Scores of Oakland residents are expected to attend the Tuesday evening meeting of the Public Safety Committee after a public hearing on the controversial August 16 raid was abruptly pulled off the agenda just a few days beforehand.
The public safety committee meeting begins at 6pm.
Advocates for immigrant rights have expressed great distress about the Trumpian rhetoric and the increasing rate of detentions and jailing of undocumented immigrants during the first 10 months of the Trump Administration.
On Saturday night, the San Francisco HSI/ICE headquarters looked a little different than usual.
Earlier today on November 10th, Oakland City Council members Desley Brooks (the chair of the Public Safety Committee) and Rebecca Kaplan, issued a press release objecting to the cancellation of the November 14 ICE Raid hearing.
Kaplan said the action was “inappropriate” and Brooks described it as “troubling”.
On November 14, citizens of Oakland will still gather at the Public Safety Committee to have a long overdue public conversation about OPD cooperation with HSI and ICE. The meeting will begin at 6pm at Oakland City Hall.
After Bay Area media reported on the complaint filed against the OPD chief for making false statements to the public about the West Oakland ICE Raid, the Rules Committee abruptly pulled the item from the November 14 Public Safety agenda – canceling the public hearing they scheduled on October 12.
However, there is a thing called Open Forum.
And on November 14 at City Hall, it will be about future OPD cooperation with ICE Raids in our sanctuary city, and what community oversight of law enforcement looks like.
On November 7, 2017, an internal affairs complaint was filed by Privacy Advisory Commission Chair Brian Hofer and 7 fellow complainants (Attorney Margaret Cunningham, Wellstone Club Politics Chair Pamela Drake, Sanctuary Advocate Linda Olvera, Sharon Rose with Block By Block Organizing Network, Media Alliance ED and OP member Tracy Rosenberg, Reverend J. Alfred Smith Jr of Allen Temple Baptist Church, and Sociology Professor Judith Stacey) against Oakland Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick for false statements made to the public and Oakland’s City Council about the August 16 West Oakland ICE Raid.
5 additional individuals and two organizations joined on to the complaint on November 13. The additional signers are No Coal in Oakland activist Michael Kaufman, John Jones III of Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ), Rebecca Merton with CIVIC, attorneys Mary Vail and Alan Brill, and organzational support from the California Sanctuary Campaign and Citizens Initiating Visits with Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC).
Oakland’s Public Safety Committee will have a hearing with OPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick in attendance on November 14 at 6pm at City Hall. The public is encouraged to attend.
On November 4, privacy experts from around the country convened at the NYU School of Law to talk about “Privacy Localism” or how local communities can fight back against the encroaching surveillance state. Oakland’s fight against the Domain Awareness Center took center stage in several of the presentations. OPAC Chair and OP member Brian Hofer attended, and participated in a 2-hour roundtable discussing best practices across the country.
On November 7, the Oakland City Council will consider a municipal ordinance to prevent any new or amended city contracts with vendors building Trump’s 2,000 mile “border wall” on the US southern border with Mexico. The ordinance was proposed by District 2 representative Abel Guillen.
Oakland Privacy supports this ordinance and encourages passage. Our letter to the City Council is below.
