ACLU of Northern California

ACLU: Counties opting for incarceration, not rehabilitation

CDCR

An ACLU report released today asks whether prison realignment is fixing the overcrowded prison system--or simply pushing California's reliance on incarceration to the local level.

The ACLU of California released a report today, “California at a Crossroads,” detailing 53 California counties’ realignment plans. Prison realignment began in October of 2011 as a way to quickly reduce California’s prison population–and get the state into compliance with a federal court order to relieve the state’s overcrowded prisons. Reform advocates had hoped that counties, which are slated to take over some 33,000 offenders from the state over the next couple of years, would use their realignment dollars in innovative rehabilitation programs. Instead, the ACLU report says, many counties are choosing to add more jail beds to incarcerate those who would have previously gone to state prison.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, ACLU of Northern California, Realignment

November 17, 2011 | 3:19 PM | By Ali Winston

Judge denies temporary restraining order against Oakland Police

Ali Winston

Tear gas obscures the intersection of 14th & Broadway in Oakland on October 25, 2011.

Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Seeborg denied a request by the ACLU of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild for a temporary restraining order preventing excessive use of force by the Oakland Police Department during crowd control situations.

The request for a restraining order stems from the joint ACLU-NLG lawsuit filed earlier this week alleging violations of OPD’s crowd control policies on October 25th and the evening of November 2-3 during clashes between police and Occupy Oakland protesters.

In denying the requested restraining order, Judge Seeborg says the Oakland Police Department’s peaceful clearing of the Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza demonstrated no urgent need for restrictions on OPD’s crowd control response. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Courts, ACLU of Northern California, crowd control policy, Judge Richard Seeborg, National Lawyers' Guild, Oakland, Oakland Police Department

November 14, 2011 | 4:00 PM | By Ali Winston

Oakland Police sued for violating crowd control policies – again

Ali Winston

A tear gas canister in the middle of 14th and Broadway

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild filed a federal civil rights suit against the Oakland Police Department today alleging repeated violations of OPD’s own crowd control policies and asking for an emergency temporary restraining order against Oakland Police.

District Court Judge Richard Seeborg has issued an order requiring the city of Oakland to respond to the lawsuit by 5 PM tomorrow.

The suit was filed on behalf of five plaintiffs, including Scott Campbell, a videographer who was shot with a less-lethal projectile while filming a police line during civil disturbances following the November 2nd general strike.

“I was filming police activity at Occupy Oakland because police should be accountable,” said Campbell. “Now I’m worried about my safety from police violence and about retaliation because I’ve been outspoken.”

The lawsuit, which can be viewed after the jump, alleges that OPD and agencies under their control during mutual aid callouts used indiscriminate and excessive force by targeting demonstrators with flash bang grenades, tear gas and less lethal projectiles on the nights of October 25th and November 2nd. It also charges OPD with intentionally targeting videographers like Campbell with less-lethal projectiles. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Courts, ACLU of Northern California, crowd control, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland

October 26, 2011 | 6:09 PM | By Rina Palta

Guest blog: ACLU attorney calls for full investigation of police response to Occupy Oakland

Eddie Codel

By Linda Lye, Staff Attorney, ACLU of Northern California

Picture this. In response to a peaceful anti-war protest, the Oakland Police Department uses large wooden bullets, sting ball grenades and shot-filled bean bags, as a result of which at least 58 protesters are injured. That was 2003, and unfortunately sounds eerily similar to reports of OPD’s response to an Occupy Oakland demonstration yesterday evening, in which bean bags or other projectiles appear to have been fired directly into crowds and multiple rounds of tear gas were used.

OPD’s conduct in 2003 led to a class action lawsuit brought by the ACLU-NC, the National Lawyers Guild, ILWU, Local 10 and other civil rights attorneys. The lawsuit led to a historic settlement, with OPD adopting a Crowd Control Policy that strictly limits the use of force and prohibits the indiscriminate use of bean bags and other projectiles against crowds or passive resisters, except in unusual circumstances.

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FILED UNDER: Community, ACLU of Northern California, Oakland, Occupy Oakland

May 19, 2011 | 3:09 PM | By Rina Palta

Execution drugs: Who has what

View Lethal Injection Scramble in a larger map
The saga over a national shortage of the execution drug sodium thiopental and states’ legally questionable international searches for the drug continued last week in federal court in San Francisco. The ACLU of Northern California and San Francisco Bay Guardian are suing the Drug Enforcement Agency for documents related to the legality of foreign-bought executions drugs that have found their way into several states. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Courts, ACLU of Northern California, Drug Enforcement Agency, Execution Drugs, Sodium Thiopental

May 17, 2011 | 7:47 PM | By Ali Winston

Oakland Police tight-lipped on role in Joint Terrorism Task Force

Ali Winston

An unidentified federal agent records protesters on July 8th, 2010

Oakland Police are keeping their cards close to their chest about the department’s participation in the Bay Area’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Northern California’s multi-agency counter-terrorism team headed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Oakland Assistant Chief of Police Howard Jordan canceled a Tuesday interview on the JTTF with the Informant late last night, citing “internal policy decisions” as the reason for OPD opting not to speak on their role in the task force.

The interview was to focus on a Memorandum of Understanding between OPD and the FBI, reauthorizing the department’s participation in the JTTF. The current MOU, signed in 2007 by then-Chief of Police Wayne Tucker and Charlene B. Thornton, the FBI Special Agent in Charge of the San Francisco field office at the time, was released to the Informant earlier this month in response to a Public Records Act request. The MOU will continue “indenfinitely” until it is updated or Oakland opts out of the JTTF.

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FILED UNDER: Police, ACLU of Northern California, Asian Law Caucus, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joint Terrorism Task Force, Oakland, Oakland Police Department

May 9, 2011 | 12:42 PM | By Rina Palta

Billboards are back

ACLU

Has anyone noticed the billboards popping up around town with criminal justice themes?

The ACLU of Northern California has taken out a few spaces around San Francisco to call for reduced sentences for those convicted for possessing small amounts of illegal drugs and those convicted of non-violent property crimes (like passing bad checks or vandalism). Prosecutors currently have discretion over whether to charge such crimes as felonies, which can mean prison time, or misdemeanors, which don’t. According to the ACLU, 9,000 people are currently in prison in California for possessing a small amount of drugs (in other words, drugs for personal use rather than sale). The ACLU of Northern California recently sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown calling for these sentencing changes–and is circulating a petition along the same lines–which they say would save millions of dollars.

FILED UNDER: Corrections, Politics, ACLU of Northern California, sentencing

April 27, 2011 | 2:56 PM | By Ali Winston

ACLU meeting tonight on police accountability in Oakland

Henderson Images

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Anthony Batts have proposed an overhaul of Oakland’s independent police oversight mechanism by proposing the establishment of an independent Inspector General to audit departmental investigations and practices. Oakland’s current civilian watchdog, the Citizens’ Police Review Board, will not be replaced by the Inspector General, but has been starved for staffing and funding.

Supporters of the CPRB have been alarmed by the Inspector General proposal, and are concerned that Mayor Quan’s new budget will divert funding from the CPRB to the OIG. Tonight, the Paul Robeson Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union will hold a meeting on civilian oversight of law enforcement at the Rockridge Branch Library, at 5366 College Avenue in Oakland. The meeting starts at 7 PM.

Among the presenters tonight will be Alan Hooper, the police practices director of the Northern California ACLU, and Rashidah Grinage, the director of People United for a Better Life in Oakland (PUEBLO).