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FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES AND PROBATIONERS!<br><br>
Join Critical Resistance and All of Us or None as we cite Jerry
Brown<br>
for harassing and scapegoating the people of Oakland.<br><br>
PLEASE JOIN US TO FIGHT BACK:<br><br>
THIS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26<br>
9:30 P.M.<br>
JERRY BROWN'S HOUSE (OLD SEAR'S BUILDING)<br>
27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND (NEAR 19TH STREET
BART)<br><br>
Want to help make POSTERS? Join us at 7:00PM at the Critical
Resistance<br>
office - 1904 FRANKLIN STREET (AT 19TH), ROOM 504.<br><br>
Jerry Brown continues to scapegoat parolees and probationers for
causing<br>
all of Oakland's problems as he plans a run for Attorney General.
His<br>
newest campaign scheme is to impose a curfew on probationers and<br>
parolees -- arresting them if they leave their house after
10pm.<br><br>
After serving time in torturous conditions, former prisoners are
faced<br>
with prejudice and discrimination that make their re-entry into
society<br>
difficult and, in some cases, impossible. Prison sentences never
end as<br>
long as the discrimination against former prisoners -- like
establishing<br>
a 10pm curfew -- continues.<br><br>
We need to join together to fight for real safety in Oakland.<br>
Scapegoating and persecuting people on probation and parole will
NOT<br>
make Oakland safe. Real safety will only come when we spend our
money<br>
and time on supporting and creating opportunities for all people, not
on<br>
harassing them.<br><br>
FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP, CALL CRITICAL RESISTANCE AT<br>
510-444-0484 or email croakland@criticalresistance.org. Or call All
of<br>
Us or None: 415-255-7036, x337.<br><br>
*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-<br>
Sitara Nieves, Organizer<br>
Critical Resistance<br>
1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504<br>
Oakland, CA 94612<br>
Phone: 510-444-0484<br>
Fax:510-444-2177<br>
<a href="http://www.criticalresistance.org/" eudora="autourl">www.criticalresistance.org<br><br>
</a>***EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY<br>
ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!****<br><br>
NEWS STORIES ABOUT THE CURFEW<br>
______________________________<br>
Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005<br>
Adult curfew is probation's latest tactic<br><br>
By Guy Ashley<br>
OAKLAND - Curfew, the after-sundown restriction that smacks of a<br>
crackdown on rebellious youths' Saturday-night antics, has a more<br>
hardened group feeling the heat: adults who have past run-ins with
the<br>
law.<br><br>
In a program that may be unprecedented in California, prosecutors
acting<br>
at the urging of Oakland police are demanding 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m.
curfews<br>
as a common probation condition for those pleading guilty to felonies
in<br>
Alameda County Superior Court.<br><br>
Judges have imposed dozens of curfew orders since the demands began<br>
reaching their courts three months ago as part of plea deals
negotiated<br>
between defense attorneys and prosecutors.<br><br>
Curfews have displeased defense lawyers, who say it is the latest
defeat<br>
for defendants who in recent years have faced harsher sentencing
laws,<br>
longer probation terms and stay-away orders that have become
everyday<br>
courtroom occurrences.<br><br>
Defense lawyers say their hands may be tied because the curfews
have<br>
shrewdly been offered to their clients as part of a<br>
rock-and-a-hard-place proposition: If you would rather not stay home
at<br>
night, jail is always an option.<br><br>
"It's a cowardly and scary new world," Oakland defense attorney
Paul<br>
Wolf said Friday, moments after a client was sentenced to five
years'<br>
probation in a weapons case, a term accompanied by a curfew. "But in
a<br>
more narrow context, I must admit I feel some sense of relief that
my<br>
client is not going to jail."<br><br>
To hear Mayor Jerry Brown talk about it, curfews hold the promise
of<br>
stifling nighttime adult activities with established links to
violent<br>
crime -- and could be the missing piece of the puzzle in Oakland's<br>
effort to control its notorious homicide problem.<br><br>
"You have to go where the problem is," Brown said in 2003, when
he first<br>
broached the curfew idea with county law enforcement brass. "Since
more<br>
than 50 percent of the murder victims in this city are either on<br>
probation or parole, it makes sense to try to rein in the activities
of<br>
these people in some meaningful way."<br><br>
Efforts to reach Brown this week were unsuccessful. The mayor is
cited<br>
by police as the driving force behind curfews, part of an array of<br>
criminal-justice reforms Brown has touted as he positions himself for
a<br>
run for state attorney general next year.<br><br>
Though a fairly common condition of state-mandated parole, the use
of<br>
curfews in locally imposed probation appears to be a
ground-breaking<br>
concept. "We've seen curfews for teenagers, but we don't know of
any<br>
other cities where this practice is in place for adults," said
Megan<br>
Taylor, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities.<br><br>
"I've never seen it," said Albert Manaster, a deputy public
defender in<br>
Los Angeles County who recently completed a book for defense
attorneys<br>
specializing in probation.<br><br>
Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said he believes curfews
are<br>
appropriate for certain convicted felons, as long as there is a
clear<br>
link between their offenses and the types of night-driven
activities<br>
that seem time and again to erupt in violence.<br><br>
"We won't be prosecuting a person for petty theft at high noon
and<br>
placing them under a curfew," he said.<br><br>
Penalties for violating curfew are fairly fluid, though prosecutors
say<br>
first-time violators will likely get up to 30 days in county
jail.<br><br>
No such violations have yet been recorded, said Ann Diem, a senior<br>
prosecutor in Orloff's office.<br><br>
While curfews so far have been confined to Oakland cases, Orloff said
he<br>
expects probationers in other county areas soon will be asked to
accept<br>
the home-at-night conditions, when warranted.<br><br>
With some 20,000 people on felony probation in Alameda County, it is
not<br>
too far-fetched to say there may be thousands of people eventually<br>
living under the stay-at-home orders if the curfew strategy proves<br>
sound.<br><br>
Precise numbers of curfew orders imposed so far were not available
--<br>
either from Orloff's staff, the county public defender's office or
the<br>
courts themselves.<br><br>
"Since we're dealing with a large number of these types of crimes,
I<br>
would expect that there already is a significant number of people
living<br>
under a curfew," said Sandra Quist, a deputy district attorney who
files<br>
felony cases at the downtown Oakland courthouse.<br><br>
It is possible the numbers could grow dramatically in coming
months,<br>
Quist said, because prosecutors likely will begin seeking curfews
for<br>
misdemeanor probation cases -- the number of which dwarf those
involving<br>
felonies.<br><br>
The curfew demands arrived in local courts on Oct. 4, after more than
a<br>
year of Oakland efforts to target the parole population with
expanded<br>
law enforcement tools including curfews and mandatory meetings with<br>
community-based service providers.<br><br>
Curfews are the latest phase in a violence-reduction strategy
police<br>
have been pushing in the last 15 months. An array of crime-fighting<br>
approaches targeting troubled pockets of town, the new strategy
grew<br>
from studies showing disproportionate numbers of homicides occur at<br>
night and involve people on probation or parole -- as victims,<br>
perpetrators or both.<br><br>
"The idea is that if you can keep these people off the street,
or<br>
otherwise disrupt the street-level drug dealing and other
activities<br>
that always seem to come up, you can have a real impact on violent<br>
crime," said police Lt. Pete Sarna, a key player in developing
the<br>
strategy.<br><br>
Last week, police cited the $1 million annual strategy -- which
includes<br>
increased use of undercover operations targeting drug peddlers, and
a<br>
program in which minor parole and probation violators are locked up
for<br>
up to a week and provided substance-abuse treatment -- as a reason
for<br>
Oakland's 23 percent drop in its 2004 homicide rate..<br><br>
Sarna said he knew curfews would be controversial. But he says the<br>
numbers don't lie, and believes few critics -- even defense attorneys
--<br>
can challenge the need for new approaches to crime-fighting.<br><br>
His point drew a surprising level of support from Tony Bergquist,
38,<br>
who was sentenced in a weapons case Friday and learned he would have
to<br>
stay home every night for the next five years.<br><br>
For years, Bergquist lived in one of West Oakland's toughest<br>
neighborhoods, an experience he says showed him "there's a real need
to<br>
do something about the drug dealers and the violent people who are
out<br>
there."<br><br>
"I used to see these people every night in front of my house,"
he said.<br><br>
Nevertheless, Bergquist said he was "feeling a lot of anxiety"
about<br>
living under curfew. "No late-night dinners with my girlfriend for
the<br>
next five years?" he asked, though he did not seem to direct
the<br>
question to anyone in particular.<br><br>
Wolf, who represented Bergquist in court before Judge Thomas
Reardon,<br>
said the case also raised troubling questions about the link
between<br>
crime and curfew that Orloff says is necessary.<br><br>
Bergquist, he notes, was arrested in his West Oakland home in July
by<br>
police chasing another suspect into his yard, and then happened to<br>
notice a marijuana plant growing inside his home.<br><br>
Police searched the house and found 31 plants, two rifles, two
handguns<br>
and four boxes of ammunition stored in lock-boxes. Because he had a<br>
felony conviction on his record, for a 1989 kidnapping, he was<br>
prosecuted for being an ex-felon in possession of firearms, a
felony.<br><br>
No charges were brought for the plants prompting the search, because
he<br>
produced a city-sanctioned card showing he has a medical necessity
to<br>
grow and use it.<br><br>
"If these curfews are designed to curtail the activities of people
who<br>
are known to frequent Oakland's drug hot-spots, then why do you
require<br>
it of somebody who was arrested inside his home just because he had
the<br>
bad luck to get mixed up in somebody else's business?" Wolf
asked.<br><br>
<br><br>
Oakland Officials Hope Curfew Will Reduce Crime<br>
Jan. 17 (AP) - Police in Oakland are hoping a curfew imposed on
people<br>
on probation will help cut down on crime in the city.<br><br>
As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are
now<br>
required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6
a.m.<br>
seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and
emergencies.<br><br>
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown says 80 percent of homicides in the city<br>
involve felons who are on probation and parole, and 70 percent of<br>
homicides occur at night.<br><br>
The curfew has been in place since last fall, but officials say it
could<br>
be six months to a year before they see results from the
program.<br><br>
KTVU.Com<br>
Oakland Officials Use Curfew To Stem Crime<br><br>
POSTED: 3:05 pm PST January 17, 2005<br><br>
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Authorities in Oakland hope a curfew imposed on<br>
people on probation will help cut down on crime.<br><br>
As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are
now<br>
required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6
a.m.<br>
seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and
emergencies.<br><br>
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said the plan has been in the works for
two<br>
years and getting it implemented, at just the county level, was
"like<br>
climbing Mount Everest."<br><br>
Brown said 80 percent of homicides in the city involve felons who are
on<br>
probation and parole, and 70 percent of homicides occur at
night.<br><br>
"People believe there is a right to travel on probation and
parole,"<br>
Brown said. "I believe their right to roam the streets of Oakland
can be<br>
limited. I think it's very (beneficial) for these probationers and<br>
parolees to spend time in their homes."<br><br>
Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris said he was "a
little<br>
disappointed" when he first heard about the curfew.<br><br>
It creates another layer of law enforcement on youth and more
hostility<br>
towards police, he said.<br><br>
Copyright 2005 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to
this<br>
report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,<br>
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.<br><br>
<br>
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San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
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