[Sosfbay-discuss] [GPCA-MediaComm] Calif. Green Party Release: Dems blocked bills that may have prevented Oakland youth shooting death

[civillib at comcast.net]

Erika discovered the vote by Fiona Ma - actually, it was a NON vote because upon 
  further investigation I found that she and fellow Dems wouldn't even bring the 
bill up for a vote. Further, I also found that there were 2 bills, not just the 
Assembly measure but another that passed the Senate, that Ma and other Dems 
blocked votes on that would helped with police accountability.

These are the kind of revelations and stories I did as a mainstream news 
reporter at the Capitol (yeah, yeah, I finally realized I was part of the 
problem and that's why I re-registered Green and left the news business). But 
MOST reporters simply don't have the time and often inclination to do more than 
parrot back what our "leaders" say.

And, t his is why your campaign, Alex, and all our other campaigns must do heavy 
opposition research to call Dems for what they have NOT done. We are the true 
opposition party, and should educate the public generally, and unions and other 
social justice groups accordingly.

Cres


alexcathy at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Dear
> Friends, 
> 
> As a not-very-active member of the Green Party of California Media
> Group, I just want to add that I really do appreciate the heavy research and hard work that went
> into carefully crafting this important release. Erika McDonald is a
> virtual scholar on this subject and ought to win a medal. 
> 
> I am sure you all know that
> Oakland, California was the home of the Black Panther Party and the
> San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley area was a hotbed of radicalism in the
> 1960s and 1970s.  This was also the district of the legendary
> antiwar Congressman Ron Dellums and his protégé,
> Congresswoman
> Barbara Lee -- the only one out of 535 senators and representatives
> in Congress to vote NO on Mr. Bush's first "blank check"
> for war a few days after 9/11. 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [FLAME
> ON] 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> For
> these very reasons, many people of color among the California Greens
> regard Oakland, California as the "poster boy" for the
> failure of the liberal Democrats in the cities of America. 
> People all over the world hear about those world-famous "San
> Francisco Liberals" and assume the Bay Area is some kind of
> "Black Power Peoples Republic."  This is simply not
> true.  Over the past forty years, the big city Democratic Party
> Machines have simply co-opted all those "Black Power"
> slogans and woven them seamlessly into the Democratic Party Machine
> “ethnic politics” liberalism. That is one reason why I,
> personally, have become a little “crazy” in my rejection of
> “ethnic politicsE2 as we have known it for too long.  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Despite
> the best intentions of the best African-American nationalists, the
> *effect* of racialist thinking has been to *strengthen* the worst of
> the Democratic Party Machines in places like Oakland, San Francisco,
> Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, D.C., and Baltimore
> (where the Democratic Party Machine mayor has just been indicted). 
> In Sunday's paper here in Los Angeles there was a photo of
> President-Elect Barack Obama with D.C. Mayor
> Adrian Fenty having
> lunch at “Ben's Chilli Bowl” on U Street in Northwest D.C.  See,
> we are suppose to take this meaningness symbolic non-event as “proof”
> that Mr. Obama is “down with the brothas”... blah, blah, blah. 
> This is exactly like Hillary Rodham Clinton drinking straight shots
> in Pennsylvania or George Walker Bush clearing brush on his “ranch.”
>   
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Now
> is the time to heap ridicule and scorn on the “Old Politics.”  I am planning to incorporate this issue in my campaign in Los Angeles where nobody knows the meaning of the word "accountability." 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [FLAME
> OFF] 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Alex
> Walker 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> -----Original
> Message-----
> 
> 
> Distributed by the Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
> News Advisory
> THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA
> http://www.cagreens.org
> 
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
> 
> Friday, January 9, 2009
> 
> Contact: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524 sking at cagreens.org
> Erika McDonald, San Francis
> co Green Party, 415-337-1499 erika at dolorespark.org
> Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 cvellucci at cagreens.org
> 
> Democrats blocked legislation holding police accountable for
> misconduct; political solution may have prevented shooting death of
> Oakland youth on New Year's Day, charges Green Party
> 
> OAKLAND - Political remedies to hold police more accountable for
> outrageous acts such as the shooting death of an African-American
> youth here on New Year's Day have been blocked by even supposedly
> "sympathetic" Democratic Party politicians, charged Green Party of
> California spokespeople Friday.
> 
> Greens said the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by Oakland police
> should spark a renewed interest in police misconduct, transparency and
> accountability.
> 
> "Elected officials, including lawmakers representing the Bay Area such
> as Democrat Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-SF), have been blocking police
> accountability for years in Sacramento, She helped kill police
> accountability legislation in 2007," said Erika McDonald, a
> spokesperson for the San Francisco Green Party.
> 
> Ma was a member of the 2007 Assembly Public Safety Committee which
> refused to even bring to a vote two pieces of legislation, SB 1019 and
> AB 1648, which would have given the public access to police records
> about misconduct and discipline involving police officers, including
> excessive force, officer-involved shootings and dishonesty.
> 
> "Another young man of color is dead. So much for change we can believe
> in, and an end to a practice of allowing law enforcement officials to
> act as a protected class. Suppose
> dly 'progressive' Oakland Mayor Ron
> Dellums, and the District Attorney, both Democrats, have not done what
> needs to be done," added McDonald.
> 
> "Public access to police records about sustained police misconduct not
> only protects the public by helping deter police misconduct, but it
> generates public confidence in the police by holding police
> accountable," said Cres Vellucci, Green Party spokesperson and member
> of the ACLU Board of Directors in Sacramento.
> 
> Prior to a relatively recent court decision, there was access to some
> discipline records of police with virtually no problems regarding the
> rights of police officers. Now police are protected from any real
> disclosure of discipline problems.
> -30-
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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