Town Hall on BART's Lobby of State Legislature for Their Police Oversight Plan, 8/22/09: audio

(audio 1:41:39)


Min Keith introduces:

Family of five-year-old Hasanni Campbell from Fremont -- who was reported missing from the Rockridge district of Oakland on August 10th. They plead for help remembering and recovering Hasanni. There are vigils being held every Monday at 6:30pm at the Rockridge shoe store called "Shuz" until Hasanni is found. They are asking for more community support. They believe the police have incorrectly focused in directions other than actually finding Hasanni, and they believe that Hasanni being African American is a factor in the relatively little support the family has gotten. Those interested in helping can attend the vigils, hand out fliers, and contact Sherri Lyn Miller at (510) 276-9090 or Courtney Tascoe Burris at (510) 517-0785 for more information.

11:55, Minister Keith Muhammad
Minister Keith addresses progress being made in the cause of justice for Oscar Grant with the BART police review plan that includes citizens being involved in officer discipline and Johannes Mehserle being the first police officer charged with murder in the state of California. He discusses the release of the public version of the Meyers Nave report and BAMN's efforts to comb through the transcripts of Johannes Mehserle's preliminary hearing in his murder trial.

18:20 Lynette Sweet
Lynette Sweet, BART Board director, speaks about the new BART police oversight plan and their desire for the California legislature to modify the 1957 BART Act so that an auditor, civilians and the BART Board can have disciplinary authority over the BART Police Department which does not currently exist. She goes on to credit Tom Ammiano for putting forward AB312 in February, which would have mandated civilian oversight at BART, and then says that she thinks AB312 is the wrong solution for BART. AB312 called for the DA's in three counties BART serves to appoint an auditor. Lynette Sweet reports that Tom Ammiano is now chair of the Public Safety Board and plans to reintroduce AB312 on January 1st, 2010 rather than try to rush through BART's plan by Friday, September 11th when this legislative session ends. BART wants two changes in the BART Act regarding oversight authority rather than a new law that mandates a full police oversight model for BART. She says that Ammiano refused to meet with BART for them to lobby for their plan, then he agreed to a meeting if BART Directors Lynette Sweet and Tom Radulovich did not attend. She notes that Radulovich and herself have been strongest advocates for police oversight and are amongst the most knowledgable about the issue at BART. Supposedly PORAC (Peace Officers Research Association of California) now wants to help BART pass their plan because they are afraid that Ammiano's AB312 would open the door to the state legislature mandating civilian oversight for any and every police department in the state. PORAC has offered to help BART if BART guts their plan, especially parts regarding civilian oversight, but Sweet called that a "non-starter." She says, though, that BART might end up relying on PORAC help to overcome Ammiano's resistance to the BART plan. Two other BART directors will meet with Ammiano to see what can be done, and Sweet and other directors will also meet with California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) to build pressure from the top. Lynette Sweet announces press conference on Monday, August 24th, to pressure Ammiano to support BART's oversight plan.

32:18 Reginald Lyles
Reginald Lyles, consultant hired by BART after murder of Oscar Grant, lists highlights in his many-decade law enforcement career as well as having travelled to Sacramento with Huey Newton when he was 16 years old. He talks about the history and commonality of police oversight in California and contrasts that with the futile resistance of police advocacy groups like PORAC. He said proper oversight can help check the tendency to racially profile or overzealous use of weaponry. He recounts a conversation with BART police at some point recently when they called civilian oversight "evil." Reginald Lyles walks attendees through a hypothetical police issue that might be handled by BART's version of police oversight. He goes on to talk about the process of the subcommittee that created BART's police oversight plan. Five branches: prosecution of Johannes Mehserle for murder; civil suit by family and John Burris; Meyers Nave investigation will lead to employees leaving BART; NOBLE to assess police department, including its culture; and civilian oversight at BART. He calls for community pressure on California Assembleyperson Tom Ammiano and other members, especially those from East Bay, to pass civilian review. He says Tom Radulovich and Lynette Sweet were two solid votes for firing Chief Gee since January while other BART directors were squeamish about it, including Carole Ward Allen.

1:00:00
Lynette Sweet rejoins the conversation and notes that Joel Keller recently ended up voting for Gee to leave, not because he wanted to but because his constituents pressured him to do it. Finally, after the Meyers Nave report hit, the BART Board came up with five votes, a majority, to push Gee out. (It's unknown who the other two directors to vote against Gee.) Lynette Sweet notes that she and other directors have not seen the full Meyers Nave report supposedly due to Police Bill of Rights restrictions. Someone has leaked internal BART information to Tony Pirone that he is "about out the door" and so friends and family of his have been sending letters to BART asking that he not be fired. She says that Ammiano was meeting with two other Directors on Tuesday, August 25th, and that she and others would also be meeting with Assembly Speaker Karen Bass to try to get the changes to the BART Act that BART wants, and she notes that Karen Bass has the authority to force Ammiano to do it or to remove Ammiano from his chair of the Public Safety Committee if he keeps "playing games." Reportedly, Sandre Swanson from Oakland/Alameda/Piedmont is also on the committee and has shown interest in sponsoring the legislative changes BART wants. Nancy Skinner from Berkeley/Richmond and Tom Torlakson from Contra Costa are other East Bay members of the Assembly committee. One Town Hall attendee notes that State Senate representative Lonnie Hancock from Oakland and much of the East Bay should be contacted although she "often pretends she doesn't represent us." Lynette Sweet notes that Ammiano created AB312 on his own and didn't seek the co-sponsorship for it the only Black in the Assembly from Northern California (Swanson). Lynette Sweet says she will not allow Ammiano to "make his bones" in the Assembly on this bill because "that's all he's trying to do" -- it got killed, she says, and now he wants it back (although she fails to note that BART itself helped to "kill" AB312 back in April). A deacon encourages people to also contact Alameda Supervisor Keith Carson and Oakland Councilmember Desley Brooks and ask them to call state legislators.

1:10:00 Minister Keith Muhammad
Minister Keith lists telephone numbers of elected officials to contact that BART recently emailed out to solicit lobbying support for their plan (see below). While the BART Board didn't have access to the full Meyers Nave report, Chief Gee did see it and resigned shortly thereafter (although Sweet seemed to report earlier that the Board voted to push him out and allow him to retire). Minister Keith makes a football analogy to explain why "quarterback" Chief Gee should have been fired because he came out right after the murder of Oscar Grant and said his officers had acted according to protocol, and now he says he is retiring because he disagrees with the Meyers Nave report rather than because it scolded his leadership. Minister Keith goes on to discuss Mehserle's preliminary hearing and how a reporter asked him if Minister Keith was going to have a press conference to announce about Tony Pirone yelling "bitch ass ni**er" at Oscar Grant moments before Mehserle shot him in the back, when that press person had been in the court room and failed to report about Tony Pirone's proven racism. He returns to the football analogy and says that "head coach" Dorothy Dugger should be fired as well now that Meyers Nave report is out, since she had been delaying accountability at BART pending the release of the report.

1:23:20
Lynette Sweet reveals that in closed session of a Board meeting, a consensus of directors did not think that the community was going to pay attention to what they did for more than one or two meetings. Lynette Sweet says that it is okay for community members to come to the BART Board meeting on Thursday, August 27th to say that more than Chief Gee needs to go. Minister Keith assures her that they will.

1:27:00
Yvette Felarca from BAMN stand and speaks about students from LA, Detroit, NY, and London being committed to fighting for justice for Oscar Grant and against police brutality and racism as a whole. They are sifting through the transcripts from the preliminary hearing for evidence to put the police on trial, to expose Pirone. Meyers Nave pulled their punches, she says.

Minister Keith continues with a discussion of Oakland's new Police Chief Anthony Batts having declared that he has an open heart and an open door for the community. Civilian oversight of police in Oakland is an ongoing process. The video of the murder of Brownie Polk has yet to be released, and if it exonerated officers most likely OPD would have released it by now.

1:34:30 Cephus "Uncle Bobby" Johnson
Cephus Johnson says that we are in a war, and we have won some battles, and it goes on. We have to stand firm and believe in victory, the ultimate being a conviction of Johannes Mehserle. He thanks Lynette Sweet for her commitment to justice. Lynette Sweet then apologizes for BART and their police. Cephus Johnson encourages people to call legislators to get police oversight established.

Rev. Brown closes the Town Hall with a prayer.


----------------------------------------------------------------------


previous Town Hall for Justice for Oscar Grant, Oakland, 8/15/09: audio
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/08/24/18619057.php


Town Hall Meetings
Every Saturday 4pm - 6pm
Olivet Institutional Missionary Baptist Church
807 27th Ave, Oakland