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Thursday 13 December 2012 Press Conference at 8:30 am Rally at NOON Federal District Court San Francisco 450 Golden Gate Avenue
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The Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition calls all its supporters and all people who believe that the time has come to stop police violence in our communities to gather together in front of the Federal District Court in San Francisco (450 Golden Gate Ave) to show our strength and our resolve.
We will meet at 8:30am for a joint press conference with the Oakland chapter of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and then again at noon (or when a lunch recess is called, usually between 12 and 12:30) for a rally.
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On Thursday, December 13th, Judge Thelton Henderson will be hearing arguments to put the Oakland Police Department into federal receivership. This is an unprecedented situation as no police department in the history of the United States has ever been put under the control of a Federal Judge.
After the infamous Riders case when four veteran Oakland police officers were alleged to have kidnapped, beaten, coerced, planted evidence, lied under oath, and falsely imprisoned Oakland citizens, Judge Henderson ordered the department to address in a concrete way its historical and continued racism and its disregard for the law, the Constitution, and the people of Oakland. Now, after 9 years, after repeated extensions and warnings and threats have failed to get the department to comply with the negotiated settlement agreement (NSA), it seems the time has finally come.
Those of us who live in Oakland are all too familiar with the ways that the Oakland Police Department regularly intimidates and harasses Oakland’s Black and Brown community. Every year brings new stories of young men of color gunned down by the police with no investigation, no discipline for the officer, and no charges filed even when the people killed are unarmed or have committed no crime.
Alan Blueford was one such victim of police violence. An 18 year old high school student, Alan was chased by OPD officer Miguel Masso simply for being young and black in the early morning hours of May 6. When Alan fell, Masso stood over him and shot him three times at point blank range. Alan was unarmed and had committed no crime, but the Department did not fire Masso, the District Attorney said there was no cause for pursuing charges against Masso, and the top brass at OPD put out lie after lie to the media about the case in order to cover the whole thing up.
Some believe that Judge Henderson’s takeover of the department will bring greater accountability while others argue that it will be more of the same.
Regardless of the outcome, the JAB Coalition holds firm to its demands:
– that killer cops like Miguel Masso be fired and prosecuted – an end to racial profiling – an end to the de facto Stop and Frisk policy – greater accountability to the people of Oakland
– Justice for Alan Blueford and all those who have been murdered by the Oakland Police Department
We will not stop until the Oakland Police Department stops harassing, beating, falsely imprisoning, and murdering people of color in our community.
JUSTICE FOR ALAN BLUEFORD!!
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