2.15 20-0476 Subject: Settle The Case Of Najari Smith V. City Of Oakland
From: Office Of The City Attorney
Recommendation: Adopt A Resolution Authorizing And Directing The City Attorney To Compromise And Settle The Case Of Najari Smith V. City Of Oakland; Nigel Lawson, Individually And In His Official Capacity As Police Officer For City Of Oakland; Julian Bordona, Individually And In His Official Capacity As Police Officer For City Of Oakland; Scott Hewitt, Individually And In His Official Capacity As Police Sergeant For City Of Oakland; Craig Haney, Individually And In His Official Capacity As Police Records Specialist For City Of Oakland; And DOES 1-50, Individually And In Their Official Capacities As Police Officers For The City Of Oakland, Inclusive; United States District Court Case No. 19-CV-06527-WHO, City Attorney File No. 33166, In The Amount Of One Hundred Forty-Seven Thousand Five Hundred Dollars And No Cents ($147,500.00) (Oakland Police Department - Civil Rights/Wrongful Arrest/Racial Profiling
Victims of police violence absolutely deserve justice and compensation, but the tax payers should not be responsible for footing the bill. The officer in question should be responsible for their own misconduct and should be held accountable.
Victims of police violence absolutely deserve expedited justice & compensation for the recovery of them & their family. However, MY money, taxpayers money, should not be used to defend the officers & other employees involved. We are NOT responsible for their legal services or their pensions following such guilt. Terminate them. Charge them. The way you would any other citizen. Their position shall not be a privileged immunity to dealing with the consequences of their own actions.
This is common sense. Why are we still here?
My name is Will Brotherson and I am a Black Public Defender and a resident of District 1. I am writing to continue to urge you to reconsider the previous approval of OPD's budget and instead commit to a more substantial reduction this year, and a 50% defunding of OPD by 2022. Please reopen the budget so we can preserve funding for our youth, homelessness, jobs, and other care programs.
Since 2012, OPD has been under the direct control of a federal judge and court monitor, as part of a settlement over violence and corruption committed by OPD. The city has paid millions for the monitoring process and has had to hire numerous consultants to help.
Fewer police means less policing. Less Policing means less police misconduct. Less police misconduct means less money spent by the City on OPD.
I propose we place a Freeze on all hires until the end of fiscal year 2022.
We should also layoff 80 Officers Before July 4, 2020. We did this in 2010 in response to the financial crisis. It will work even better this time if the City sets and enforces a hard overtime cap for all officers. The scandals regarding improper overtime are widespread and well documented. This Cap and hiring freeze will save millions.
Councilmember Bas, thank you for being on the right side of history. We will remember in November, Council Members McElhaney, Gallo, Reid, Kalb, and Kaplan.
Taxpayers should NOT be responsible for settling police misconduct charges.
I fully support this victim getting their settlement for being a victim of police terror. This council needs to go further and fix the payout system.
Individual police officers and police unions need to be responsible for paying out these settlements. Victims of police terror cannot be footing the bill for more police terror! End the cycle.
While this person undeniably deserves compensation for being harassed & racially profiled by the police, the city needs to stop paying OPD's settlements for inappropriate and unlawful behavior! This money needs to come from the Police Union dues or out of these officers paychecks: Nigel Lawson (~$200k compensation in 2018), Julian Bordona (~$200k compensation in 2018), Scott Hewitt (~$300k compensation in 2018), and Craig Haney (~$100k compensation in 2018). The citizens of Oakland should NOT be paying for police misconduct - the police should be paying for their own misconduct.
I am in district 3. Defund the police while we are at it. Libby Schaff needs to be held accountable. defund completely. Start from scratch -- these piecemeal solutions are not going to lead to meaningful change. it's time to be proactive instead of reactive.
Tax payers should not be responsible for bailing out police officer’s malpractice. And their unions should not be able to pay their bail either. While they have their unions to bail them out of repercussions, they will never truly learn the consequences of their actions.
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Savener. Excellent example of why we need to rethink policing and drastically defund OPD. Why do we continue to put our precious public dollars into and behind and institution that's so fundamentally f-ed up? Isn't the City supposed to support the health and safety of it's residents instead of draining taxpayer dollars to pay for police misconduct and violence?
It's way past time for tax payers to stop being responsible for the bad acts of police officers. They need to pay for malpractice insurance out of their own pockets.
This resolution is a prime example of why we should be rethinking policing. The city and taxpayers of Oakland are now $147k poorer because a cop decided to arrest a Black man for playing music at a party and "obstructing the officers’ performance of their duties," an ultra-vague charge to be used as a one-size-fits-all method for police to send Black and Brown people to jail overnight for mouthing off. This is one of countless examples of often-racist police hostility toward the communities they are supposed to serve and protect, which now ends with our city a worse place. We must have the courage to try something else.
Victims of police violence absolutely deserve justice and compensation, but the tax payers should not be responsible for footing the bill. The officer in question should be responsible for their own misconduct and should be held accountable.
Victims of police violence absolutely deserve expedited justice & compensation for the recovery of them & their family. However, MY money, taxpayers money, should not be used to defend the officers & other employees involved. We are NOT responsible for their legal services or their pensions following such guilt. Terminate them. Charge them. The way you would any other citizen. Their position shall not be a privileged immunity to dealing with the consequences of their own actions.
This is common sense. Why are we still here?
My name is Will Brotherson and I am a Black Public Defender and a resident of District 1. I am writing to continue to urge you to reconsider the previous approval of OPD's budget and instead commit to a more substantial reduction this year, and a 50% defunding of OPD by 2022. Please reopen the budget so we can preserve funding for our youth, homelessness, jobs, and other care programs.
Since 2012, OPD has been under the direct control of a federal judge and court monitor, as part of a settlement over violence and corruption committed by OPD. The city has paid millions for the monitoring process and has had to hire numerous consultants to help.
Fewer police means less policing. Less Policing means less police misconduct. Less police misconduct means less money spent by the City on OPD.
I propose we place a Freeze on all hires until the end of fiscal year 2022.
We should also layoff 80 Officers Before July 4, 2020. We did this in 2010 in response to the financial crisis. It will work even better this time if the City sets and enforces a hard overtime cap for all officers. The scandals regarding improper overtime are widespread and well documented. This Cap and hiring freeze will save millions.
Councilmember Bas, thank you for being on the right side of history. We will remember in November, Council Members McElhaney, Gallo, Reid, Kalb, and Kaplan.
Taxpayers should NOT be responsible for settling police misconduct charges.
I fully support this victim getting their settlement for being a victim of police terror. This council needs to go further and fix the payout system.
Individual police officers and police unions need to be responsible for paying out these settlements. Victims of police terror cannot be footing the bill for more police terror! End the cycle.
While this person undeniably deserves compensation for being harassed & racially profiled by the police, the city needs to stop paying OPD's settlements for inappropriate and unlawful behavior! This money needs to come from the Police Union dues or out of these officers paychecks: Nigel Lawson (~$200k compensation in 2018), Julian Bordona (~$200k compensation in 2018), Scott Hewitt (~$300k compensation in 2018), and Craig Haney (~$100k compensation in 2018). The citizens of Oakland should NOT be paying for police misconduct - the police should be paying for their own misconduct.
I am in district 3. Defund the police while we are at it. Libby Schaff needs to be held accountable. defund completely. Start from scratch -- these piecemeal solutions are not going to lead to meaningful change. it's time to be proactive instead of reactive.
It's time to have police officers accountable for their actions, and not making the tax payers responsible. Fix the system!
Tax payers should not be responsible for bailing out police officer’s malpractice. And their unions should not be able to pay their bail either. While they have their unions to bail them out of repercussions, they will never truly learn the consequences of their actions.
I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Savener. Excellent example of why we need to rethink policing and drastically defund OPD. Why do we continue to put our precious public dollars into and behind and institution that's so fundamentally f-ed up? Isn't the City supposed to support the health and safety of it's residents instead of draining taxpayer dollars to pay for police misconduct and violence?
It's way past time for tax payers to stop being responsible for the bad acts of police officers. They need to pay for malpractice insurance out of their own pockets.
This resolution is a prime example of why we should be rethinking policing. The city and taxpayers of Oakland are now $147k poorer because a cop decided to arrest a Black man for playing music at a party and "obstructing the officers’ performance of their duties," an ultra-vague charge to be used as a one-size-fits-all method for police to send Black and Brown people to jail overnight for mouthing off. This is one of countless examples of often-racist police hostility toward the communities they are supposed to serve and protect, which now ends with our city a worse place. We must have the courage to try something else.