Someone asked me to share a thread about @AlamedaPD, so here's a brief and incomplete history of the Alameda Police and the residents who love them

#alamedahistory
For context: It’s critical to remember the racist origins of policing and their historic function of protecting property and whiteness.

In Alameda, (traditionally white) residents use the police to contain and expel who they want–often relating the home.
Alameda’s Police force emerged sometime in the 1800s. We know during this era there was wide spread racism against Black, Indigenous and Asian Americans–particularly Chinese–in California.

Alameda is no exception. https://twitter.com/Rasheed_Shabazz/status/573319698080636929
Chinese Americans experienced xenophobia and overpolicing for their alleged "opium dens" near Park St.

The editors of a local newspaper wrote, "These people have for 25 years been with us but not of us."

/ https://alamedamuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Imelda_smallpics_4printing.pdf
When i started my research on African Americans and Housing in Alameda 10 years ago, this was one of the first articles i came across.

The history of protecting white men's property–whether homes or white women–is long and deadly. The fear of the "negro burglar" continues.
In 1910, white residents on the East End organized to keep Black people out for fear our presence would lower property values.

Today, the house where this "protest" was held has a #BlackLivesMatter sign.

I don't know if any actual Black folks live on that block.
We also know the long history of the police and labor. In 1937, police suppressed striking warehouse workers.

Always be mindful of the media framing. For example, why are the officers' lives given precedence when more workers were hospitalized?

Source: @ajc
With World War II brought an influx of migrants to Alameda.

Marilyn Johnson's, "The Second Gold Rush" discusses boomtown policing, and how "old-timers" blamed migrants for "public indecency" and local ills. Cities used local ordinances, taxes, and policing to "restore order."
The Alameda-Times Star wrote, "A threat of another disaster on the homefront–a wave of shocking, indecent public behavior–has risen and is fitting that the Civilian Defense Corps, organized to keep the home front safe, should be called out to meet it."
In the 1950s and 1960s, to address "juvenile delinquency", the Alameda Police began providing "recreational" activities for youth, including sponsoring baseball teams.

Sponsoring some youth activities seemed to provide a means of surveillance of migrant youth.
When Black residents protested evictions from the Estuary Housing Projects in 1966, it was the Alameda Police that protesters feared would suppress their action at Franklin Park.

Word to #MabelTatum https://twitter.com/Rasheed_Shabazz/status/526883774999457792
But the history (and reputation) of the Alameda Police stems from the 1980s.

Police racially profiled and brutalized residents. This 1980 lawsuit demonstrates the danger of the presence of police.
At yesterday's #Justice4MarioG press conference, @george_galvis laid out some of the history of Alameda Police in the 1990s.

Plenty of racist cops are still drawing a pension today, and have not been held accountable for their actions. https://twitter.com/APTPaction/status/1387147812253560834?s=20
"Ain't it great to be a honky?"

In October 1991, an audit of the cop car terminals found Alameda Police officers sent racist messages to each other about wearing Blackface, dressing up as KKK members during line up and going out to killer "Niggers."

h/t @laurendo for the scans
The @AlamedaNaacp picketed Alameda Police weekly to demand: the Police Chief and all officers involved be fired, an independent Investigation, Police Review Commission, training, and examining institutional racism across Alameda.

Then state lawmaker @BLeeForCongress even came.
Last year, I wrote about these 1992 demands and some parallels following the arrest of #MaliWatkins in 2020.

Most of these demands remain unfulfilled and echo what people are demanding now: oversight, training, and addressing racism. 30 YEARS LATER! https://alamedasun.com/news/watkins-arrest-reminds-alameda-things-past
Besides the similar demands, there are two other important takeaways from what happened after the Alameda Police "MDT Incident":

1. Led to various community organizing efforts, and

2. Plenty 'o White folks came to defend Alameda Police' actions and lack of consequences.
Besides the Mayors "Diversity Committee," people like Rev. Mike Yoshii and Vickie R. Smith started organizations like the Coalition of Alamedans for Racial Equality (CARE). Among other efforts, this led to "Team Diversity" which focused on racial justice efforts in schools.
White Alamedans defended Alameda Police' actions and defended them.

"Alameda is a white community with white prejudices."
From 1997-2017, we see Black people disproportionately arrested by Alameda Police for marijuana-related felonies.

But when it came time to license Cannabis Dispensaries in Alameda, the @CityofAlameda has NO equity program.
But few know about the 1998 murder of James Roberts by Alameda Police officer Sean Lynch.

Ofc. Lynch shot an unhoused man at what is now Jean Sweeney Open Space Park.

See @ACInvestigates reporting for details and how the family disputes what happened https://twitter.com/Rasheed_Shabazz/status/994619132661252098
To sew this up (for now):

Someone(s) who lived nearby called Alameda Police on #MarioGonzalez.

Even though Mario wasn't "doing anything wrong," dude's wife got scared.

Police came.
Mario got killed.
We got scarred.
And some will justify it. https://twitter.com/Rasheed_Shabazz/status/1387472099279708160
You can follow @Rasheed_Shabazz.
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