Oakland Rally for Police Accountability

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DEMAND OAKLAND FIRE RACIST COPS

This Thursday, there will be an important rally in Oakland for police
accountability.

A number of recent incidents of police abuse and violence are coming before
the Citizen Police Review Board (CPRB), the official local watchdog agency.
We need the community to come out and show the CPRB that Oakland won't stand
for violent, racist and potentially murderous police to walk our streets.

Oakland youth have for too long been causalities of the war on crime. We
say: "No more!"


Thursday, March 25, 2004

RALLY: 5.45 pm
CITIZEN POLICE REVIEW BOARD MEETING: 6.15 pm
OAKLAND CITY HALL (14th and Broadway)
11th Floor

Enough is enough. Please join us in demanding NO MORE RACIST COPS IN OUR
COMMUNITIES. We are demanding that the Oakland Police Department fire
Officer Joseph McGuinn and Lt. Mike Yoell, both notorious for being abusive
in the black community.

For more info, contact:
George Galvis 510.501.4185
Malaika Parker 415.902.0643

This action is being brought to you by Bay Area
PoliceWatch, All of Us or None, and Malcolm X Grass Roots Movement


Details about the officers in question:

Lt. Mike Yoell

Lieutenant Yoell has a long history of abuse, excessive force, and
falsification of reports. He is well known in the community and in the
police department as a problem officer. But, despite numerous community
complaints against him, Lt. Yoell has remained a high-ranking official in
OPD. Here's what the CPRB will be talking about Thursday:

Two years ago, Oakland officers under Yoell's command brutalized two young
men - Elliot Noble and Michael Henry - in Oakland's Brookfield
neighborhood.
An officer in a patrol car chased Michael on his bike. The officer hit
Michael with the car and knocked him off his bike. As he lay on the ground
injured, Lt. Yoell tried to choke him.

Elliot heard that this was happening to his friend and went to the scene
with his camera. As soon as he arrived, Elliot began taking pictures. A
cop took his camera away and grabbed Elliot by his testicles and throat.
The officer slammed Elliot into a police car and detained him for no reason.

Officer Joseph McGuinn

Joseph McGuinn also has a long history of brutality. In 2001, he was one of
six cops involved in the brutal killing of Jamil Muwwakkil, a 36 year-old
black man who was literally beaten to death by OPD officers.

Since then, McGuinn has racked up numerous complaints:

* This February, OPD officers ­ including McGuinn ­ detained, harrassed, and
threatened three Oakland high school students. McGuinn forced one of the
students to submit to a search of his bare gentalia at least four times.
During the incident, the cops repeatedly called the students "niggers."

* Despite an official complaint detailing this serious abuse and misconduct,
the Department allowed McGuinn back on the streets. A month later, McGuinn
harassed a black man at his home in Sobrate Park ­ another example of
blatant racial discrimination and profiling.