What Was Left Untold

Three years ago I attended an Oakland City Council meeting urging the City Council to conduct an independent investigation into the events of April 7th. The Council voted 7-1 in favor of the independent study. Ignacio De La Fuenta was the only City Council member who did not support an independent investigation, it should be noted that he is now running for Mayor of Oakland. Later that year, the commission formed to conduct the private investigation was disbanded because of litigation. However, now that all of the plaintiffs have settled, what should have been exposed to the public during trial has been forever denied full public access.

That peaceful protesters were openly shot upon at the Oakland docks was an enormous tragedy that should have never been allowed to happen in our country, which prides itself on democratic values including political dissent, but worse than the actual violence is the sobering reality that three years and 40 something settlements later there is still no public disclosure surrounding the events of the April 7th attack.

This quietude can only suggest an even larger cover-up as to the true nature of the involvement of the California Anti-Terrorism Information Center, SSA and APL shipping companies, Mayor Brown, the City Council with most fingers pointing directly at De La Fuente, ex-police chief Richard Word, presiding police commanders Deputy Chief Patrick Haw and Captain Rod Yee as well as the rest of the OPD, which is a police department that has a history of wrecking violence in the Oakland area on behalf of the Federal Government. I site Judi Barry as one particular case. It took oakland 25 years to admit to their wrong doing in that case.

In 2004 Victoria Snelgrove was shot and killed with a “less-than-lethal” projectile by the Boston police. Three separate investigations were undertaken, one overseen by the District Attorney, one by the Internal Police Affairs Department and the last was by an independent group that filed a public report titled the Stern Commission. It is on-line, you can do a Google search and be privy to a very well documented account of what went wrong within the line of command at the police department that day. Her family was awarded 5 million dollars in her settlement, the biggest single pay-out in Boston’s history, but more importantly, her settlement included admission by the police of their total accountability, clearing Victoria's name from any wrong doing or provocation that would have elicited having been hit by a so called “non-lethal“ projectile.

My settlement on the other hand releases the City and the OPD from any liability in the incidence. However, everyone knows that the OPD used excessive and indiscriminate force, otherwise the City wouldn’t bother to pay me on their behalf. I was hit by a "non-lethal" projectile as a silencing tactic...after I was bumped by the police motorcade while following orders to disperse I saw a woman on the sidelines with a camera. I was gesturing towards the police on their motor bikes asking her if she was getting this because it became immediately imperative that someone document the unprecedented police brutality towards peaceful protesters.

The only threat that I posed to the officers that day was my willingness to expose their criminal behavior to the public and their criminal behavior is well documented. It is so well documented that you can see from an aerial view video camera that I am following orders to disperse, that i am running out of the street and that as i do so an officer is aiming above my shoulders tracking me as i move as if he were hunting some kind of prey. Aiming at my head, he fired lead shot from a 12 gauge shotgun, which travels at 191 miles per hour and hit me at a speed just under that. i am still recovering.

In the Stern Commission report, every officer is accounted for including their rogue behavior. The person who shot the fatal projectile is identified, the commanding officers are named and their leadership scrutinized, even the amount of rounds fired into the crowd is calculated, but somehow in my case, there is very little accountability and not one officer has admitted to hitting me.

All the officers who gave depositions in this case admitted that the force that was used against me was deadly and perhaps that is the reason why there is still an internal cover-up as to who hit me. If in fact what Jerry Brown and De La Fuente say is true, that the police acted within their limits on April 7th, then why does this officer not come forward and accept responsibility for hitting me? Why don’t his colleagues who were at the same location come forward? Why is there so much eerie silence surrounding the events of April 7th?

It is now clear, despite Mayor Brown’s staunch support of police actions at the port on April 7th, that the amount of force employed by the Oakland police was excessive, unwarranted and in my case, potentially deadly. The crowd control policy of the OPD has subsequently been changed and the City has paid out next to $3.000.000.00 in settlements, but what has not been disclosed is what went on in the command center set up on SSA property by the OPD just days before the demonstration, what local and federal agencies were involved and who ordered the violent attack on peaceful protesters.

For the record, I was not interested in settling this case. I was hit as a silencing tactic and I was pressured into settling as another silencing tactic. Sadly, the Stern Commission report showed me what I had forfeited by settling. I forfeited accountability, I forfeited the truth and I forfeited justice. I will forever feel the disappointment of that. I apologize to the people of Oakland, I apologize to the men and women who have died at the hands of the Oakland Police, I apologize to their families, I apologize to all of the activists who protested and continue to protest the war in Iraq...I wish I could have done more on your behalf.

My lawyers have helped me file a formal complaint against the officer who they believe hit me. Oakland, it is important for you to know that he was promoted two weeks after using unprovoked deadly force against me and he continues to patrol your communities and what's more, the City is well aware of the risk he poses.