Photo: SF Citizen.com
One year after the shooting of Oscar Grant by BART police officer Johannes Mehserle, activists are still demanding justice.
And the battle still wages onward in Sacramento.
This Tuesday is an Assembly Hearing on BART Civilian Oversight. The Public Safety Committee will be hearing two bills to create a civilian oversight body for the BART Police Department. While the bills have the same stated purpose, they have one drastic difference: power.
| Assembly Hearing on BART Civilian Oversight Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) will be chairing a hearing at the Assembly Committee on Public Safety on two bills to create a civilian oversight body for the BART Police Department, AB 312 (Ammiano) and AB 1586 (Swanson). When: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 Time: 9 am Where: State Capitol, Room 126 - Sacramento Read AB 312 Read AB 1586 Let Sandre Swanson know you "Support Civilian Oversight of BART" (510)286-1670 (916)319-2016 Contact other members of the Public Safety Committee. |
Although the shooting occurred in Oakland, Assembly Member Sandre Swanson, -- who was visibly silent following the Oscar Grant shooting -- was not a co-sponsor of the bill. Months later, Swanson authored AB 1586, but later withdrew the BART oversight bill
BART held a series of meetings around the formation of an oversight committee, unanimously passing a plan that would've allowed a Citizen Police Review Panel and police auditor -- hired by BART's Board of Directors -- to give oversight and recommend disciplinary actions. The board, with a two-thirds majority, would also be able to override a decision by BART's general manager and police chief.
Out of these meetings, AB 1586 was born. The bill was initially supported by members of the Oscar Grant family and Oakland National of Islam Minister Keith Muhammad, until that "controversial amendment" removed the power of the publicly elected to provide oversight was removed.
It is still disputed as to "watered down" the BART oversight bill by striking the text; Swanson or BART officials.
Following the shooting, three widely attended trips to the Capitol, Caravan for Justice, were held. Activists planned to "wake up lawmakers."
Although AB 312 is supported by the City of Berkeley, the City of Oakland, the California Teachers Association, 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, it is being actively opposed by Peace Officers Research Association of California (PORAC), the statewide union for rank-and-file police officers.
