Oakland Police Department Response To Question Of Officer Violating Code In Boogaloo Boys Problem
ONN – Oakland Police Department Response To Question Of Officer Violating Code In Boogaloo Boys Problem
Oakland Police Department Response To Question Of Officer Violating Code In Boogaloo Boys Problem
The City Of Oakland released this statement and, in response to my blog post, sent it to me in the latest email thread I established – one that included the Mayor of Oakland and the Oakland City Council.
OPD:
The Oakland Police Department’s Departmental General Order C-1 is designed for regulations and specifications regarding uniforms, civilian clothing, and equipment for Police Department members, reserve officers and employees. This order outlines uniforms and appearance for police personnel and professional staff. C-1 does not dictate attire for an officer assigned to a specialized unit that involves undercover plain clothes operations. This is intentional for the undercover officer’s safety so the officer can dress in a manner that does not identify him or her as a police officer while they are undercover.
As stated in the attached message the concerns of the community have been shared with all Department plain clothes officers. Chief Manheimer and all members of the Oakland Police Department share community concerns when perceptions or references are made that would associate OPD with any extremist groups. The Department recognizes and understands the pain and suffering caused by such extremist groups who are intolerant and instill fear and hatred in our community. OPD stands with our community and will not tolerate any hate crime against anyone in our community.
Officer Johnna Watson
Public Information Officer
Office of the Chief of Police
Oakland Police Department
My response:
Hello,
I was about to, and will, post this, but the response is troubling. I was informed of, but have not seen, the written responses to this on Mark Zuckerberg’s site (and I say that way, because that’s what Facebook is and I know him). I would not have done this, and for one of many reasons, but paramount among them is this statement: “C-1 does not dictate attire for an officer assigned to a specialized unit that involves undercover plain clothes operations. This is intentional for the undercover officer’s safety so the officer can dress in a manner that does not identify him or her as a police officer while they are undercover.”
Johnna, I wish you would have called me as a sounding board before you wrote that. The main problem is that Oaklanders now, by the thousands did recognize the officer, and had zero idea he was undercover because he looked like an officer in uniform who decided to put on a type of Hawaiian shirt that the Boogaloo Boys wear.
Also, and I say this as one who has lived in Oakland since 1974, was a red carpet teenage greeter for the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975, saw Oakland mature into a city that was proud to have black civic managers (many who were legendary), and myself came to just 8 NFL Owner votes of bringing the 2005 Super Bowl to Oakland. None of this is done without some respect for institutional memory and for protocol. This, the police constantly putting out statements, is such that Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris would have called you and Chief Manheimer into his office, and the conversation would not have been a good one. The simple rule: let the Mayor of Oakland talk – not you or the Chief of Police. This is out of line. It’s unraveling at a frightening rate of speed.
The Mayor of Oakland represents the community over you, yet both you and Chief Manheimer respond as if Mayor Schaaf does not exist. It’s not helping the Mayor. We have a Strong Mayor system for a reason – this is one of those reasons. Let the Mayor do her job and speak for the City of Oakland.
With much love and respect for you all. God bless.
Zennie
Note from Zennie62Media and Oakland News Now: this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a vlogger with the Zennie62 on YouTube Partner Channel, then uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours. Now, news is reported with a smartphone: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.