Police Brutality in the Bay Area (Los Angeles, Oakland: home, live in, association)

[Rcsligar]

I recently saw the premiere for "Fruitvale Station," an exposé film that told the true story of a young black male named Oscar Grant who was wrongfully killed by BART police on his way home from a New Years party. The film had an extremely dramatic effect because it was shot in a "day in the life" fashion that led the audience to become very attached to the characters. It really took you inside Oscars family life, specifically his relationship with his daughter and girlfriend.
Anyway, I sat next to the aunt and uncle of Oscar and another middle aged black couple who I presumed to be family friends. Before long, the wife had struck up a conversation with my mom about her knowledge of the incident. She proceeds to tell my Mom that there is literally a support group in the Bay Area for parents who have experienced a wrongful death in the family. How horrible is that! The fact that these incidents occur often enough that there is a sizeable support group for it is absolutely sickening. I don't know much about the police force in that area but I would presume that it is poorly run for such incidents to occur so frequently. That or there is genuienly an abundance of cops so power hungry and insecure that they get off on commuting these atrocities. I know that some of these victims have a hot temper and very well could have provoked the cops but I still side with the victims. Inner city riots don't occur for nothing.
More info on Oscar Grant:

BART Police shooting of Oscar Grant - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fruitvale Station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[ttocs99]

Police Brutality exists everywhere, so the title of your thread is misleading. It was a really terrible thing that happened to Oscar and the whole Grant family. I've seen the video and was totally disgusted by the whole situation.

[Nineties Flava]

There's a culture of police brutality in Oakland dating back to the late 1940's. I say "culture" because for a long time it was part of the hiring criteria... they purposefully hired people that were racist against the growing Oakland black population and all but allowed them to terrorize blacks in West Oakland and North Oakland. Here's an article written in 1950 about it back then:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=...367&brand=oac4

Oakland's Negroes regard Oakland policemen as "natural enemies," and live in fear of the "lawlessness of the law." an Assembly committee was told yesterday.
The committee, headed by Vernon Kilpatrick of Los Angeles, is investigating charges the Oakland police disregard civil rights and discriminate Against Negroes.
Police Chief Lester J. Devine, however, declared the accusations were somewhat exaggerated.
"Conditions are nowhere near out of control," he said, "but we can stand improvement."
He said that when he became chief last May he issued immediate orders that police should no longer refer to Negroes as "knotheads" and "****."
NO SPECIAL TREATMENT
He also ordered captains to be careful in the selection of men who came in contact with minority groups.
"Minority groups should not expect any special treatment," he said. "The emphasis in the police department is on developing a program of human relations to deal with all the people and increase understanding."
C. L. Dellums, chairman of the Alameda county chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People was the first witness.
"Over the years," he said, "we have had any number of complaints of what we refer to as police brutality. We have submitted them to the chiefs of police but we can not find out if anything is ever done about them."
He mentioned one case in which a 14-year-old Negro was held by two policemen and pummeled by a third. Complaints to the chief brought no action, he said.
"I have had complaints of illegal search and seizure," he testified, "Generally Negroes regard the police as their natural enemies."
This was echoed by the Reverend Harold R. Geistweit, who said Negroes generally distrusted the police force.
He said Negroes "feel they can get no justice from the police."

Interestingly enough CL Dellums is the uncle of former Oakland mayor (2006-2010) and West Oakland native Ron Dellums. A few years before his term there was a huge scandal involving a group of four OPD officers known as "The Riders" who were known for falsifying evidence, kidnapping and assault; for the most part they patrolled West Oakland. The case is still ongoing.


There's a lot to be said about police brutality just in Oakland.

[Obamadon1]

There's a lot more "wrongful death" caused by non-police than by police

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Nineties Flava

There's a culture of police brutality in Oakland dating back to the late 1940's. I say "culture" because for a long time it was part of the hiring criteria... they purposefully hired people that were racist against the growing Oakland black population and all but allowed them to terrorize blacks in West Oakland and North Oakland. Here's an article written in 1950 about it back then:

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=...367&brand=oac4


Interestingly enough CL Dellums is the uncle of former Oakland mayor (2006-2010) and West Oakland native Ron Dellums. A few years before his term there was a huge scandal involving a group of four OPD officers known as "The Riders" who were known for wrongfully arresting people on false evidence, kidnapping and assault; for the most part they patrolled West Oakland. The case is still ongoing.


There's a lot to be said about police brutality just in Oakland.

Isn't the Oakland PD now under federal monitoring or direction? What else can be done to expose these scandals? Media investigations (has 60 Minutes done a piece on this? If not, someone should approach them), TV and commercial film documentaries should be done. I wonder if this goes on any other places, like NYC and Philly? Has the community in Oakland organized to demand change? What's Dellums and his colleagues doing about it in Congress? More info, please.

[bmw335xi]

I'm more concerned with the hoards of criminal brutality rather than the couple cases of police brutality.

[Natural510]

I'd always heard the OPD purposefully hired white Southerners after WW2 to keep blacks in West Oakland and out of the rest of the city. Certainly not unique to Oakland (LA's history, for example, is similar if not worse), but notable nonetheless. The growing diversity within the department, including black police chiefs and growing population being fed up with city corruption in general, will hopefully change things. The Lovelle Mixon incident didn't help things, either.

[Nineties Flava]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I'm more concerned with the hoards of criminal brutality rather than the couple cases of police brutality.

If the police can't adequately deal with brutality in their own ranks what makes you think they can adequately deal with brutality on the streets?

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I'm more concerned with the hoards of criminal brutality rather than the couple cases of police brutality.

Police brutality involves innocent citizens as well as actual criminals. Meaning, you, me, anybody. From the people we pay to protect us.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

I've got to pipe up here. Most police officers don't pull out their guns and shoot unarmed people. There are usually bullets going both ways.

Here's the Oakland police officer site for fallen officers. Out of 51 killed in the line of duty, 32 were killed by gunfire.

Oakland Police Department, California, Fallen Officers

Sure, there have been some legitimate "wrongful deaths," but I have a hard time believing all of those who were killed by police officers were just standing around innocently minding their own business.