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I see a lot of folks saying that calls for "police accountability" (rather than massive restructuring of funding, shrinking departments, etc.) should be sufficient to address police brutality. I gotta tell you, that's not going to work. I'm from Oakland; we know better.
Oakland set up its first police review board (The Citizens' Police Review Board) in 1980 to address misconduct; in the 90s, this was expanded to cover use of force and bias. It... didn't work. In 2000, OPD settled a lawsuit for gross misconduct (google Allen v City of Oakland.
It cost the city ~$11m in damages, and exposed systemic corruption in an OPD that had (in theory) been under independent oversight for 20 years; the lawsuit included a civil rights judgment against the OPD for reform, which (20 *more* years later) has still not been satisfied.
When I say "they didn't fix it," I'm understating things. In 2016, there was a coverup involving OPD officers sexually abusing an underaged girl; the then-OPD-chief resigned for his role in that coverup. Since 2016, we've had at least a half-dozen chiefs, though I've lost count.
Anyway, following the Allen lawsuit, the city had *two* independent monitors; they had the CPRB and an independently appointed team created under the consent decree. Neither has stopped police brutality in the department, as we can see in the short catalogue of major incidents.
We also had two massive, multi-complaintant lawsuits against the department (one w/ serial sexual assault of Asian women; one w/ officers making false statements to get warrants). Independent estimates suggest from '01-'11, misconduct payouts: $57m. https://web.archive.org/web/20140802014527/http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/investigation-reveals-east-bay-city-paying-out-ext/nFdWy/
And, again, keep in mind that all of this happened *while* there was a CPRB. What happened to that CPRB? Well, it was disbanded in 2017 and was replaced by the *Community* Police Review *Agency*, or CPRA. Just like the name, that hasn't really changed anything.
The CPRA has also lost recent legal actions that would in theory allow it to engage in more oversight (actions brought by *gasp* the police union). This was in relation to *another* instance when officers conducted an illegal search, then lied about it. https://theappeal.org/oakland-police-conducted-an-illegal-search-and-then-lied-about-it-but-they-may-be-spared-from-discipline/
So, I'm 30. Oakland has had civilian oversight of its police service for 40 years. And yet, I grew up in a city where my friends got harassed and beat, routinely searched illegally, sexually harassed and assaulted, and prextually arrested. And during protests, they got gassed.
I'm an upper-middle class white guy raised by attorneys. I'm not in danger of getting my face smashed in by cops, or those cops breaking into my house illegally, or sexually assaulting me. But the city has had 40 years of this, and this is still where we are.
So, yeah. Cut their goddamn budget; they're using that budget to displace homeless moms, a situation that in no possible world should be handled by a police force with that track record of corruption, misconduct, abuse, and sexual violence. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/15/oakland-moms-evicted/
And no, just instituting civilian oversight isn't going to solve your problems, in other cities. Trust me on this one; I've seen it up close for literally my entire life.
Also, we're pretty likely to lose our current Interim Police Chief, a wild incompetent who brought the "not all Hawaiian shirts" defense out recently, despite (a) the officer wearing the shirt to *a raid* and (b) an actual Boogaloo homocide in NorCal. https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/lifestyle-buzz/hawaiian-shirt-wearing-extremists-in-oakland-pd-not-so-fast-says-city-e2-80-99s-police-chief/ar-BB18S6LU
