Last night, the Berkeley City Council voted to postpone for two weeks consideration of three items introduced by Councilmember Jesse Arreguin in response to the police response during last December’s protests, despite the fact that students and members of the community had been waiting for eight hours over two separate council meetings to speak on these items. I am extremely disappointed in the Berkeley City Council for once again refusing to address police brutality. The City Council impeded students from voicing their opinions to them on this matter on multiple occasions: the Mayor unilaterally canceled the meeting following the protests; a majority of the City Council voted to delay a special meeting until January 17, ostensibly in order to allow students to speak, despite the fact that the students would not be back from Winter Break for that meeting; and, the Mayor brought up agenda items out-of-order, which further delayed consideration of these items. As a result of the City Council’s latest delay, it will now be more than two months since the Berkeley Police Department’s unwarranted use of force on December 6 before a single introduced item has been discussed, let alone voted on.

My Office supports the three items introduced by Councilmember Arreguin. The first item endorses the National Demands of Ferguson Action, such as the demilitarization of the police and eliminating the use of military technology and equipment. The second item would refer amendments to the Berkeley Police Department’s general orders on crowd control, use-of-force, and mutual aid based on common-sense changes made to the Oakland and San Francisco PD’s general orders after events such as Occupy Oakland to the City Manager and the Police Review Commission. It would also implement a temporary moratorium on the use of crowd control techniques, such as the use of rubber bullets and tear gas, until after the Police Review Commission presents amendments and conducts an independent investigation. The third item would direct the Police Review Commission to conduct an independent investigation of BPD’s response to the December protests.

At the next City Council meeting, the Berkeley City Council must take-up and vote for these items. Any attempts to further delay or water-down these measures would represent another sign of disrespect to students, particularly students of color who are overwhelmingly affected by police brutality. My Office will continue organizing to bring students to City Council meetings to demand the Berkeley City Council implement immediate and substantive reforms to protect students and other residents of Berkeley who are practicing their First Amendment rights