Mack students react to racial profiling data in Oakland

by Luckie Lovette

McClymonds students were angered but not surprised to learn that nearly 60 percent of police stops in Oakland during 2013 were directed at African Americans.

“I feel that we shouldn’t be targeted just because the police believe that African Americans contribute to a high rate of crime, and police shouldn’t suspect us of a crime just because of our skin color,” said Selena Williams, a senior.

According to the data released by the Oakland police, Blacks are stopped and searched by Oakland police at a rate of 62 percent while they make up just 28 percent of the city’s population. The report also shows that although Blacks were more likely to be stopped, they were no more likely than any other racial group to be found with illegal drugs or weapons.

The data also show that Oakland police are more likely to arrest Blacks on suspicion of felony charges during a stop.

“To be honest, it’s pretty sad,” said Kendall Page, a senior. “They make fun of us; basically everyone is laughing at us because of the racial profiling problem.”

The report, which presents stop-and-search figures from last April through December, was ordered as part of the negotiated settlement of a civil rights lawsuit over a decade ago, which stemmed from the Riders scandal that alleged police brutality and other forms of misconduct.

“I feel it’s really racist that they are targeting black people,” said Taivion Foster, a sophomore.

Oakland Interim Police Chief Sean Went said in a letter that the figures in the report are reflective of “the situation in many U.S. cities and speaks to the need for systemic changes throughout our communities.”

“We are committed to working toward an Oakland that ensures equal opportunities, protections and successes for all,” he wrote.

John Burris, one of the civil rights attorneys who worked on the Riders case, in which  four Oakland police officers were randomly beating and detaining  Blacks in Oakland in early 2000, told reporters yesterday that he was not surprised by the findings.

“It’s disappointing, but we’ve always suspected this to be true,” he said.

“I’m hopeful the data will get analyzed in such a way that we can find out whether there’s implicit bias in law enforcement,” Burris said.

The report said that Hispanics were stopped and searched by Oakland police at a rate of 17 percent, whites at 12 percent, Asians at 6 percent.

Former McClymonds student Frenswa Raynor, 16 and African American,  was shot in the face last year by a veteran police officer  in downtown Oakland because he was thought to have been armed, but was later found out to be unarmed and innocent. Burris represented him.

Discrimination against Emo as hateful as any bias

Opinion piece by Janaya Andrews People say that we are the most dark-spirited of all “others” and treat us accordingly, as if we were invisible. The term “emo” originated as an insult. Not as an identifier. It’s an abbreviation for a type of music known as “emotive hardcore,” which has been described by some as “punk music on estrogen.” Bands like Five Finger Death Punch, Escape the Fate, Bullet for My Valentine, and Black Veil Brides created the sounds of the latest emo revival with lyrics like “You take my sanity, I’ll take the pain.” Though kids who belong to the Emo counterculture can be identified by dark clothes, piercings, and black nail polish, an Emo is more of a relationship to music and “otherness,” or being an outsider. Because we wear a lot of black and listen to unpopular music, such as rock, heavy metal, hard-core, and Scree-mo, other people assume that we are radically different; that we cut ourselves and are suicidal. “The songs are yen-y and sad, which kind of fits into the way teenagers feel,” says Rebecca “Kiki” Weingarten, M.Sc.Ed, MFA, Parenting Coach and Co-Founder of Daily Life Consulting.  I believe that we are the same and shouldn’t be treated differently.  Emos are like Goths, only we are a lot less “dark” and much more “Harry Potter” and like to be passionate to others.  We also try to reach out to those who are sometimes left out, just need comfort, or try to hide their crying. However, there’s been an uproar against Emos.  In Mexico there have anti-Emo rallies and Emo beat downs.  In England, police in Manchester now label attacks aginst Goths, Emos, punks and metallers as “hate crimes.” The move was a response to the 2007 killing of Sophie Lancaster was attacked by a mob for being a Goth. Only 20, she and her boyfriend were brutally beaten as they walked home. In Iraq, there was a string of homicides last March against Iraqi teenage boys who dressed in a Westernized emo style. In February 2012, the Baghdad Morality Police published a statement criticizing emo teens for wearing “strange, tight clothes with pictures of skulls on them,” and “rings in their noses and tongues.” The statement condemned emo as Satanic. In my opinion,  we  are all not to  be  disliked  for  who  we  are  but  to  be loved  inside  and  out.  So, please stop the snide remarks about Emos.  Aren’t we more tolerant here at McClymonds and in Oakland, California?