Fighting for the future of Oakland
Activist shares the struggles of his past as he works to lift up his community
John Jones III became an activist for a simple reason: When he saw who was in the room having conversations about the future of his neighborhood, there wasn’t a seat for anyone from his community. So, he invited himself in.
Jones, who was homeless for 18 months after he was released in 2012 following felony assault charges, is a leader in the campaign to stop landlords from asking applicants about criminal backgrounds except when required by law and give applicants an opportunity to explain their past. A similar statewide measure for job seekers with criminal backgrounds was passed in California in 2017. A self-professed history buff, Jones now advocates for solutions to housing issues, displacement, over-policing and mass incarceration. We talked with him about how Oakland has changed, the movement to defund police and what a just Oakland looks like for him and his sons. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
QWhy have you chosen to be so open with your history of incarceration and homelessness?
AIt’s for two reasons: First, in a lot of ways, I didn’t have a choice. When you’re experiencing these barriers and you’re try
ing to advocate to improve the quality of your life, it requires one to disclose information like that. A second reason is just, from a standpoint of leadership, my motto is leading by example because I know that I’m not alone. So the more that I share my story and share how I’m able to overcome, it helps inspire others to discover and believe in their own agency, which leads to personal empowerment, because I think that’s needed as well.
QHow does sharing your own story help when you’re working with people who don’t share a similar background?
AWhen we’re dealing with the barriers that folks with a (criminal) record have, a lot of that is a direct result of what I called the process of dehumanization. In other words, we get written off as thugs, gang members, etc, etc. Many of us would see someone on the news being arrested in handcuffs, (but) very few people see the challenges once we reenter society. So for me, I try to put a human face to it and I know that that is helpful.
When I talk (about being formerly incarcerated), especially to an audience who isn’t aware of me, they say, ‘Wow, I had no idea. I would’ve thought he was a college student.’ And I say, that’s the point because we’re not a monolithic population. So it helps move the needle in terms of criminal justice reform.
QYou’ve said, we “spend too much money on police” in Oakland, but what aspects of the movement to defund the police do you think other activists aren’t considering?
AOn the issue of policing, in the ’80s and ’90s, I was here. A lot of Black and brown folks issued a call for more police. And many of them still do the same thing today, due to the violence. But because it’s something that’s becomes politicized, when activists shy away from that conversation what they don’t understand is they also distance themselves from the same group of people that they’re seeking to advocate on behalf of. It’s not that people in the community say, ‘Oh, the police are great.’ No, it’s when we talk about our alternatives, we have to flesh it out. We have to give life to these narratives. We can’t say ‘community alternatives’ because the existing system has failed us, so it’s hard for us to re-imagine anything else when the things that we do have failed us.
QHow do issues of housing and policing intersect in Oakland?
AThe first starts once again with how they approached the crack epidemic. For example, if someone’s visiting you and the police stop them and they find drugs on them, they attribute that to the person (whose name was on the lease of) the unit where they left from. So people lost their housing behind that, people who weren’t even selling drugs themselves.
The second element becomes once you have a criminal record (it becomes harder to get housing). I’m the campaign director for the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance, we passed one in Oakland and Berkeley that would no longer allow landlords, with a few limited exceptions, to even conduct criminal background checks. When people were talking about the housing crisis, what they were not talking about was ... our data and research: 73% of the people we surveyed who were unhoused in Oakland have a criminal history.
Here’s the last piece of that. Oakland today, a majority of folks who call in to City Council meetings, talking about defund OPD, are white people. How do we reconcile this? How do we reconcile that at a time where white people are calling in talking about the harm of police on Black and brown people, during the same time they’re moving in and displacing us and pushing us out? That’s real.
QHow do problems like economic struggles in your community affect you and how are they related to issues you advocate on such as over-policing?
AAs a resident, I’m still a customer. So if I’m going to this store for essential services, if that store is no longer open, it disrupts my pattern of life. It’s going to require me to go farther out of my way. And if you want to bring the police into it, so if I’m driving, every time I drive I’m always at risk of being pulled over. The data shows that twothirds of the OPD stops are Black people even though we lost 25% of our total population.
QWhat does a future Oakland look like to you?
AHere’s what a just Oakland looks like to me: In the year 2030, my youngest son will be of driving age. He will be 16 in 2030. (He would have the) ability to drive anywhere in Oakland and never have to worry about being pulled over by the police on the basis of the skin color. A just Oakland for me is my 16-year-old son, 10 years from now, when he leaves the door, he and I do not have to worry about whether or not he would be hurt or harmed that day. Being in high school 10 years from now, a just world is knowing that my son, when he becomes a sophomore in high school, that he is on a firm track for college.