Oakland Police should apologize to Mayor Dellums, activists say

The Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) should apologize to Mayor Dellums for refusing to let him speak at the publicly-financed memorial held at the Coliseum last month, community activists said at a press conference at City Hall.

"Community leaders are outraged that Oakland Mayor Dellums was requested not to address the public-financed memorial services held in Oakland," according to a press statement. "The purpose of the press conference is to demand that OPOA acknowledge this gross error in judgment and publicly apologize to Oakland Mayor Dellums and the citizens of Oakland , as well as call upon City Council to take subsequent actions."

On March 21, four Oakland Police officers died after a shootout with Lovelle Mixon.

"To express Oakland ' s solidarity, a candlelight vigil was held on March 24th at the site of East Oakland' s MacArthur Blvd shootings. More than 1,000 citizens of all ethnic and racial backgrounds came out to join Mayor Ron Dellums in the symbolic releasing of a mourning-dove, in honor of the fallen four," the statement said.

Dellums said, "We come to thank them. We come to mourn them. We come to respect them. We come to embrace them as community."

That Friday, two days after neighborhood residents held a rally for Mixon, on Friday, March 27, over 20,000 police officers and civilians from all across the country packed the Oracle Arena and nearby freeways and streets to mourn the deaths of the four slain officers.

Also in attendance were federal, state and local government officials, including: Oakland Mayor Ronald V. Dellums, U.S. Senator Diane Feinstein, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, Congressmember Barabara Lee, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and State Attorney General Jerry Brown, former Mayor of Oakland. Many of the elected officials gave speeches at the public ceremony. At the request of Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA), Mayor Dellums did not speak at the memorial services.

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