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Indybay Feature
Stop Cop Campus Coalition Protests Planned Police Facility in San Pablo
The city of San Pablo is a small town in the northern East Bay that loves its police and borrowing lots of money to build itself shiny new things. The Stop Cop Campus Coalition intends to prevent a planned new police facility from being constructed, arguing such huge amounts of money would be better spent meeting the needs of city residents rather than policing them.
[Photograph of protesters gathered at Kennedy Plaza, listening to speakers]
In 2015, San Pablo borrowed over $15 million to finance capital improvement projects and
property acquisitions, including a library facility and upgrades to City Hall. Libraries are good. In 2018, the city borrowed over $15 million in order to construct an entirely new City Hall for itself. In 2022, San Pablo went even bigger by borrowing over $30 million, earmarking another $10 million from general fund reserves, and dedicating millions in federal COVID relief funds to pay for a grand new police headquarters and training facility. In total, the planned police facility is currently expected to cost more than $43 million, not including the interest payments on the borrowed money the city must pay over the next three decades.
San Pablo is a town of just over thirty thousand residents. According to US Census data, it is considerably younger, less "white," more Latino, more foreign-born, and lower income than nearby cities and census-designated places. Fortunately, San Pablo is the site of the Lytton Casino, which more than doubles what its annual budget would be otherwise, even with a local sales tax. Unfortunately, San Pablo chooses to spend the largest bulk of their budget on policing and is willing to take on decades of debt on behalf of their police department, claiming that the new facility will improve cop morale, make the city safer, and somehow attract new private business.
On August 10, a protest was held on what was scheduled to be the ground breaking day for the new police building, but the city got cold feet and cancelled their own event. No groundbreaking has been scheduled since, and activists are hoping it never happens. On September 30, another protest was held which was large enough to march down the middle of San Pablo Avenue from Kennedy Plaza to the site of the proposed "Cop Campus." More photos from that demonstration are below.
Here's what the Stop Cop Campus Coalition has to say about the facility, in English y en Español...
March Against Cop Campus!
We take to the streets in protest of the City of San Pablo's plan for a large-scale Regional Police Training Facility and police headquarters. We know its construction would only continue the pattern of police violence against Black and Brown communities.
Their "Cop Campus" would house tools of harm and surveillance such as a 20 lane gun range, a K-9 training facility, a simulator room, and a drone tech center. It would include a "mental health crisis deployment office," but such services are more effective when they are not housed with police. And for all of this, San Pablo tax-payers will be paying a price tag of $43.6 million for decades to come.
Colonial theft is ongoing. This remains unceded Ohlone land. The project manager, mack5, chose a lot that borders Wildcat Creek — where threatened species like salmon and California red-legged frog can still be found.
Boosting militarization while reducing community healthcare is not what this community wants. San Pablo residents continually rank education and jobs as their highest concerns. In 2021, polled residents placed enhancing "public safety" as their lowest priority. Instead of enhancing the quality of public education, the City proposes to build a center of violence and harm on a lot that is literally sandwiched by 3 schools! This is a slap in the face of youth and those who care about their education.
Like most jurisdictions in the US, San Pablo police have a track record of violence and escalation, including against youth. For example, in 2020, SPPD was sued for the choking of an unarmed 19-year-old who was kneeling at the time he was detained. In 2017, San Pablo's police commander was arrested for domestic violence. Even as recently as Sept 8, San Pablo police were called to check on a man exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia. The man did not want to interact with police, and after trying to evade them was tased, shot with bean bag rounds, and eventually shot in the leg with a live round. Police are not care workers, they are violence workers. Community crisis centers belong in the community, without proximity to all the escalation and harm that police cause — not in a Cop Campus!
To those who would say retraining is all that police need, we only need to point to the history. Look at the case of Derrick Sanderlin in San José. Sanderlin is a Black man who actually trained police officers to "improve community relationships." After three years of working with the police department, as Sanderlin was attempting to deescalate a conflict during a protest, he was shot by a cop colleague with a rubber bullet in the groin. As a result, he can no longer have children.
Using violence to enforce order is the backbone of policing. No investment in "trainings" will ever change that. Despite demands to defund the police that have reverberated across the country, American lawmakers continue to push forward an agenda of increasing police militarization. Similar police training centers are planned in Baltimore for $330 million and in Atlanta for $90 million. The Atlanta project has seen fierce resistance and inspiring opposition for the past three years.
The struggle against police violence is not new. We are part of long legacy of resistance. We take inspiration from the Black Panthers, who took the streets of North Richmond in 1967 protesting the murder of unarmed Denzil Dowell; to the uprising in Oakland after the police murder of Oscar Grant; and to the broad George Floyd Rebellion, among many others.
We know that our collective organizing power can stop Cop Campus from being built. The campaign to Stop Urban Shield shows us it is possible. Urban Shield was a police training conference in Oakland that brought together cops from around the country and world to train in military tactics for years. Through dedicated community resistance, Urban Shield was brought to an end in 2018. When we fight against police violence together, we can win!
The privileged and misguided will look to policing to protect them from a world that is on fire from rising temperatures and capitalist and racist inequalities. But police enforce the very roots of the problem. Their "solutions" are predicated upon the continued disastrous project of American colonialism, imperialism and prison industrial complex. They are predicated upon the continued harassment, murder and imprisonment of people who they deem disposable — which are the indigenous, of color, poor, houseless, disabled, "crazy," transgender, queer or other marginalized people.
Policing tries to lock up the dispossessed and those of us who resist this miserable system. It does not heal or solve conflict. But we know that we are strong together. We could create community-run hospitals and free health-care, not a shooting range. We could have free childcare and safe schools, not 43.6 million dollars of debt.
We need gardens and wild habitat, accountable and resilient relationships, healthy families and communities of care — not a military of police forces.
The systems of domination will never be dismantled without a fight! No Cop campus!
For more information:
@StopCopCampus on Instagram
stopcopcampus [at] proton.me
http://www.stopcopcampus.org
Marcha en contra el campus policial!
Estamos en las calles para protestar en contra del plan de la ciudad de San Pablo para construir un Centro Regional de Entrenamiento policial y un enorme Cuartel General de policía. Sabemos que su construcción sólo continuara el esquema de violencia policial en contra de las comunidades negras y racializadas.
Su "Cop Campus" albergara herramientas de daño y vigilancia como un campo de tiro de 20 carriles, una instalación de entrenamiento de perros (K-9), una sala de simuladores y un centro de tecnología de aviones no tripulados. lncluiría una "oficina de despliegue de crisis de salud mental", pero estos servicios son más eficaces cuando nose alojan con la policía. Y por todo esto, les contribuyentes de San Pablo pagarán un precio de 43,6 millones de dólares durante décadas.
El robo de colonial continúa. Estamos en tierra Ohlone no cedida. El gestor del proyecto, mack5, eligió una parcela que bordea con Wildcat Creek, donde aún se pueden encontrar especies amenazadas como el salmón y la rana de patas rojas de California.
La comunidad no necesita más militarización cuando se está reduciendo la salud pública. La educación y el empleo son las preocupaciones principales de les habitantes de San Pablo. En 2021, les residentes encuestades dijeron que mejorar la "seguridad pública" es su prioridad más baja. iEn lugar de mejorar la calidad de la educación pública, la Ciudad propane construir un centro de violencia y daño en un tote que está literalmente rodeado por 3 escuelas! Esto es una bofetada en la cara de les jóvenes y de aquelles que se preocupan por su educación.
Como la mayoría de las jurisdicciones en los EE.UU., la policía de San Pablo tiene una historia de violencia y escalación, incluso contra les jóvenes. Por ejemplo, en 2020, SPPD fue demandado por asfixiar a un joven desarmando de 19 años que estaba arrodillado en el momenta en el que fue detenido. En 2017, el comandante de la policía de San Pablo fue arrestádo por violencia domestica. Y recientemente, el 8 de septiembre, la policía de San Pablo fue llamada para controlar a un hombre que mostraba síntomas de esquizofrenia. El hombre no quería interactuar con la policía, y después de tratar de evadirlos fue electrocutado, le dispararon con balsas de frijoles, y finalmente le dispararon en la pierna con una bala real. La policía no es un agente de ayuda, sino un agente de violencia. Los centros comunitarios de crisis deben estár en la comunidad, sin la proximidad de toda la escalación y el daño que causa la policía, ¡no en un campus policial!
A los que dicen que lo único que necesita la policía es reeducación, sólo hay que recordarles de la historia. Miren el caso de Derrick Sanderlin en San José. Sanderlin es un hombre negro queen realidad entrenó a oficiales de policía para "mejorar las relaciones con ta comunidad". Después de tres años de trabajar con el departamento de policía, mientras Sanderlin intentaba bajar la tensión en un conflicto durante una protesta, un compañero policía le disparó con una bala de goma en la ingle. Como consecuencia, ya no puede tener hijos.
Utilizar la violencia para imponer el orden es la columna vertebral de la labor policial. Ningun investimento en "entrenamiento" cambiará eso. A pesar de las demandas de desfinanciación de la policía que han resonado en todo el país, les legisladores estadounidenses siguen impulsando una agenda de creciente militarización policial. Ya ésta previsto que van a construir centros de formación policial en Baltimore, por 330 millones de dólares, y en Atlanta, por 90 millones. El proyecto de Atlanta ha sido objeto de una feroz resistencia y una inspirada oposición durante los últimos tres años.
La lucha contra la violencia policial no es nueva. Formamos parte de un largo legado de resistencia. Nos inspiramos en les Panteras Negras, que tomaron las calles de North Richmond en 1967 en protesta del asesinato de Denzil Dowell, que iba desarmado; en el levantamiento de Oakland tras el asesinato policial de Oscar Grant; y en la amplia Rebelión de George Floyd, entre muchos otres.
Sabemos que nuestro poder colectivo ce organización puede parar la construction del Cop Campus. La campaña para detener Urban Shield nos demuestra que es posible. Urban Shield fue una conferencia de entrenamiento policial en Oakland que reunió a policías de todo el país y del mundo para entrenarse en tácticas militares durante años. Gracias a la dedicada resistencia de la comunidad, Urban Shield llegó a su fin en 2018. Cuando luchamos juntes contra la violencia policial, ¡podemos ganar!
Les privilegiades y les desacertades mirarán a la policía para que les proteja de un mundo que arde por el aumento de las temperaturas y las desigualdades capitalistas y racistas. Pero la policía es la que aplican las mismas raíces del problema. Sus "soluciones" se basan en la continuación del desastroso proyecto del colonialismo estadounidense, el imperialismo y la expansión del complejo industrial penitenciario. Normalizan el acoso, el asesinato y el encarcelamiento continuos de las personas que dicen que son desechables, que son les indígenas, les de color, les pobres, les sin techo, les discapacitados, les "locos", les transexuales, es queer u otras personas marginalizadas.
La policía intenta encerrar a les desposeídes ya quienes nos resistimos a este sistema miserable. No curan ni resuelven los, conflictos. Pero sabemos que juntas somos fuertes. Podríamos crear hospitales comunitarios y salud pública gratuita, noun campo de tiro. Podríamos tener guarderías gratuitas y escuelas seguras, no 43,6 millones de dólares de deuda.
Necesitamos jardines y hábitats silvestres, relaciones responsables y resistentes, familias sanas y comunidades de apoyo, no un ejército de fuerzas policiales.
Sabemos que los sistemas de dominación nunca serán desmantelados sin la lucha. ¡No al Campo policial!
para más información:
@StopCopCampus en Instagram
stopcopcampus [at] proton.me
http://www.stopcopcampus.org
For further reading:
San Pablo’s new $43M police training center eyed as its largest public works project ever
https://localnewsmatters.org/2023/09/23/san-pablos-new-43m-police-training-center-eyed-as-its-largest-public-works-project-ever/
In 2015, San Pablo borrowed over $15 million to finance capital improvement projects and
property acquisitions, including a library facility and upgrades to City Hall. Libraries are good. In 2018, the city borrowed over $15 million in order to construct an entirely new City Hall for itself. In 2022, San Pablo went even bigger by borrowing over $30 million, earmarking another $10 million from general fund reserves, and dedicating millions in federal COVID relief funds to pay for a grand new police headquarters and training facility. In total, the planned police facility is currently expected to cost more than $43 million, not including the interest payments on the borrowed money the city must pay over the next three decades.
San Pablo is a town of just over thirty thousand residents. According to US Census data, it is considerably younger, less "white," more Latino, more foreign-born, and lower income than nearby cities and census-designated places. Fortunately, San Pablo is the site of the Lytton Casino, which more than doubles what its annual budget would be otherwise, even with a local sales tax. Unfortunately, San Pablo chooses to spend the largest bulk of their budget on policing and is willing to take on decades of debt on behalf of their police department, claiming that the new facility will improve cop morale, make the city safer, and somehow attract new private business.
On August 10, a protest was held on what was scheduled to be the ground breaking day for the new police building, but the city got cold feet and cancelled their own event. No groundbreaking has been scheduled since, and activists are hoping it never happens. On September 30, another protest was held which was large enough to march down the middle of San Pablo Avenue from Kennedy Plaza to the site of the proposed "Cop Campus." More photos from that demonstration are below.
Here's what the Stop Cop Campus Coalition has to say about the facility, in English y en Español...
March Against Cop Campus!
We take to the streets in protest of the City of San Pablo's plan for a large-scale Regional Police Training Facility and police headquarters. We know its construction would only continue the pattern of police violence against Black and Brown communities.
Their "Cop Campus" would house tools of harm and surveillance such as a 20 lane gun range, a K-9 training facility, a simulator room, and a drone tech center. It would include a "mental health crisis deployment office," but such services are more effective when they are not housed with police. And for all of this, San Pablo tax-payers will be paying a price tag of $43.6 million for decades to come.
Colonial theft is ongoing. This remains unceded Ohlone land. The project manager, mack5, chose a lot that borders Wildcat Creek — where threatened species like salmon and California red-legged frog can still be found.
Boosting militarization while reducing community healthcare is not what this community wants. San Pablo residents continually rank education and jobs as their highest concerns. In 2021, polled residents placed enhancing "public safety" as their lowest priority. Instead of enhancing the quality of public education, the City proposes to build a center of violence and harm on a lot that is literally sandwiched by 3 schools! This is a slap in the face of youth and those who care about their education.
Like most jurisdictions in the US, San Pablo police have a track record of violence and escalation, including against youth. For example, in 2020, SPPD was sued for the choking of an unarmed 19-year-old who was kneeling at the time he was detained. In 2017, San Pablo's police commander was arrested for domestic violence. Even as recently as Sept 8, San Pablo police were called to check on a man exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia. The man did not want to interact with police, and after trying to evade them was tased, shot with bean bag rounds, and eventually shot in the leg with a live round. Police are not care workers, they are violence workers. Community crisis centers belong in the community, without proximity to all the escalation and harm that police cause — not in a Cop Campus!
To those who would say retraining is all that police need, we only need to point to the history. Look at the case of Derrick Sanderlin in San José. Sanderlin is a Black man who actually trained police officers to "improve community relationships." After three years of working with the police department, as Sanderlin was attempting to deescalate a conflict during a protest, he was shot by a cop colleague with a rubber bullet in the groin. As a result, he can no longer have children.
Using violence to enforce order is the backbone of policing. No investment in "trainings" will ever change that. Despite demands to defund the police that have reverberated across the country, American lawmakers continue to push forward an agenda of increasing police militarization. Similar police training centers are planned in Baltimore for $330 million and in Atlanta for $90 million. The Atlanta project has seen fierce resistance and inspiring opposition for the past three years.
The struggle against police violence is not new. We are part of long legacy of resistance. We take inspiration from the Black Panthers, who took the streets of North Richmond in 1967 protesting the murder of unarmed Denzil Dowell; to the uprising in Oakland after the police murder of Oscar Grant; and to the broad George Floyd Rebellion, among many others.
We know that our collective organizing power can stop Cop Campus from being built. The campaign to Stop Urban Shield shows us it is possible. Urban Shield was a police training conference in Oakland that brought together cops from around the country and world to train in military tactics for years. Through dedicated community resistance, Urban Shield was brought to an end in 2018. When we fight against police violence together, we can win!
The privileged and misguided will look to policing to protect them from a world that is on fire from rising temperatures and capitalist and racist inequalities. But police enforce the very roots of the problem. Their "solutions" are predicated upon the continued disastrous project of American colonialism, imperialism and prison industrial complex. They are predicated upon the continued harassment, murder and imprisonment of people who they deem disposable — which are the indigenous, of color, poor, houseless, disabled, "crazy," transgender, queer or other marginalized people.
Policing tries to lock up the dispossessed and those of us who resist this miserable system. It does not heal or solve conflict. But we know that we are strong together. We could create community-run hospitals and free health-care, not a shooting range. We could have free childcare and safe schools, not 43.6 million dollars of debt.
We need gardens and wild habitat, accountable and resilient relationships, healthy families and communities of care — not a military of police forces.
The systems of domination will never be dismantled without a fight! No Cop campus!
For more information:
@StopCopCampus on Instagram
stopcopcampus [at] proton.me
http://www.stopcopcampus.org
Marcha en contra el campus policial!
Estamos en las calles para protestar en contra del plan de la ciudad de San Pablo para construir un Centro Regional de Entrenamiento policial y un enorme Cuartel General de policía. Sabemos que su construcción sólo continuara el esquema de violencia policial en contra de las comunidades negras y racializadas.
Su "Cop Campus" albergara herramientas de daño y vigilancia como un campo de tiro de 20 carriles, una instalación de entrenamiento de perros (K-9), una sala de simuladores y un centro de tecnología de aviones no tripulados. lncluiría una "oficina de despliegue de crisis de salud mental", pero estos servicios son más eficaces cuando nose alojan con la policía. Y por todo esto, les contribuyentes de San Pablo pagarán un precio de 43,6 millones de dólares durante décadas.
El robo de colonial continúa. Estamos en tierra Ohlone no cedida. El gestor del proyecto, mack5, eligió una parcela que bordea con Wildcat Creek, donde aún se pueden encontrar especies amenazadas como el salmón y la rana de patas rojas de California.
La comunidad no necesita más militarización cuando se está reduciendo la salud pública. La educación y el empleo son las preocupaciones principales de les habitantes de San Pablo. En 2021, les residentes encuestades dijeron que mejorar la "seguridad pública" es su prioridad más baja. iEn lugar de mejorar la calidad de la educación pública, la Ciudad propane construir un centro de violencia y daño en un tote que está literalmente rodeado por 3 escuelas! Esto es una bofetada en la cara de les jóvenes y de aquelles que se preocupan por su educación.
Como la mayoría de las jurisdicciones en los EE.UU., la policía de San Pablo tiene una historia de violencia y escalación, incluso contra les jóvenes. Por ejemplo, en 2020, SPPD fue demandado por asfixiar a un joven desarmando de 19 años que estaba arrodillado en el momenta en el que fue detenido. En 2017, el comandante de la policía de San Pablo fue arrestádo por violencia domestica. Y recientemente, el 8 de septiembre, la policía de San Pablo fue llamada para controlar a un hombre que mostraba síntomas de esquizofrenia. El hombre no quería interactuar con la policía, y después de tratar de evadirlos fue electrocutado, le dispararon con balsas de frijoles, y finalmente le dispararon en la pierna con una bala real. La policía no es un agente de ayuda, sino un agente de violencia. Los centros comunitarios de crisis deben estár en la comunidad, sin la proximidad de toda la escalación y el daño que causa la policía, ¡no en un campus policial!
A los que dicen que lo único que necesita la policía es reeducación, sólo hay que recordarles de la historia. Miren el caso de Derrick Sanderlin en San José. Sanderlin es un hombre negro queen realidad entrenó a oficiales de policía para "mejorar las relaciones con ta comunidad". Después de tres años de trabajar con el departamento de policía, mientras Sanderlin intentaba bajar la tensión en un conflicto durante una protesta, un compañero policía le disparó con una bala de goma en la ingle. Como consecuencia, ya no puede tener hijos.
Utilizar la violencia para imponer el orden es la columna vertebral de la labor policial. Ningun investimento en "entrenamiento" cambiará eso. A pesar de las demandas de desfinanciación de la policía que han resonado en todo el país, les legisladores estadounidenses siguen impulsando una agenda de creciente militarización policial. Ya ésta previsto que van a construir centros de formación policial en Baltimore, por 330 millones de dólares, y en Atlanta, por 90 millones. El proyecto de Atlanta ha sido objeto de una feroz resistencia y una inspirada oposición durante los últimos tres años.
La lucha contra la violencia policial no es nueva. Formamos parte de un largo legado de resistencia. Nos inspiramos en les Panteras Negras, que tomaron las calles de North Richmond en 1967 en protesta del asesinato de Denzil Dowell, que iba desarmado; en el levantamiento de Oakland tras el asesinato policial de Oscar Grant; y en la amplia Rebelión de George Floyd, entre muchos otres.
Sabemos que nuestro poder colectivo ce organización puede parar la construction del Cop Campus. La campaña para detener Urban Shield nos demuestra que es posible. Urban Shield fue una conferencia de entrenamiento policial en Oakland que reunió a policías de todo el país y del mundo para entrenarse en tácticas militares durante años. Gracias a la dedicada resistencia de la comunidad, Urban Shield llegó a su fin en 2018. Cuando luchamos juntes contra la violencia policial, ¡podemos ganar!
Les privilegiades y les desacertades mirarán a la policía para que les proteja de un mundo que arde por el aumento de las temperaturas y las desigualdades capitalistas y racistas. Pero la policía es la que aplican las mismas raíces del problema. Sus "soluciones" se basan en la continuación del desastroso proyecto del colonialismo estadounidense, el imperialismo y la expansión del complejo industrial penitenciario. Normalizan el acoso, el asesinato y el encarcelamiento continuos de las personas que dicen que son desechables, que son les indígenas, les de color, les pobres, les sin techo, les discapacitados, les "locos", les transexuales, es queer u otras personas marginalizadas.
La policía intenta encerrar a les desposeídes ya quienes nos resistimos a este sistema miserable. No curan ni resuelven los, conflictos. Pero sabemos que juntas somos fuertes. Podríamos crear hospitales comunitarios y salud pública gratuita, noun campo de tiro. Podríamos tener guarderías gratuitas y escuelas seguras, no 43,6 millones de dólares de deuda.
Necesitamos jardines y hábitats silvestres, relaciones responsables y resistentes, familias sanas y comunidades de apoyo, no un ejército de fuerzas policiales.
Sabemos que los sistemas de dominación nunca serán desmantelados sin la lucha. ¡No al Campo policial!
para más información:
@StopCopCampus en Instagram
stopcopcampus [at] proton.me
http://www.stopcopcampus.org
For further reading:
San Pablo’s new $43M police training center eyed as its largest public works project ever
https://localnewsmatters.org/2023/09/23/san-pablos-new-43m-police-training-center-eyed-as-its-largest-public-works-project-ever/
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