Alameda County Grand Jury Report Cites Probate Conservatorship Cries Out for Reform By Tanya Dennis
Last week, the Alameda County Grand Jury released Probate Advocate Venus Gist its final report on the Alamsays “Alameda County needs eda County Probate Court and a radical transformation in the found numerous deficiencies way legal defense services are that have been criticized by probate reform groups for deprovided.”
cades. The Grand Jury found that: • Probate Court staff is severely overworked and understaffed. • The Public Defender’s office has no monitoring system to ascertain the service it renders to beneficiaries to assure their needs are addressed. • Guardians are not provided
formal training. • There is no formal grievance process. • Beneficiaries who are poor do not get the same level of service as those with means. • Involuntary conservatorship can drain estates quickly because of lack of oversight. The Grand Jury report has given hope to probate reform
advocates, who have been protesting these deficiencies for years with little or no success. Spectrum Institute has been calling for Probate Court reform for eight years, especially in regard to beneficiaries with disabilities. “The report of the Grand Jury sends a signal to the Alameda County Board of Su-
pervisors that the status quo of unnecessary and overreaching conservatorships must end,” said Spectrum Institute Director Tom Coleman. “In terms of the responsibility to stop conservatorship abuses, the buck stops with the Board of Supervisors.’ Continued on Page 10
Oakland Post “Where there is no vision, the people perish...” Proverbs 29:18
59th Year, No. 6
Weekly Edition. Edition. July 27-Aug. 2, 2022
postnewsgroup.com
13-Year-Old Girl Becomes Youngest Person Accepted into Medical School
Greg Hodge
Rethinking Our Safety Commentary By Greg Hodge
When National Night Out began 38 years ago, the organizers hoped to promote police-community partnerships in efforts to make neighborhoods safer. Coming up on Aug. 2, the event will bring Oaklanders together who long for camaraderie and connections. Needless to say, in some communities — especially those comprised of folks of color — past and ongoing harm from policing continues to erode trust. Its origins as Indian constables, slave patrols, abuses of power, and subsequent failure to acknowledge such abuse may make it difficult for some to build meaningful cooperation. The state-sponsored violence that killed George Floyd in 2020 and countless others is still too longstanding and fresh in our collective memories to ignore. Like many things, we have reshaped the original purpose of National Night Out to serve our needs. For some, the event is an opportunity to connect with neighbors alongside those charged with protecting and serving us. Getting past the Continued on Page 10
Alena Analeigh Wicker. Girls United photo. From Black Doctor.org
Getting into medical school is no small feat, but imagine doing it at just 13 years old. While most 13-year-olds are heading to high school, Alena Analeigh Wicker has made history by becoming the young-
est Black person — and the youngest person ever — to get accepted into medical school. “Today I’m just grateful. I graduated high school last year at 12 years old and here I am one year later I’ve been accepted into Med School at 13,” Wicker wrote on Instagram last
week. “Statistics would have said I never would have made it. A little Black girl adopted from Fontana, California. I’ve worked so hard to reach my goals and live my dreams.” She received an early acContinued on Page 10
Black Lives Don’t Matter to the Oakland City Council By Elaine Brown, Former Black Panther leader
One minute ago, “Black Lives Mattered” to Oaklanders. Now we’ve fallen back into the comfort of not worrying about black people at all. Tuesday’s debacle at the City Council meeting demonstrated that. Here was Rebecca Kaplan stating that the issue of racism against Blacks in the City’s contracting policies and practices exposed by the 2019 Race and Gender Disparity Study were not the point of the item recommending a language change in the contractor compliance order before them. Yet racism involving Blacks
Opinion
Elaine Brown
was the point! The study revealed and documented that only Black contractors have been discrim-
inated against by the contracting policies and practices of the City of Oakland. The proposed language change would minimally alleviate this discrimination. But Kaplan’s motion dominated the matter and advised the Council that the issue was “local” contracting — as if there were enough Blacks left in Oakland to constitute a significant “local” population, the Black population having been reduced to only 23% of Oakland. What was so galling was that those who opportunistically aligned themselves with Kaplan’s alternate proposal, and were ignorant of the proContinued on Page 10
With Hopes of Settlement Appearing to Be Over, Coal is Back on the Table in Oakland Will Coal Trains ‘reign supreme’ again through West Oakland? By Paul Cobb
The battle over coal in Oakland rages on, with the developer of the Oversize Bulk Commodity Terminal — slated for construction at the former Oakland Army Base — announcing their plans to reopen litigation due the City’s failure to respond to settlement negotiations. There was much fanfare in February when Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker declared in a press release on Feb. 2, 2022, “having agreed to
Opinion
the key terms of the settlement framework, the parties will immediately proceed to craft the terms of a settlement agreement …” Mayor Libby Schaaf double downed the next day by announcing “the fight against coal in Oakland has been won,” in her Feb. 3, Weekly Newsletter. But, the developer, Insight Terminal Solutions, told the court on July 13, 2022, that “by April 18, 2022, they had prepared and circulated a draft settlement agreement for review
Type of coal stove used in west oakland homes during WWII.
and comment by the city,” but that the city never responded in good faith. On July 27, Parker responded by restating “that the City of
Oakland agrees to a settlement framework to resolve lawsuits regarding the 66-year ground lease of the West Gateway of the Former Oakland Army Base for a Bulk Commodity Terminal,” This is the same statement she made in a February press release. The problem then and now according to the developer is that the city has not actually engaged in good faith efforts to settle. That is why the developer’s announced that they have restarted legal proceedings and withdrawn from settlement discussions. Continued on Page 10
Wilson Riles was 73 years old when he was brutally arrested by Oakland police in 2019.
Wilson Riles Jr., Former City Council Member, Settles Police Brutality Lawsuit for $360,000 By Ken Epstein
The Oakland City Council has approved a $360,000 settlement with former City Councilmember Wilson Riles Jr., who filed a lawsuit alleging that the city and Oakland Police Department violated his civil rights for throwing him facedown to the ground and arresting him when he went to a city office to complain about a zoning issue. A City Councilmember from 1979 to 1992, Riles was 73 when the incident occurred in 2019. He filed a federal lawsuit in 2020, represented by Oakland civil rights attorney Walter Riley.
Riles was arrested at the city’s Zoning Department as he expressed his frustration about the ongoing obstacles thrown in his path in a years-long dispute with staff of the city’s Planning Department over the use of a sweat lodge to conduct Native American ceremonies in the backyard of the house where he and his wife live in Oakland. He said the arrest occurred after he told a Zoning Department employee that the building permit they wanted and other requirements they were demanding of him were not part of the building code. He Continued on Page 10
Blocking Change: City Council Ended the Emerald New Deal By Richard Johnson
When the city council voted to end the hopes of the Emerald New Deal (END), which was designed to use some of the massive legal cannabis profits to give hope and a new beginning of support for many of those who were imprisoned for using cannabis when it was considered illegal, it became clear that some backdoor shenanigans have once again darkened the progression of bringing growth, prosperity, and new developments to the formerly incarcerated population. This obvious gut punch clearly demonstrates that most of the City council members lack the fortitude to side with those returning home from prison. Some of our elected officials are following an old pattern of political doublespeak by saying the right things about what
Opinion
Richard Johnson
needs to be done, but doing the opposite when it comes time to vote for a solution. This unreliable behavior was revealed when they ended the Emerald New Deal Plan (END). Ironically in the middle of election year politics where there is a constant scramble by Continued on Page 10