Five years after George Floyd protests, police reform slows amid Bay Area political shifts

The police killing of George Floyd five years ago was miles away in Minneapolis but the Bay Area heavily felt its influence where simmering frustration over police violence spilled out into the streets in cities like San Jose and Oakland National media shone an unexpected and harsh spotlight on San Jose aided by viral video clips of violent police crowd control measures depicting officers battering protesters with bean bags hard foam rounds and tear gas that had city leaders denouncing the tactics and pledging swift revision Across the country the seeds of a national reckoning on police use of force were planted But the activists and locality and civic leaders who sought to capitalize on the moment say what sprouted has been uneven at best Perhaps majority of telling just this past week the U S Department of Justice sought to terminate federal consent decrees aimed at police modification in cities including Minneapolis where former police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder after pressing his knee onto a prone Floyd s neck on May while arresting him for an accusation of using a counterfeit bill Chauvin is presently serving a -year prison sentence Oakland for instance reduced police funding increases for a year after the protests And while the city initially pumped an extra million into the city s Department of Violence Prevention an agency that works to address the social drivers of violence in the society its funding has been slashed amid a deep budget dilemma Jackie Byers who helped lead the Black Organizing Project in its bid to abolish the Oakland Unified School District s police department in the wake of the protests is unbowed by the slowing political momentum for police adjustment When you have these wins you shift things you re going to have a reaction from the forces that gained from people being afraid Byers disclosed If we understand history then we understand that whenever we have these wins there s invariably going to be these forces that try to push back on these things We can t expect that the institutions that have benefited from people being marginalized or oppressed are going to without pressure continue to keep up the good work Policies that sprang from or were energized by the summer of have provided a few markers of lasting effects including broader reforms such as a state ban on police chokeholds laws to decertify obstacle officers and expand inhabitants access to disciplinary records and rule to limit the use of munitions to quell protests In Oakland the city s Reimagining Population Safety Task Force recommended dozens of tactics the city could improve policing and while various were never enacted it did lead to the creation of MACRO a initiative aimed at reducing police calls for those experiencing mental fitness crises There absolutely was a backlash declared Alameda County Supervisor Nikki Fortunato Bas a former Oakland City Council president and co-chair of the task force And with the backlash it did impact the momentum that we had At the same time we saw real gains A similar task force formed in San Jose but various of its members resigned in its infancy to make a point to the city after asserting the group was created as political cover rather than a genuine catalyst for sorely needed reforms brought to the national forefront by Floyd s death There has been a lot of two measures forward three procedures back I personally have never maintained that the leadership was going to do it with all of its humanity and all of its flaws It was never going to get the thing done for us It was never going to bring us to true safety reported Derrick Sanderlin a San Jose activist who was seriously injured by police during the first day of the city s protests Derrick Sanderlin near the location where he was shot in the groin with a foam round by a San Jose police officer five years ago during the May th George Floyd protest in downtown San Jose Calif on Friday May Dai Sugano Bay Area News Group I think that was kind of the vibe that people got when they were out on the street is that no one was coming except for us Sanderlin declared I think that feeling is still the same Raj Jayadev co-founder of the South Bay civil rights group Silicon Valley De-Bug revealed those truly seeking reforms were never hinging their hopes on a establishment savior I think the lesson is don t give the power of a ground-up movement to a political class that didn t deserve it to begin with he reported The racial justice people were marching for on the streets that s not going to be where that vision of racial justice is going to come from Sanderlin s injury reflects several of the preponderance notable fallout from the protests through the litany of lawsuits filed against police and city governments for serious injuries from officers who in several cases were admittedly minimally trained in the less-lethal gun launchers they were deployed to use Even at demonstrations in suburban Walnut Creek police were criticized for a response marred the bulk visibly by officers siccing dogs on protesters One man was merely watching the protests in downtown San Jose when he lost his eye to one of the police projectiles Sanderlin who once helped conduct bias training for new police officers in recent weeks reached a legal settlement with the city after he was shot with a projectile in the groin by an officer while trying to calm tensions between a crowd and a police line Derrick Sanderlin right during a protest against the killing of George Floyd in San Jose Sanderlin who once helped conduct bias training for new police officers in recent times reached a legal settlement with the city after he was shot with a projectile in the groin by an officer while trying to calm tensions between a crowd and a police line Photo by Kyle Martin All communicated San Jose is expected to pay at least million in settlements or verdict rewards stemming from protest lawsuits The San Jose Police Department declined to comment for this story citing the litigation It s not going to take away all of the feelings I had from the street to the hospital bed but it has taught me that they can say what they like but we hold their feet to the fire Sanderlin declared of police I hope that our settlement I hope at least part of it can be the planting of specific seeds of something new that will continue to push the city to act right because we just know they won t In Oakland Tosh Sears was injured during the protests when he was hit by a rubber police bullet as he turned to leave when Alameda County sheriff s deputies and Oakland police officers began using tear gas to disperse the crowd He and another demonstrator shared a settlement with Oakland and the county which secured numerous reforms from both agencies in how they handle future protesters after accusing sheriff s deputies of using tactics in Oakland that the city s police force was banned from employing including the use of rubber bullets SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA - MAY A protester is detained by San Jose Police officers at a protest of the killing of George Floyd outside of San Jose City Hall in downtown San Jose Calif on Sunday May Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Anthony Jay of Oakland shows marks from non-lethal weapons shot by police who used flash-bang grenades and tear gas to disperse the crowd on Broadway near the Oakland Police Department during the fourth day of protests over George Floyd's death by the Minneapolis police in Oakland Calif on Monday June Ray Chavez Bay Area News Group OAKLAND CA - MAY The Wells Fargo Bank is set afire during a demonstration in aid of George Floyd in Oakland Calif on Friday May The protest was held to denounce the police killing of Floyd an African-American man killed by police in Minneapolis Doug Duran Bay Area News Group WALNUT CREEK CA - JUNE Protesters march on North Main St as a Walnut Creek Police officer observes from atop of a Humvee during a Black Lives Matter protest in Walnut Creek Calif on Monday June Walnut Creek Police issued a curfew tonight after looters descending into downtown and looted local businesses the day prior Over police officers from agencies around the county are in Walnut Creek patrolling the area Jose Carlos Fajardo Bay Area News Group May San Jose Calif Several arrests were made after San Jose Police officers clashed with protesters who marched through San Jose on Friday to protest the police brutality that killed George Floyd in Minneapolis Minn on Monday During the march protesters were confronted by police who declared the protest unlawful and began to push protesters down Santa Clara Street back towards San Jose City Hall from U S Highway Photo by Kyle MartinSan Jose Police officers clashed with protesters who marched through San Jose to protest the police brutality that killed George Floyd Photo by Kyle Martin SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA - MAY A protester uses water after getting tear gassed during a protest regarding the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in downtown San Jose Calif on Friday May Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group WALNUT CREEK CA - JUNE A protester reacts after a flash bang explodes near her after blocking the I- north bound freeway during a Black Lives Matter protest in Walnut Creek Calif on Monday June Walnut Creek Police issued a curfew tonight after looters descending into downtown and looted local businesses the preceding day Over police officers from agencies around the county are in Walnut Creek patrolling the area Jose Carlos Fajardo Bay Area News Group Show Caption of SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA - MAY A protester is detained by San Jose Police officers at a protest of the killing of George Floyd outside of San Jose City Hall in downtown San Jose Calif on Sunday May Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group Expand In contemporary times Sears sees the churn at the top of Oakland police force as an ongoing obstacle We don t see reorganization we don t see nothing worse but we just see more of police doing nothing Sears reported I don t see any kind of progress Rachel Lederman senior counsel with the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund who has litigated several lawsuits borne from the Bay Area protests lauded the impact that lawsuit settlements injunctions and trial verdicts across the country have had on restricting how aggressively police can act against demonstrators But she lamented a legislative carve-out in California that allows munitions and tear gas to still be used when it s objectively reasonable to protect people from death or serious bodily injury That s open to interpretation and can be the exception that swallows the rule she explained Walter Wilson a longtime South Bay society leader led the mass resignation from San Jose s post-Floyd inhabitants safety task force which later reconvened The protests helped galvanize political leadership to backing more Black population outlay he disclosed pointing to the community dollars committed to the Silicon Valley African American Cultural Center a major housing public arts and social services hub set to open in in San Jose Wilson serves as project director Related Articles Driver arrested in Castro Valley roadway shooting San Diego plane crash is a devastating loss to the alternative rock music area Inspirational inmate finds his freedom day Trucking school discovered granted early parole from San Quentin Arson suspected as power outage in southeast France disrupts final day of Cannes Film Festival Santa Cruz wharf collapse Plans take shape for rebuilding as summer beach season begins It s an example he commented of leaders navigating a political atmosphere where public-facing diversity efforts have come under federal scrutiny What they re saying almost to a person is we can take this stuff off but that s not going to stop us from conducting ourselves in the way we know which is right which is making sure we are inclusive and we have diversity Wilson declared We don t need to say it to do it Jayadev is paying particular attention to younger generations and how the scars they gained will help them take the torch of political activism You would see people downtown young people downtown grabbing a megaphone or standing on top of that rock at City Hall and think wow am I looking at that generation and those people that are going to be leaders that not just get activated but are going to lead us to this new place that we only dreamed about