‘I’ve lost the trust’: Bay Area police chief abruptly announces retirement during town hall meeting on policing

His resignation shocked the mayor and council members

In the middle of a contentious town hall meeting about police reform, Menlo Park Police Chief Dave Bertini shocked city leaders when he abruptly announced his retirement.

“It’s obvious to me that I’ve lost the trust of the city council, and hopefully this will give this organization a fresh start,” Bertini said during Thursday night’s meeting. He added that his last day as chief would be July 31.

Bertini’s announcement came after weeks of nationwide protests over police brutality and the killing of George Floyd that have led to resounding calls from residents to defund police departments and reshape the role of policing within society.

The goal of Menlo Park’s town hall meeting was for the council to gather feedback from the community and brainstorm new policies to implement in the city’s police department.

For more than an hour, residents voiced concerns and negative experiences with Menlo Park police officers — from over-policing in certain areas to racial profiling to lacking transparency with the department’s data — and the council pondered options they could pursue to begin tackling the issues.

Some of the suggestions included creating a public database that details the location and race of people stopped by the city’s police department, evaluating the number of officers needed to patrol the city and reconsider the use of Facebook funds to indirectly pay for a police unit covering the city’s Belle Haven area.

“There is a difference of experience with the Menlo Park Police Department often based on location and skin color,” Resident Andrew Olson, 24, said during the meeting. “Our officers protect and serve and put themselves on the line, but the truth shouldn’t fear the light.”

Vice Mayor Drew Combs, a black representative on the council, said that all of his interactions with Menlo Park police officers have been positive but he admitted: “I too am afraid of the police because I carry all those experiences and stories of specifical men in my family and my experiences in other communities.”

“There is obviously an issue when it comes to the interactions with police in our community and people of color — as there is an issue as a national issue,” Combs said. “…And this is a real opportunity for us to think about how we want to approach public safety and policing in our community that doesn’t have some of these lingering issues of fear and interactions with those who are, in theory, there to protect them.”

In the midst of the council’s discussion, councilmember Ray Mueller brought Bertini into the conversation and asked him his perspective on what was needed to build a better relationship between the police department and residents.

In response, Bertini said that “he had heard a lot from the community and our elected officials, and the only thing I can really say is that ‘I hear you.'”

“All police offers are hurting right now based on actions that have happened thousands of miles away from us,” he continued. “It is very difficult to listen to; It is very difficult to see.

“I think honestly there’s only one way that this conversation can go forward — and that’s a fresh start.”

Bertini said his intention was to retire at the end of July but that he would work with the city until they secured a replacement.

The statement from Bertini came as a surprise to the council and Mayor Cecilia Taylor, who said during the public meeting that it was the first she had heard of his resignation. Taylor promptly called for a 15-minute recess and after a short discussion upon returning to the meeting, the councilmembers voted 4-0 to go into a closed session to discuss the matter away from public scrutiny.

Bertini began his policing career nearly 35 years ago as a reserve officer in Pacifica. Bertini joined the Menlo Park Police Department in 2011 as a police commander before being named interim police chief in January 2018. Bertini has served as the city’s permanent police chief since July 2018.

https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/19/ive-lost-the-trust-bay-area-police-chief-abruptly-announces-retirement-during-town-hall-meeting-on-policing/

Possible vice president pick Kamala Harris often avoided controversy in California. Here’s how

Kamala Harris had a reputation in California as a prosecutor and attorney general who waited rather than led, who moved on controversial issues only once she saw what was politically viable.

She didn’t take a position on the 2015 California Assembly proposal to make sure incidents involving police using deadly force got independent investigations. Today she’s cited by the bill’s sponsor as an influential voice in aiding his effort.

She opposed a 2010 state initiative to legalize marijuana. She now says she strongly supports legalization.

She did not support a 2015 push to require all law enforcement officials to wear body cameras. Though Harris had agents in her agency do so, she said it was up to local governments to decide whether their employees should wear them.

She opposed a 2004 state initiative to soften California’s minimum mandatory sentencing laws. Last year, she outlined a criminal justice reform agenda that would end minimum mandatory sentences.

And as attorney general from 2011 to 2017, she didn’t take positions on ballot initiatives because her office was tasked with writing their summaries and titles. Her stance, one not taken by most predecessors in her post, allowed her to avoid public comment on a wide range of political fraught topics.

Harris, a Democratic senator from California since January 2017, is at the top of every analyst’s list of possible vice presidential running mates for former Vice President Joe Biden. Biden has said he’ll pick a woman, and Black activist groups are pushing hard for a woman of color.

Sabato’s Crystal Ball, a nonpartisan political analysis, Thursday listed her as most likely to be chosen as the nominee — but also listed among her weak points that she “sometimes tries to be all things to all people.”

“She’s not a leader on the issues,” said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, which advocates for legalized marijuana.

The senator’s office declined a request to comment for this story.

Harris has been criticized widely by some Black and Latino activists for her tough-on-crime stands.

But some familiar with her record – conservatives, liberals and moderates alike in California – see a different reason for concern. As she served as San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011 and attorney general from 2011 until 2016, they say, she too often checked the public mood before she acted.

Brian Marvel, president of the Peace Officers Research Association of California, praised Harris for her “open door” policy as attorney general.

But, he said, “She would be astute enough to see where things are going and then try to move in that direction.” That raises the question, Marvel said: “Is she going to stand firm on her 2020 positions?”

Here is how Harris evolved on several issues in California during her years in public life:

Investigating the Police

Then: In 2015, Assemblyman Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento, introduced legislation to allow independent investigations of people who died because of deadly force by police. The attorney general – Harris at the time – could name a special prosecutor to look into the death of a civilian by an officer.

Harris did not support taking that authority away from local prosecutors. “I don’t think there’s an inherent conflict,” she told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Where there are abuses, we have designed the system to address them.”

She did express a desire for reform. “Here’s the bottom line: I am trying to change the system from the inside,” she told The Sacramento Bee as she campaigned for the Senate in 2016. “They (activists) are trying to change the system from the outside. And together, change will occur.”

But in 2018, after the shooting of Stephon Clark, who was unarmed and holding a cell phone when shot that year in March by Sacramento police, Harris talked about the urgency of dealing with bias when police are involved with people of color.

Now a senator, she noted how as attorney general her look at training on use of force had prompted the establishment of a statewide training program dealing with handling bias.

more: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article243575377.html

Port of Oakland shut down by dockworkers in observation of Juneteenth

Economic activity at the Port of Oakland came to a halt on Friday as thousands of workers and supporters gathered on Middle Harbor Road to protest police brutality and racism in the United States.

The demonstration, organized by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, coincided with demonstrations planned today at 28 other seaports in California, Oregon and Washington.

The day of action was held on Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. Local 10, Local 34 and the African American Longshore Coalition led the rally, and demonstrators plan to drive in a caravan to Oakland Police Department headquarters and City Hall from the port.

With support of the ports, workers stopped processing cargo Friday and rallied to mark the anniversary and calls for police reform. The move follows mass protests on June 9 at all 29 ports which idled terminal operations for 8 minutes and 46 seconds — the amount of time a police officer in Minnesota knelt on George Floyd’s neck— an African American man — leaving him gasping for air before he died, on May 25.

"You represent the potential and the power of the labor movement," Angela Davis, a longtime activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party, said at the rally. She said she hopes that other labor unions will join in the effort of "abolishing the police as we know them" and "re-imagining public safety."

Other speakers included actor Danny Glover, who called in to voice support, and Michael Brown Sr., the father of Michael Brown Jr., the 18-year-old black man who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014.

"We're not working today. We're standing in solidarity," said Willie Adams, president of the ILWU, at the Port of Oakland. He said dock workers in Genoa, Italy had stopped work in solidarity. "Good cops have got to start checking those bad cops. You can't stand by and let something happen. You're just as guilty," Adams said.

Cestra Butner, the board president for the Port of Oakland, and a prominent African American business leader, said there’s no question that the port stood behind the Black Lives Matter movement.

“We want this country to live up to what it’s supposed to be,” he said in a Friday video addressed to employees and the public.

On June 6, the port issued a statement supporting the movement for social and racial justice. Butner called for more. “I’m proud the Port has a statement on this issue,” he said in the video. “Now we have to follow that up with our actions. We must ask: are we making everything equal?”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Port-of-Oakland-shut-down-by-dockworkers-in-15352644.php

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