Extra

Yesterday’s special 4:00 pm Berkeley City Council was well attended with over 200 people logging in and it felt like everyone commented. My error in retyping the zoom code incorrectly into the weekly activist’s calendar did cause some irritation for a few, (I am so sorry) but everyone managed to find links and join.

There were six emergency items added to the agenda and we managed to get through five and never moved on to the rest of the plan for the special meeting. There were many new voices commenting and most of those new voices spoke out to defunding the police. Things were going relatively smoothly all things considered, the budget referral for an Office of Racial Equity passed, the resolution to direct the Police Review Commission to submit a revised Berkeley Use of Force Policy passed, the painting of BLACK LIVES MATTER and Ohlone Territory on the street passed and then it happened.

This is the text exchange with my best friend in Palm Desert:

(me) Up now at council banning tear gas and our Berkeley Police Chief just said if he didn’t have tear gas the only choice is live bullets. No wonder the kids want the police defunded. I said this is when the rubber hits the road when the council has just spent 4 ½ hours on [how] much everyone cares about black and brown lives and now will they cave?

(Jodi) This just proves the point the protestors are making. The police can only think in terms of power and domination. How do you reform such an organization from within? You can’t. I’m not totally onboard for abolishing the police but radical change is needed and they need to have less power over the citizens and especially over the cities/counties who live in fear of their political clout.

I’ve heard these kinds of threats before from Chief Greenwood, though not as jarring whenever police actions or attempts to rein in policing are considered. Usually they are more veiled with the underlying message, if you block me from what I want something terrible will happen and it will be your fault. The Council caved last week in a 5 (Arreguin, Kesarwani, Hahn, Wengraf, Droste) to 4 (Harrison, Robinson, Bartlett, Davila) vote to approve a curfew, the Council caved September 12, 2017 in a 6 (Maio, Bartlett, Hahn, Droste, Arreguin) to 3 (Davila, Harrison, Worthington) vote to approve pepper spray.

Last night after much discussion, public comment and the beginning of calls for Chief Greenwood to resign, the Council voted unanimously for an outright ban on tear gas and a temporary prohibition on pepper spray or smoke for crowd control with further review of these agents by the Council Public Safety Policy Committee.

All this is a move in the correct direction, but at the core the question remains. How can a police chief lead a department when his own lens is limited to the only choice for crowd control if tear gas is taken away is live ammunition? Is there no other way to respond than to don riot gear, grab the batons and guns? 

My friend Jodi and everyone who has been out on the street is right. Radical change is needed and the first step here is to ask for Chief Greenwood’s resignation if he doesn’t come to that conclusion himself first. 

#Greenwoodhasgototgo