Council reviews racism in city
Effort follows police officer shooting Black man inside Walmart
SAN LEANDRO >> In the wake of a San Leandro police officer getting charged with fatally shooting a Black man inside a Walmart store, the City Council gathered for a workshop Monday to learn about racism and ways to start tackling it.
The session featured presentations from representatives of the Hayward South Alameda County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Along with the shooting inside Walmart on April 18, which sparked protests in San Leandro, the workshop came against the backdrop of national civil unrest over police interactions with Black people, especially since the death of George Floyd by a police officer on May 25 in Minneapolis.
San Leandro officials also are setting up a task force to review the city’s budget, which could recommend shifting money from the police. In June, the council decided to pull $1.7 million from the police budget of $40 million this fiscal year and possibly move it toward social services.
“I think this falls under the umbrella of something we have talked a lot about this year, which is leading us into this hard conversation that these times call for,” City Manager Jeff Kay said during Monday’s workshop. “I think this is an important step toward that.”
During the event, council members heard presentations and watched videos on identifying racism, as well as on the history of slavery and segregation.
“When I think about racism, it’s not something
I have to ponder,” said Alanda Johnson, communications manager of the NAACP chapter. “It’s not a definition I have to look up.
It’s something that I have experienced first-hand.”
Growing up in the Dublin-Pleasanton-Livermore area, Johnson said she routinely had racial epithets hurled toward her.
She pointed to a handwritten letter posted in public in May in San Leandro, claiming to be a new United States constitution. The note urged people not born in this country to “return, go back to your land immediately, fast and urgently.”
It was one of several handwritten notes left in the Heron Bay neighborhood.
“This is what some people are experiencing,” she said.
A photo of one note, and a doorbell-camera photo of a woman in a U.S.A.-logo beanie and large sunglasses, were shared on social media, with former San Leandro mayor Stephen Cassidy tweeting that he’d sent the images to the police chief and mayor and asked “that an investigation be undertaken of the perpetrator for committing a hate crime.”
Police arrested a 52-yearold woman following the incidents, A second council workshop will take place Oct. 12, when it will hear recommendations on possible city policy changes. “We are really in an important historical moment,” Councilwoman Corina Lopez said. “There is something very important happening in this country right now.” On Sept. 8, the council unanimously adopted a resolution condemning white nationalist and white supremacist hate groups and declaring support for classifying the Ku Klux Klan as a domestic terrorist organization under federal law. Just a day after Monday’s workshop, San Leandro police Officer Jason Fletcher, 49, became the first officer in more than a decade to face formal charges in the death of a civilian while on duty; the last one was BART Officer Johannes Mehserle, who shot and killed Oscar Grant, a Black man, on New Year’s Day 2009. Fletcher is accused of shooting and killing Steven Taylor, 33, who was also Black, inside the Walmart store at 15555 Hesperian Blvd. Police had received a call that Taylor was brandishing a baseball bat and appeared threatening to customers. Fletcher faces a voluntary manslaughter charge.
During a protest Monday night, words were projected onto the front of the San Leandro police station that read “Convict Officer Fletcher” and “#Justice4StevenTaylor.”
Also on Monday, the San Leandro Police Officers’ Association released a statement offering condolences to Taylor’s family, but saying the charges against Fletcher were politically motivated.
“Although (Alameda County) District Attorney Nancy O’Malley has charged Officer Fletcher with voluntary manslaughter, we are steadfast in our belief that this charge is politically motivated and legally deficient,” the statement said.
At the workshop, Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter called for public engagement.
“What I personally believe is that as we are trying to make these changes, we need to give the community an opportunity to come along with us,” Cutter said.