By John Lindsay-Poland, American Friends Service Committee
Please join advocates on Tuesday October 29 at 10:00 am and give a two-minute public comment to ban scattershot weapons, and to change authorized uses for projectile weapons to better protect our community.
In person:
Board of Supervisors Chambers, 5th floor
County Administration Building
1221 Oak Street, Oakland, CA 94612
NOTE: there is a security screen (x-ray) to enter the building
Via zoom:
For more information see https://afsc.org/scattershot/acso
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Debates over policing often focus, as they should, on the local department, such as Berkeley PD. But county and state law enforcement play a huge role in our communities. California Highway Patrol (CHP) troopers operate in local jurisdictions, as they did early this year when UC police brought them in to Berkeley to clear People’s Park. County sheriff deputies, for their part, run the jail where anyone arrested is taken, in addition to conducting evictions and patrolling unincorporated areas.
Later this month, at a Board of Supervisors hearing on October 29, people in Berkeley and across the County have a chance to argue for limiting dangerous weaponry used by sheriff’s deputies in the jail and around Alameda County.
Militarizing Campuses
In September, the University of California Board of Regents approved the UC Police Department’s acquisition of new militarized weaponry and policy for military equipment, despite warnings raised by multiple public commenters of the dangers posed by the policy proposed for use of these weapons. State law AB 481 requires the Board of Regents to assess whether use policies for the UC Police Department’s military equipment would safeguard civil liberties. But the University of California has created a back door to evade state law by calling in CHP officers to campus protests.
Back in May, CHP officers violated state laws on use of force when they used flashbangs, projectiles, and chemical agents at a UCLA protest against the war in Gaza.
State law AB48 limits the uses of these weapons in crowd control to target only violent individuals in “objectively dangerous situations” and only after officers have attempted de-escalation, allowed egress, announced their use, never in response to noncompliance with a law enforcement directive, and never aimed at the head, neck, or other vital organs.
CHP officers at UCLA can be seen on news footage firing into a group at UCLA and reportedly hit at least five protesters in the head and one other in the chest.
Back in May, CHP officers violated state laws on use of force when they used flashbangs, projectiles, and chemical agents at a UCLA protest against the war in Gaza. State law AB48 limits the uses of these weapons in crowd control to target only violent individuals in “objectively dangerous situations” and only after officers have attempted de-escalation, allowed egress, announced their use, never in response to noncompliance with a law enforcement directive, and never aimed at the head, neck, or other vital organs. CHP officers at UCLA can be seen on news footage firing into a group at UCLA and reportedly hit at least five protesters in the head and one other in the chest.
Moreover, these weapons can only be used by law enforcement agencies that have published use policies for them. Yet, CHP has no published policies for these weapons, flaunting AB481’s requirements.
Because the use was on a UC campus, it should be governed by UCPD’s AB 481 policy, which applies to equipment used by any law enforcement agency called in to a UC campus. CHP has also been called by UCPD to deploy at UC’s Berkeley and Santa Cruz protests this year.
In a letter to UC regents on October 8, the Muslim Public Affairs Council and other organizations called on the regents to suspend its approval to acquire militarized weapons for UC police and to initiative a comprehensive review of campus security policies.
County Sheriffs: Some change, but still dangerous weapons in the arsenal
The Alameda County Sheriff’s Office has hundreds of “less lethal” scattershot munitions that disperse in multiple directions upon firing or detonating.
Last year, dozens of community activists spoke out against the sheriff’s use of these weapons.
The Sheriff has responded by phasing out some models of scattershot munitions, and did not use them during the last year.
According to its report, it did not use “less lethal” projectiles at all in Santa Rita Jail, and is reviewing policy for force in the jail. We applaud this move to phase out some of these dangerous munitions and an apparent suspension of their use.
Nevertheless, the Sheriff’s Office proposes to keep more than 600 scattershot munitions in its arsenal, including over 200 “Stingerballs” that deliver 25 rubber pellets, bright light, and loud noise in each round. It should get rid of all of them.
Physicians for Human Rights and the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture have called for banning use of these weapons by law enforcement, because they are indiscriminate and dangerous, and 23 Alameda County groups urge the sheriff’s office to remove them from its inventory. According to a report by Amnesty International and Omega Institute: “Munitions containing, or devices firing, multiple [kinetic impact projectiles] are inherently inaccurate, they cannot be targeted only to an individual engaged in violence and will cause unwarranted injury, and therefore have no legitimate law enforcement use and must be prohibited.” The Sheriff can use time and space in the jail to de-escalate, and also has thousands of single projectile munitions at its disposal.
Santa Rita Jail houses some 1,575 adults, more than 90% of whom are men, while nearly half are African American. More than one in five of those incarcerated there have been diagnosed with a serious mental illness, and a third with a substance use disorder.
The Sheriff’s policy for “less lethal” weapons allows the use of indiscriminate and terrifying “Stinger balls” to “control noncompliant persons”. If a prisoner refuses to leave or enter their cell (for fear of a cellmate or other reasons), or if someone in the community doesn’t comply with a deputy’s directive, deputies are authorized by the policy to fire projectiles at them. This broad policy would also apply to two thousand additional projectiles with pepper spray-like contents that the sheriff proposes to acquire. Deputies should not be authorized to fire weapons at people just to obtain compliance.
Please join us to speak out, in person at 1221 Oak Street, 5th floor, in Oakland or remotely, on October 29 at 10:00 am, when the Sheriff comes before the County supervisors. Supervisors will decide whether to request amendments to the military equipment policy or forward it to the full Board. For more information, contact the American Friends Service Committee, jlindsay-poland@afsc.org. More information, talking points and links are at: https://afsc.org/scattershot/acso.
