in schools that serve black poor students and reopening them as charters operated by education management organizations and backed by venture capitalists. While mayoral control proposes to expand educational opportunities for black and poor students, more-often-than-not new schools are placed in upper-income, gentrifying white areas of town, while more schools are closed and fewer new schools are opened in lower-income, black areas thus increasing the level of educational inequity. Black inner-city residents are suspicious of school reform (particularly when it is attached to neighborhood revitalization) which they view as an imposition from external white elites who are exclusively committed to using schools to recalculate urban land values at the expense of black children, parents and communities.
So, what is the answer to improving schools for black children? Elected officials must advocate for equalizing state funding formula so that urban school districts garner more financial resources to hire credentialed and committed teachers and stabilize principal and superintendent leadership. Funding makes a difference. Black students who attend schools where 50 percent of more of the children are on free/reduced lunch are 70 percent more likely to have an uncertified teacher (or one without a college major or minor in the subject area) teaching them four subjects: math, science, social studies and English. How can the nation continue to raise the bar on what we expect students to know and demonstrate on standardized tests and lower the bar on who teaches them?
As the nation’s inner cities are dotted with coffee shop chains, boutique furniture stores, and the skyline changes from public housing to high-rise condominium buildings, listen to the refrain about school reform sung by some intimidated elected officials and submissive superintendents. That refrain is really about exporting the urban poor, reclaiming inner city land, and using schools to recalculate urban land value. This kind of school reform is not about children, it’s about the business elite gaining access to the nearly $600 billion that supports the nation’s public schools. It’s about money.
AC Transit heard a proposal to replace its popular F line, which connects Berkeley to Emeryville, Oakland and San Francisco, at a meeting of its board of directors Wednesday.
The F line would be replaced with a shorter, more frequent line that would run on the south side of the UC Berkeley campus and bypass a busy corridor of the Emeryville commercial district, according to a report presented to a group of transbay passengers last week.
The new service, however, is a long way from being implemented. According to AC Transit spokesperson Clarence Johnson, the organization’s board of directors still needs to decide whether or not to proceed with the proposal. If it decides to proceed, AC Transit will hold a public hearing and several community meetings for public comment.
Johnson says the changes are “months away, if at all,” but he stressed the need to constantly re-evaluate the bus system.
“Living patterns and transportation patterns change over time,” Johnson said. “People want them to stay the same, but they don’t. We need to formulate something to address those changes, and that’s what the report does.”
Chris Peeples, AC Transit director at large, raised concerns that the proposed route, which would run through the Telegraph corridor into Oakland, is not an adequate replacement for the F line.
“They’re changing the route that covers a good bit of the polar areas of Berkeley,” Peeples said. “But from Shattuck to Market (in Oakland) is a lower-income area, so that gives me some concern.”
Peeples also wants to see a Title VI analysis on the proposal, referring to the 1964 federal legislation that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin. Johnson said an analysis would be conducted if the board moves forward with the proposal.
Berkeley resident Ken Niemi voiced concerns about the proposed route through Emeryville, which would bypass a popular commercial area.
“On weekends, I use (the F line) a lot to get to downtown Emeryville for shopping and entertainment,” Niemi said. “I use AC Transit for all my transportation needs. And there always seems to be a dozen or so Cal students going to Target or Ikea.”
Although the proposed transbay route would not reach the north side of the Berkeley campus, it would run more frequently than the F line.
“I don’t know how much more often these guys can actually stop,” said UC Berkeley student Nicole Morris, who uses the F line to commute from Oakland. “I would love an F that came more frequently.”
UC Berkeley students voted this spring to extend an agreement with AC Transit that provides unlimited rides to students for a semesterly fee. The agreement is set to continue through 2020.
Opinion
Good public schools don't happen in a vacuum. They require support from the larger community, at least a little. Here in Emeryville, the schools haven't gotten a lot of support from the community other than voting ourselves a lot of new taxes. But that's going to have to change. Because the Emery School Board is marginalizing our teachers, and we're going to have to step in and pick up what the School Board has dropped. If we don't do anything, our investment in the schools and our children's expectations for a good education will both turn sour.
One year ago today, the teachers at Emeryville's schools sent the School Board and the people of Emeryville a loud and clear response to a crisis. That response, a document they called the Teachers Resolution, reveals that the teachers can't work with Superintendent of the Emery Schools, Debra Lindo as they have no confidence in her. With the public presentation of the Resolution on June 11, 2012, the teachers appealed to the School Board and to the people of Emeryville to help resolve the crisis. But their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The School Board has made themselves equally clear: they do not support the teachers.
However the School Board hasn't simply ignored the teachers in the wake of the release of the Teachers Resolution, they've actively countered with a resolution of their own, rejecting the teachers and throwing their total support to the Superintendent. With their counter-resolution, the Board is letting the teachers and the public know where their loyalties lie and anyone who thinks teachers should be part of a functioning school district should know that teachers here are considered expendable.
Mark Davis Acting President, Emeryville Teachers Association: The School Board has done nothing to help the teachers
Damning Quotes From Teachers
Superintendent Lindo for her part told the Tattler in December she has heard the teacher's charges against her in the Resolution and she has "fixed" the problems, a remark that has brought guffaws and indignation from every Emery teacher we approached. One teacher who wishes to remain anonymous called such talk from the Superintendent "lip service" based on nothing.
Speaking last week to this claim that the problems the Superintendent has with the teachers have been resolved, Mark Davis, acting Emeryville Teachers Association President countered, "Not according to the feed back I've been receiving from the teachers". Mr Davis added that the School Board has shown no interest in helping resolve the problems the teachers are having with Ms Lindo, "The Board has never inquired or sought an update as to what the teacher's position is regarding the lack of confidence in the superintendent" he said.
Superintendent Lindo is disingenuous when she claims to support the teachers says the anonymous teacher we interviewed, "Ms Lindo is paying lip service to improving transparency and communications with parents, teachers and even administrators as she pursues her personal agenda. In the process she has brought chaos and discord to the administration of the District and its schools, and so demoralized teachers that many are making 'escape' plans to work in a less pernicious environment" the teacher said.
Melodi Dice School Board President: She says the Board considers the teachers at Emery as "family"
It's Up to Us
We find it very informative that the two School Board members we asked about the one year anniversary of the Teachers Resolution drew a blank; they didn't even know what we were asking about. It's obvious that the teacher's concerns are not on this Board's radar. It is obvious to anyone paying attention that the Emery School Board will not support our teachers...not after a year waiting.
Teachers are essential to effective public schools and to diminish them like this School District is doing is to threaten this whole endeavour. So we the people of Emeryville should act. Beyond Emeryville residents basic desire for decent public schools in support of our children and our sense of inclusion and fair play, we residents have a lot invested in this school district. We're spending everything we have and more on the Center of Community Life in support of the schools. We should accept this discounting and marginalizing of our teachers ultimately presents an existential threat to the schools here.
We are especially concerned that this dysfunctional School Board has recently voted themselves another year in office; a subversion of democratic principles and we're beginning to realize to support the teachers and public education here in Emeryville is to replace these School Board members by recall.
Let's resolve to not be having this same discussion this time next year.
Emeryville citizens should move to protect their investment in the schools and support the teachers. Here's what citizens can do:
Don't vote for ANY of these School Board members when they run for re-election
Write or e-mail the School District
Attend a School Board meeting and speak out
No more School Board appointments; support elections for EVERY School Board member
The Rich Are Gloriously Free From Pedestrians and Bicyclists
Opinion
Dialectical Materialism The workers control the means of production and bikes, an inherent contradiction of the petty bourgeoisie, will spell doom to capitalism and its running dogs. We will destroy bikes and create a classless society.
We live in a wacky town here. Take last Monday's performance at the Bicycle Pedestrian Committee meeting by Emery Schools Superintendent Debra Lindo; the City Council is "classist" she says because they are foisting a bicycle/ pedestrian path on the School District as it builds the Center of Community Life. Unlike the neighboring private school across the street, the hoity toity Escueala Bilingue Internacional, who didn't have to build a proposed path adjoining their facility she noted. They got a pass from the Council she took pains to remind everyone.
Everybody knows bike/pedestrian paths are horrible, tacky things, dreadful really. But only the disadvantaged public school has to endure one directly adjoining its facility thanks to the plutocrat apologists on the City Council, Ms Lindo says.
These comments, lambasting the Council for its classism were so far out in left field (so to speak), the Bike/Ped Committee at first had no idea what she was talking about. The Superintendent had to explain her tortured logic twice to the Committee. Even then some Committee members seemed confused.
Ms Lindo is so desperate to stop the ECCL Path, she is so distracted at the thought of it that she's biting the hand that's feeding her; her partner in the Center of Community Life, the City Council.
All the talk Monday of looming criminals loitering on the path, threatening the children were over the top to be sure. But it's the "classist" charge leveled at the City Council, with its bizarre Marxist overtones that's especially revealing about the desperation taking hold at the School District. Everything gets turned on its head it seems at the School District as they attempt to bully their way forward with the Center of Community Life...everything gets turned on it's head, even Karl Marx it would appear.
Here's how the wealthy live: Lots of street, no bike/pedestrian paths
We're wondering where the Superintendent is going with this spurious and ridiculous charge directed at the City Council. We're hoping Monday's performance, entertaining though it might have been, is not an indication of a new trajectory for the Center of Community Life. We've got too much money wrapped up in this thing for it to falter. So while we may chuckle at the increasingly erratic antics, we're getting worried this whole thing may not pan out.
This is what poverty in America looks like: Not a pretty picture
"Pimps and Drug Dealers" Will Prey On Our Children
No Intent to Build Required Path
The Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee ruled Monday against a plethora of high level authorities that had assembled at the City Hall meeting asking to approve a plan for bike parking at Emeryville's proposed new school and to remove a bike path adjoining the school. After the Committee voted unanimously to require the path be built and the City Council concurred in April, the Committee was descended upon Monday by a dozen City and School District staff members and department heads. Included in the fray was the Superintendent of the Schools, the Chief of Police, the head of the Recreation Department and the President of the School Board all pleading for the Committee reverse its earlier vote to compel the District to install the required bicycle/pedestrian path adjoining the incipient Center of Community Life. The Committee refused Monday to reverse the earlier vote. The assembled group uniformly expressed concern that the proposed bike pedestrian path, called the ECCL Path, would attract a criminal element and that the children at the adjacent school would be imperiled.
Monday's appeal to the Bike/Ped Committee seems to represent a desire on the School District's part to get as much support as possible for not building the ECCL Path but the District indicated it has no intention of building the path in the foreseeable future regardless of the Bike/Ped Committee and the City Council vote forcing them to.
"I'm Sorry, I Don't Have That Information" Part 2
The throng also asked the Committee members to accept a bike parking component of the Center of Community Life plan but the Committee rebuffed the proposal citing insufficient parking spaces. The plan called for 44 total bike parking spots (22 secure) for the entire Center of Community Life which will include 800 students plus teachers and staff plus the Recreation Department faculty and staff plus members of the public.
Emery schools architect Roy Miller Again, he doesn't have the information.
The Committee attempted to determine how much bike parking would be appropriate based on how many people would be using the site on a given day, the standard metric the Committee uses as it recommends bike parking for commercial projects in town. The School District architect, Roy Miller told stunned Committee members he had no idea how many people could be expected to be on the site leaving them unable to make an informed decision, "I'm sorry, I don't have that information" he said, in a moment of deja vu. Mr Miller had uttered the same remark to the planning Commission and then the City Council in April about size of the existing school pool deck, as those decision making bodies attempted to determine whether to shrink the deck to make way for the ECCL Path.
After Mr Miller punted on the number of people expected at the Center of Community Life on a daily basis, the Bike/Ped Committee members determined on their own it must be more than 1000 and they called for at least 10% bike parking spots or 100 for the cramped site, a number that seemed to stun the school officials.
"Classist"
Schools Superintendent Debra Lindo Bike/Ped paths are bad..."drastic" even So why are WE being picked on? It's not fair!
The meeting was punctuated with plenty of hyperbole and overblown bombast as the authorities attempted to throw their weight around and intimidate the Committee members. Two school security personnel testified that the bike/ped path would be crawling with criminals preying on the school children, upping the ante of the previous "gang rape" rhetoric from Council member Nora Davis. The chief of school security, Ken Wright noted thugs and criminals would use the path as an access point; "pimps and drug dealers" would be "cutting holes in the fence" to get at the children he said. In an emotional plea, he hinted children could be "taken" and he said no one would want that on their conscience.
Schools Superintendent Debra Lindo said the bike/ped path is "drastic" and she complained that it is unfair that the neighboring private school, Escuela Bilingue Internacional (EBI) was released from a proposed path alongside that facility while the Center of Community Life is being forced to accepted its path, a double standard. She called the April decision by the City Council allowing removal the EBI Path "classist", owing to the advantaged private school and disadvantaged public school dynamic.
Ms Lindo and the anti-ECCL Path crew plans on taking its show on the road after the drubbing it suffered at the Bike/Ped Committee Monday. They plan on giving the Committee a tour of the site in the near future in hopes of peeling off a majority of Committee members before appealing to the City Council at a later date.
Former Emery School District Superintendent Tony Smith has been implicated in a witness tampering cover-up incident involving an Oakland School District Police shooting in 2011 according to an involved police officer. The story, relayed by San Francisco Bayview News and corroborated by NBC Bay Area News is re-posted below. The complainant officer, Jonathan Bellusa, alleges Mr Smith, Oakland's School District Superintendent attempted to coach him on particulars of a shooting that had happened moments before. Mr Smith allegedly tried to get Officer Bellusa's recollections to match those of the shooter, Officer Bhatt, Officer Bellusa's partner. The story alleges Mr Smith quickly worked on getting the two officer's stories to match before regular Oakland Police officers arrived on the scene. The victim who died in the hail of police bullets was a twenty year old man in a parked car near a school dance. The story broke right after Mr Smith mysteriously and suddenly announced his resignation from his job as Oakland's schools chief in April. Tony Smith, as Emery's Superintendent, was an early proponent of the Center of Community Life and was instrumental in it's early planning. He cast a large shadow at Emery and his influence is still felt in the incipient Center of Community Life and the District itself. Here's the San Francisco Bayview News story and the accompanying NBC Bay Area News video:
Perhaps you’ve heard or read the name Raheim Brown Jr. He’s the 20-year-old Black man who was beaten then shot and killed by Oakland School Police Department Sgt. Bhatt.
In the Oscar Grant Memorial March and Rally on the third anniversary of Oscar’s murder on New Year’s Day 2009 by BART police, supporters of Raheim Brown and all victims of law enforcement demanded justice. – Photo: Bradley Stuart, Indybay
In January 2011 Brown and a female companion were parked in a vehicle in the Oakland Hills when they were approached by officers Barhin Bhatt and Jonathan Bellusa, who were working as hired security guards for an Oakland School District dance being held at Skyline High School.
The officers reported that they first approached the vehicle, which was not parked at the school or on campus, because the hazard lights were flashing. Brown and his friend didn’t need help. As a justification for questioning them, the officers claimed they smelled marijuana coming from the vehicle after approaching it. Other reports have claimed the officers thought the car was stolen. The officers also reported Brown threatened to stab Barhin with a screwdriver that he had in the car.
As Brown and his companion sat, buckled-up, in the car, the officers began beating them both.
What exactly happened next, no one is certain because the requests for the full reports of the shooting by Lori Davis, mother of Raheim Brown, and her attorney, John Burris, have yet to be fulfilled by the Oakland Unified School District.
What is known is that Bellusa, who was outside the car on the passenger side where Brown was sitting, ordered a first round of shots. The shots were fired by Bhatt, who was outside the car on the driver side near the female driver. Bhatt fired at Brown across the driver multiple times, but Brown remained living at this time. Bhatt’s gun jammed. He cleared it, then a second round of shots was fired, killing Brown.
Davis filed a wrongful death suit against OUSD, which operates and employs the district police officers who shot and killed Brown.
Breaking ‘Code Blue’
This case is highly suspicious for many reasons: 1) A complete report containing all the details has yet to be made available to the public, Ms. Davis or her attorney; 2) there was definite mismanagement on the part of OUSD Superintendent Tony Smith directly following the shooting, as well as by OSPD Chief Williams; 3) an Oakland School Police Department officer is calling foul against his own department.
Raheim Brown
What has come as a “whistle-blowing” effort by Bellusa has also rocked the community and the department’s claims.
Bellusa filed a federal complaint against the OSPD claiming retaliation for his refusal to lie about the second round of shots that killed Brown. In his complaint, Bellusa claims that the second round of shots weren’t necessary because Brown was no longer a threat, after being shot with the first round.
According to Davis, who cited testimony by former Sgt. Bellusa of OSPD, Superintendent Tony Smith was accompanied by some Oakland School Board members at the crime scene – directly following the shooting.
“Based on Bellusa’s testimony in his deposition,” said Davis, “Tony Smith came down there and tried to get him to do witness tampering. He tried to get their (Bhatt and Bellusa’s) stories together.”
Bellusa, who is now on paid administrative leave is accusing the OSPD of a pattern of corruption.
For the Davis wrongful-death case, the Bellusa complaint and the federal investigation underway bring light to the issue of a cover-up by the OSPD.
“You don’t get one officer to lie for the other one,” said Davis.
Problems with guns
Incidents like the Raheim Brown killing highlight a huge debate going on in America right now about the necessity of armed district staff in schools. This comes after the terrible December 2012 mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., where 20 children, six teachers, the shooter and his mother were shot and killed.
For people of color, the issue may be more of a concern regarding security officers being armed when working at schools with large numbers of students of color. Communities of color are extremely reluctant to put guns in the hands of those who terrorize Black children and youth the most: the police. To whites, police officers are there to protect civilians.
Raheim Brown’s mother, Lori Davis, was one of the parents of young Black men killed by police who spoke out in passionate protest at a press conference held two days after San Francisco police murdered Kenneth Harding on the spot, at Third and Oakdale, where Kenny died on July 16, 2011, a few months after Raheim’s death. – Photo: Malaika Kambon
When asked whether OUSD needs a police department, Davis said; “They don’t need police – just regular security.”
The rate of officer involved shootings seems to be increasing.
“Invasive policing is only one aspect of the U.S. states’ comprehensive containment strategies to exploit Black people and to smother resistance … The U.S. state maintains and reinforces these economic injustices with the militarized occupation of Black communities by the police and a web of racist legislation like the ‘war on drugs,’ discriminatory policies like ‘three strikes’ and ‘mandatory minimum’ sentencing. The result is a social system that mandates the prison warehousing of millions of Black people and extrajudicial killings where the killers act with impunity and more often than not are rewarded and promoted for murder.”
These views are backed by data tracking police killings, or “extrajudicial killings,” over many months. The latest data collected by MXGM shows that a Black person in the U.S. is killed every 28 hours by law enforcement.
The nearby Oakland Police Department is so plagued that it has been appointed a court monitor, former Baltimore commissioner Thomas Frazier, by U.S. District Court Judge Thelton Henderson to oversee mandated changes to the department.
What post-racial America?
What does this mean? It means that as the Black community and its organizers and leaders have justly claimed and proven, a post-racial society DOES NOT exist in America.
Barhin Bhatt, the Oakland School Police officer who killed Raheim Brown, keeps protesters out of Fremont High School on March 4, 2011, three months after the murder. In August of the same year, the appointment of Bhatt as chief of the Oakland School Police sparked outrage that led to his removal about two weeks later. Forty angry speakers testified to the Oakland School Board, including civil rights attorney Anne Butterfield Weills, who said that to “appoint the shooter of Raheim Brown Jr. to be the acting chief of OUSD ... what a role model for our young people, particularly for our Black and Brown young males and women who are in our schools.” – Photo: KALW
Blacks are still falling victim to racist law enforcement organizations intent on sending them to prison if not to the graveyard. Why is it that our Black youth must endure officers at their presumed “educational safe havens” or when they are merely enjoying some leisure?
What real justification can there be for officers – who were hired to secure a school dance on a school campus – to venture from their assigned duty posts and beat, shoot and kill innocent youth? Furthermore, what justification does Tony Smith have for not releasing the details of the incident as reported by his staff?
When Smith started as superintendent he was quoted in an Oakland North article as saying, “For me, you have to examine the effects of institutional racism, institutional classism, institutional bias, language bias and say, ‘At this point, the system that we have – even if we do it really, really well – isn’t going to close and transform that gap.’”
Apparently that was only talk and didn’t extend to his school police department. Not only has Smith championed school closures, he hasn’t brought in valuable resources such as librarians, music programs etc. In the same interview he said:
“I’m incredibly committed to thinking about new kinds of relationships with local communities. We have to become beacons and be able to infuse into those neighborhoods expectations and ways of being. That takes partnership and leadership and expectations and being honest about how hard it is.”
It is safe to say that the beacon light is out when it comes to Tony Smith and the Oakland Unified School District. His failure to demonstrate unwavering, transparent leadership has continued to damage Oakland schools and district departments – as evidenced with the OSPD.
Smith has only been in Oakland four years and he conveniently is moving to Chicago, just as a wrongful death suit surfaces and a federal investigation is taking place, with him as lead culprit.
In his letter to the Oakland School Board, he cited family illness as the reason for the move. That very well may be true.
What is also true is that, on Smith’s watch in Oakland, we have lost another young Black life.
Laura Savage is a graduating senior in journalism at San Francisco State University and is interning with the SF Bay View this semester. She can be reached atlsavage26@gmail.com.
