Oakland Post

60th Year, No. 28

Oakland in Danger of Missing Deadlines on Hundreds of Police Misconduct Cases

Mayor Thao Joins with Gov. Newsom to Expand Public Safety in Oakland

By Post Staff

The city is facing a huge backlog of police misconduct cases and is in danger of missing a mandatory oneyear state deadline for disciplining officers, according to Mac Muir, the newly hired executive director of the Community Police Review Agency (CPRA), which investigates police misconduct under the leadership of the Oakland Police Commission.

Speaking at the July 27 police commission meeting, Muir, a veteran police oversight investigator who started his job as the head of the CPRA in June, said his office is swamped with work and would have to do “triage” to prioritize its investigations to ensure the most serious misconduct cases can be resolved before they expire.

Top priority cases include use of force investigations, untruthfulness, and racial profiling cases.

While it is still unclear exactly what went wrong, CPRA over the past year has been functioning without stable leadership — the turnover of several executive directors — and now has only three of nine investigators, due to staff resignations.

“These are truly troubling issues. We’ve had several cases that have passed the 3304 deadline, which means there can be no discipline administered,” Muir said, referring to the Public Safety Officers’ Procedural Bill of Rights, the state law that governs police misconduct cases.

Bluntly sharing the sobering news, Muir said:

• Of 211 current cases of alleged police misconduct cases, 64 have no investigators, and no investigative work has yet begun on 135 of these 211 cases.

• Currently, the average time to close each case is 363 days “and rising,” according to Muir. Under state law the agency has 365 days to resolve a case if it decides on any discipline. The goal is to complete cases within 180 days.

• Some files were lost due to the recent ransomware attack on the city’s computer systems.

• Muir has not specified the number of cases that are in jeopardy but said that if the current process is not improved, as many as 300 cases would be at risk by December or January.

“If the average case time rises over 365 days, then every single case is at risk of blowing the statute of limitations,” Muir said. CPRA currently receives about three new cases

Continued on page 8

By Post Staff Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao announced this week she is partnering with Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Highway Patrol to support the city’s crime prevention efforts.

Working in collaboration with the Oakland Police Department (OPD), California Highway Patrol officers will assist in traffic enforcement along high injury corridors in Oakland. The goal is to target reckless driving, auto theft, sideshows, and highway shootings while allowing OPD officers to focus their efforts on solving violent crime.

The Office of the Governor will provide the city with $1.2 million in state funding to support the purchase and installation of automated license plate readers, which will help OPD collect evidence and solve crime.

“Strong partnerships are critical in making our city safer,” said Thao. “Our comprehensive community safety approach includes both accountability for those who commit crime as well as prevention and deterrence efforts to stop crime before it occurs.”

“I am grateful to Gov. Newsom for granting my request for additional support,” Mayor Thao said.

Family Sues Transportation Company for “Negligence” in Death of Former Berkeley Mayor Gus Newport

The mayor’s community safety and crime prevention initiatives include:

• New deployments of foot patrols and motorcycle units;

• Expansion of MACRO, civilian responders to non-violent, nonemergency calls;

• Stepped up efforts, in coordination with the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, to combat illegal sideshows;

• Funding for six new police academies for training;

• Funding for the Department of Violence Prevention to assist in its mission to deter crime and disrupt the cycle of violence;

• Working with Oakland Unified School District and community partners to improve school safety;

• Summer youth employment and other summer services, working with OUSD, to help keep young people engaged in positive activities.

“These partnerships will help improve traffic safety where it’s most needed while enabling our police department to focus resources on improved responsiveness and addressing crime,” said City Administrator Jestin Johnson.

PT-17, Tuskegee Airmen Aircraft Exchange Ceremony at Joint Base Andrews

By Ken Epstein

Family members have filed a lawsuit for negligence in the “wrongful death” of former Berkeley mayor and civil rights leader Gus Newport, 88, who died on June 17 after being gravely injured a few days earlier while a transportation company was delivering Newport from his home in Oakland to a medical appointment in San Francisco.

The lawsuit was filed against Owl Transportation, a large transportation company with branches around the country, which owned the van hired by the Veterans Administration to deliver Newport, who was in a wheelchair, from his Oakland home to the VA Medical Center in San Francisco in the early afternoon of June 12.

The lawsuit against Owl Transportation for “wrongful death, elder abuse, and personal injury” was filed on July 21 by Oakland civil rights attorney Dan Siegel on behalf of Newport’s wife and two children.

According to an email from Newport’s wife, Kathryn Kasch, “The SF Chief Medical Examiner

NAACP Calls for End to Oakland’s Public Safety Crisis

The Oakland and regional branches of the NAACP are demanding improvements in public safety from the city’s leadership and police. Issued last week, the letter and statement are published in full below.

“Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis.

“African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city. But residents from all parts of the city report that they do not feel safe.

“Women are targeted by young mobs and viciously beaten and robbed in downtown and uptown neighborhoods. Asians are assaulted in Chinatown. Street vendors are robbed in Fruitvale. News crews have their cameras stolen while they report on crime. PG&E workers are robbed and now require private security when they are out working. Everyone is in danger.

“Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who

Continued on page 8

By Conway Jones

The Collings Foundation/American Heritage Museum hosted the PT-17 Tuskegee Airmen Aircraft Exchange Ceremony at Joint Base Andrews, Hangar 3, on Wednesday, July 26.

Near Washington, D.C., the ceremony occurred on the 75th anniversary of President Harry S. Truman signing Executive Order 9980 and 9981, which ended segregation in the U.S. armed forces.

William T. Fauntroy Jr., Carl C. Johnson, and retired Lt. Col. Shelton Ivan Ware were three of the few surviving Tuskegee Airmen who were present and honored. The airmen used the aircraft for training while fighting in World War II.

“These men are the forefathers of modern history,” said Rob Collings, chief executive officer of the Collings Foundation, which is assisting in transporting the aircraft. “These gentlemen embody what is great about America, and it is an honor to have this PT-17 headed to a national museum to continue that legacy.” has determined that Gus died from a ‘blunt force head and neck injury,” that was caused by a fall in or from his wheelchair while he was in the transport van.”

Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown Jr., said during his speech that successes of the Tuskegee Airmen helped to pave the way for future leaders like himself. General Brown has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Achievements of the Tuskegee Airmen included completing 1,378 combat missions and 179 bomber escort missions that lost fewer than 25 bombers, a rare feat among missions. The airmen are also heavily decorated veterans, with 150 Distinguished Flying Crosses, 744 Air Medals, eight Purple Hearts and 14 Bronze Stars, according to the Air Force.

“This was not a natural death,” Kasch wrote. “This was a vibrant life cut short by negligence or misconduct on the part of the transport company. The family has not received any explanation from the company or the VA as to what happened and so has had no choice but to file this suit in an effort to learn the truth and get some justice for our loss.”

In an interview with the Oakland Post, Siegel said, “The whole process has been frustrating for his wife and children. The van picked him up around noon to take him to the appointment to have his hearing aid adjusted.”

Before his death, Newport had been active, cheerful and in good health, Siegel said. “Something happened, but we don’t know what yet. He fell out of the wheelchair and broke his neck and spine.”

The first case management conference in the case is scheduled for December.

Henrietta Lacks’ Family Settles Lawsuit with Biotech Company, Paving the Way for More Claims, Says Attorney Ben Crump

and COVID-19 vaccines and the world’s most common fertility treatment.

Crump has noted that other companies besides Thermo Fisher Scientific sell Lacks’ cells, and biotech companies and labs globally use them for various types of research.

The family has signaled that they also may act against those companies.

For decades, Lacks’ contributions to science remained unrecognized.

By Stacy M. Brown NNPA Newswire

Living relatives of Henrietta Lacks have reached a confidential settlement with Thermo Fisher Scientific, the multi-billion-dollar biotechnology company that has used regenerative cells taken from Lacks decades ago without her consent.

The settlement sets a precedent, potentially leading to complaints seeking compensation and control of Lacks’ cells, famously known as “HeLa” cells, the world’s first cells capable of replicating outside the human body.

Represented jointly by attorney Ben Crump, renowned for his advocacy for Black victims of police violence, and attorney Chris Seeger, known for leading significant class action lawsuits in U.S. history, the family called a news conference in Baltimore on Tuesday, August 1, which coincides with what would have been Lacks’ 103rd birthday.

“The parties are pleased that they were able to find a way to resolve this matter outside of court and will have no further comment about the settlement,” Crump and Seeger wrote in a news release.

The Lacks family’s lawsuit addressed a problem that had persisted for 70 years following the unlawful removal of Henrietta

Lacks’ cells while she was receiving cervical cancer treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The family argued that the cells rightfully belong to Lacks and that companies like Thermo Fisher Scientific should pay for using them in research and product development.

In a 2022 interview, Crump called the situation “indicative of the Black struggle for equality and respect in America.

“Because it’s a racial justice issue when you think about it in the purest form,” Crump asserted. “The children of Henry Ford, they’re able to benefit from his contributions to the world.”

Thermo Fisher Scientific, in its defense, contended that Lacks’ descendants waited too long to take legal action and that other companies worldwide also use HeLa cells without the family’s consent.

Lacks’ cancer treatment in 1951 was unsuccessful, and she tragically succumbed to the disease a few months after her diagnosis.

Following her death, researchers at Johns Hopkins discovered that the cells sampled from Lacks’ cervix could regenerate outside the human body.

They shared those groundbreaking cells, which were instrumental in developing polio

However, Maryland Democratic Rep. Kweisi Mfume and fellow Maryland Democrats U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin have introduced legislation seeking to award Lacks a Congressional Gold Medal posthumously.

The lawmakers said the goal is to ensure her contributions are honored and acknowledged for generations, as the cells she unknowingly provided continue to benefit millions worldwide.

Lacks’ story has since become a best-selling book and, in 2017, Oprah Winfrey starred in the big screen biopic, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.”

“It’s a real honor to have a family member that’s genetic makeup is that important to the world,” Lacks’ grandson, Ron Lacks, said in an earlier interview.

“When people are profiting from her, and some of my family members can’t even afford proper medical [care], you know, it’s like she’s on the auction block,” he said.

“You know, as loving as my grandmother was, she would have definitely said, ‘Well, what about her family?’”