The numerous police killings of black citizens around the country in recent years

have made us take a hard look at police brutality against black communities but law enforcement in Oakland has a particularly alarming history.

Between 2000 and 2016, police officers in Oakland have killed 90 people, three

quarters of whom were black. Victims include 23-year-old Richard Linyard, who was killed after fleeing police at a traffic stop and 30-year-old Demouria Hogg, who was shot and killed by police after they found him unconscious in a car with a pistol.

To put Oakland’s particular law enforcement history in perspective, the number of

black deaths at the hands of police officers in Oakland was larger than in Los

Angeles, which is 10 times its size. Moreover, the percentage of black people killed in Oakland by police was larger than in cities with similar black populations, such as New York City and Boston.

It’s not just brutality, but scandal and corruption, too, have plagued the Oakland

Police Department for years, starting with a group of four admired veterans, called

“The Riders,” who were accused of beating, robbing and framing suspects in West

Oakland in 2000 to the 2016 firing of seven police officers for engaging in lewd and

racist conduct that gained national attention.

Earlier this month we saw our City Council pass a budget that continues to invest in a policing system that has not protected and, in many cases, jeopardized the safety of our neighbors.

Study after study shows that a living wage, access to health care and fully-funded

education programs are linked to communities that support all of us. Oakland’s

lawmakers ignored calls from the community when they passed the budget, which

allocates $243 million – or $594 per resident – on policing this year.

My colleagues at the Center for Popular Democracy, along with Law for Black Lives

and Black Youth Project 100, analyzed budgets in 12 jurisdictions — mostly cities, some counties — and interviewed dozens of community organizations.

Most of the cities we profiled devote 25 percent to 40 percent of their general fund

expenditures toward policing and criminalization, while shortchanging community

investments.

Of the cities profiled in our report, Freedom to Thrive: Reimagining Safety and

Security in Our Communities, Oakland spends the highest percentage of its general fund expenditures on policing at 41 percent.

For every dollar spent on the Oakland Police Department, the entire Human Services Department, which includes support for violence prevention programs, services for children and youth, and housing and income support, received 29 cents. Workforce development received 2 cents for every dollar spent on the police.

We often call attention to the lack of investment in and held by black communities.

The truth is there is investment going into black communities but it’s going into

criminalizing and incarcerating its members, not in sustaining them.

Safety has long been presented inside a system of policing and incarceration.

Moving beyond that requires a belief in the possibility of community-owned safety. In our report, community organizations called for more money for infrastructure, job

training and placement, affordable housing, drug rehabilitation, educational support, youth programs and jobs, health care and mental health services.

If we believe that budgets are moral documents that highlight our priorities,

Oakland’s budget tells a story of how it views and treats its black residents, since we know they are the most affected by discriminatory policing and under-investing in the community.

Resourcing punitive systems do not contribute to our safety but having the freedom

to dream and thrive together brings us closer to living up to the values that we say

we hold.

Tracey Corder is Racial Justice Campaign Director at the Center for Popular

Democracy. Corder is based in Oakland.