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<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Dear
Friends, <br>
<br>
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. <br>
<br>
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 </font></font><font size="3"><em><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="font-style: normal;"><span style="">protégé</span></span></font></em></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><i><span style="">,
</span></i></font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">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. <br>
< /font></font><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">[FLAME
ON] </font></font>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><br>
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 politics” as we have known it for too long. </font></font>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">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 Barack20Obama with D.C. </font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><span style="">Mayor
Adrian Fenty </span></font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">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.”</font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"><b>
</b></font></font><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3"> </font></font>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">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." <br>
</font></font></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">[FLAME
OFF] </font></font>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Alex
Walker </font></font>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br>
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">-----Original
Message-----</font></font></div>
<pre><tt><fon t color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Distributed by the Green Party of the United States <a href="http://www.gp.org/" target="_blank">http://www.gp.org</a></font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">News Advisory</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">THE GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><a href="http://www.cagreens.org/"><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">http://www.cagreens.org</font></font></font></a></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Friday, January 9, 2009</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Contact: Susan King, spokesperson, 415.823-5524 <a href="mailto:sking@cagreens.org">sking@cagreens.org</a></font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Erika McDonald, San Francisco Green Party, 415-337-1499 <a href="mailto:erika@dolorespark.org">erika@dolorespark.org</a></font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Cres Vellucci, press secretary, 916.996-9170 <a href="mailto:cvellucci@cagreens.org">cvellucci@cagreens.org</a></font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Democrats blocked legislation holding police accountable for</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">misconduct; political solution=2
0may have prevented shooting death of</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Oakland youth on New Year's Day, charges Green Party</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">OAKLAND - Political remedies to hold police more accountable for</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">outrageous acts such as the shooting death of an African-American</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">youth here on New Year's Day have been blocked by even supposedly</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">"sympathetic" Democratic Party politicians, charged Green Party of</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">California spokespeople Friday.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Greens said the killing of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by Oakland police</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">should spark a renewed interest in police misconduct, transparency and</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">accountability.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">"Elected officials, including lawmakers representing the Bay Area such</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">as Democrat20Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-SF), have been blocking police</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">accountability for years in Sacramento, She helped kill police</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">accountability legislation in 2007," said Erika McDonald, a</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">spokesperson for the San Francisco Green Party.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Ma was a member of the 2007 Assembly Public Safety Committee which</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">refused to even bring to a vote two pieces of legislation, SB 1019 and</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">AB 1648, which would have given the public access to police records</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">about misconduct and discipline involving police officers, including</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">excessive force, officer-involved shootings and dishonesty.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">"Another young man of color is dead. So much for change we can believe</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">in, and an end to a practice of allowing law enforcement officials20to</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">act as a protected class. Supposedly 'progressive' Oakland Mayor Ron</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Dellums, and the District Attorney, both Democrats, have not done what</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">needs to be done," added McDonald.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">"Public access to police records about sustained police misconduct not</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">only protects the public by helping deter police misconduct, but it</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">generates public confidence in the police by holding police</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">accountable," said Cres Vellucci, Green Party spokesperson and member</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">of the ACLU Board of Directors in Sacramento.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">Prior to a relatively recent court decision, there was access to some</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">discipline records of police with virtually no problems regarding the</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif" ><font size="3">rights of police officers. Now police are protected from any real</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">disclosure of discipline problems.</font></font></font></tt>
<tt><font color="#000000"><font face="Arial, sans-serif"><font size="3">-30-</font></font></font></tt></pre>
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