San Jose Mayor Reed Doesn't Care About Black and Brown People
Limiting the Independent Police Auditor Shows True Position by City Officials
Story by Ali Rahnoma

It's been a week since the dust from our shoes has been wiped clean and families from across San Jose marched to the front steps of City Hall demanding real police accountability and a ban on tasers. Curiously peeking through the glass doors of a city council meeting, we tried to imagine what it might feel like to sit on the shoulders of a city deemed as one of the safest in the United States. However, no legs are strong enough to up hold the little bubble that the mayor and his city council operate in. The gap between the cities claim to fame and the realities of people in San Jose is unbridgeable, even with mightiest of leaps.

Since last Tuesday's humble demand we've seen the decision makers roll the dice. Snake eyes! The Internal Police Auditor (IPA) Barabara Attard, one of the only hopes that the community of San Jose has had in holding the Police Department accountable was twiddled down to a mere thread at a recent city council meeting. Attard made a motion last month to allow taser related deaths to be reviewed and investigated in the same manner as shooting related deaths would be. Her attempt to show the city that tasers are lethal and “in custody deaths” have stayed the same since the inception of the new weapon was one of the boldest moves made on the subject by a city official; a move that also cried out “Okay, City Council and Mayor sir. This is your house and I will play by your rules.”

With pressure from families who have lost loved ones to police violence, and the support of community members, including organizations such as Silicon Valley De-Bug and the Coalition for Justice and Accountability, the new policy had the potential to be new harbinger of justice by granting greater oversight to the auditor. Chuck Reed and the City Council thought otherwise when they voted it down. I can still hear their high fives in their locker rooms.

To add insult to injury (almost literally), on Tuesday Chuck and friends passed their own version of the bill. A 10-1 vote left the auditor as mere shadow of its former self. The IPA would have to wait for citizen complaints before investigating “in custody deaths.” On certain cases she will not be able to investigate at all, but just sit in a chair and make policy recommendations.

Chuck's stance on protecting his beloved Police department and the City's reputation was made clear this week again in a shocking decision to deny the release of detailed arrest reports, including ones that deal with tasers. Shocking (that's no pun) because the mayors platform for his candidacy was open governance and transparency -- more reason that the mayor is a farce and out of touch with the real needs of the city (It should be noted that these reports are commonly made public in other large cities such as Detroit).

With a recent confirmed report by the Mercury News about allegations of racial profiling by the San Jose Police Department, and the added concerns of South Bay club goers, a release of detailed arrest statistics is owed to San Jose. A minuscule action that will probably only serve to confirm what Black and Brown (and poor folks) people already know -- that San Jose's cops are out of control and the mayor does not care.

San Jose needs to continue the movement that families and victims of police violence have started. Chuck and friends are on the defensive, and preserving San Jose's stock value is coming at a price that families cannot afford. The city council is protecting its little bubble by tightening their feeble grip as seen in Chucky's power grab -- a political move to control the agenda and assure authority over population that no longer wants to be trapped in the Mayor's false reality. At the end of this game their bubble will pop. And right now, we see their legs trembling.