When the City Council approved an expansion of the program in 2017, members were assured they would only be used for traffic-related purposes. A new measure allows police to use them in criminal investigations.
JP Massar
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: The City Council is on the wrong side of the planet
Last year, Berkeley City Council declared a climate emergency. This year, its actions betray that declaration.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: In Berkeley, there is no room at the inn
Berkeley provides sanctuary to immigrants fleeing poverty and violence. Yet it won’t provide sanctuary to those inside its own borders who need help: the homeless living in RVs. This must change.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Berkeley City Council freezes anti-ICE contract measure; residents demand action
The City Council has put off considering this ordinance time and time again.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Berkeley fails to meet its homeless residents’ most basic needs
Berkeley talks about helping the homeless but it seems beyond the city’s ability to provide a modicum of dignity to its residents who have the least.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: It’s long past time — take us out of Urban Shield and NCRIC
There is no excuse for this City Council not to do what the council should have done a year and a half ago: take us out of Urban Shield and NCRIC.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Urban Shield — A toxic intermingling of public health and safety with anti-terrorism and eternal war.
The sooner Berkeley rejects Urban Shield’s message by ending its participation, the sooner better training modalities which reflect our values will come into being.
Posted inOpinion
Opinion: Berkeley as sanctuary city – there is more to do!
We live in an age of surveillance. We can no longer afford to bury our heads in the sand and hope that benign actors in local, state or alphabet-soup federal agencies will do the right thing.
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Shooters, stabbers, carjackers and tent occupants – one of these things is not like the others
Op-ed: Berkeley police should be spending their time chasing murderers and carjackers, not evicting people from the tents they use for shelter.
Posted inOpinion
Op-ed: Berkeley must change the way it provides shelter to the homeless
The people who run the center for providing Berkeley’s homeless services (the HUB) write on their website: “Since 1970, Berkeley Food and Housing Project has been a compassionate provider of homeless services.” Forty-six years! The plight of Berkeley’s homeless is arguably the worse for all that time and effort. Isn’t it time to try a […]
Posted inCity, Crime & Safety, Opinion
Op-ed: An open letter to Berkeley on homelessness: You are being scammed by the City Council
Do storage lockers magically appear on Tom Bates’ order? Do angels from on high descend with public restrooms on Linda Maio’s wish? Is it common for shower facilities to construct themselves from piping and tile without human intervention? If you answered “yes” to these questions then you’ve entered the mindset of the Berkeley City Council […]
