Where’s Berkeley’s Ceasefire Program?
At the end of March, Oakland police officers arrested two people in the shooting deaths of Jazy and Angel Sotelo Garcia. These two Berkeley High brothers tragically lost their lives on Oct. 1, 2022.
There are proven methods for preventing deaths like these. In fact, last June, the Berkeley City Council approved such a program: $2 million was allocated in the fiscal year 23–24 budget for a Ceasefire program.
We asked David Muhammad — a Berkeleyan, who runs the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, which has implemented Ceasefire-type programs in the Bay Area and around the country, and was the consultant who oversaw Berkeley’s reimagining public safety initiative -– if given $1 million today and $1 million in two years, how quickly would you be able to stand up a Berkeley Ceasefire program?
“If we had the full access, information, data and cooperation from the city (including the Berkeley Police Department), due to being able to leverage some of the work in Oakland, it could be as quick as 3 months,” Muhammad said.
At that rate, three of these programs could have been implemented by now. But that’s water under the bridge. Let’s focus on the here and now. Many Berkeley residents want the city to do something tangible to address the uptick crime. No one wants another gun-related tragedy to occur. If we follow Muhammad’s lead, Berkeley’s gun violence prevention program could be live in July!
So, what’s in the way?
Political will, or more precisely, the lack thereof. Some of our city leaders don’t support alternatives to the outdated, ineffective and often harmful policing paradigm. Many city council members talk a good talk, but ultimately crumple when it comes to standing up to the city manager, Dee Williams-Ridley, who is a staunch supporter of policing as it is.
It was Williams-Ridley who recommended that the interim police chief become the chief before the “textgate” scandal broke last November. At least two textgate investigations are currently underway regarding allegations of racism and arrest quotas within the Berkeley Police Department bike force.
Also, Interim Chief Jen Louis was the protégé of the previous chief, Andrew Greenwood, who was far from a champion of police reform. He stepped down some months after his infamous response of “We could shoot people” when asked what officers could do in lieu of using tear gas.
But wait, if the city council unanimously voted for Berkeley to implement a Ceasefire program, how can the city manager block it?
Unfortunately, Berkeley has a strong city manager structure instead of a strong mayor structure. This means that the city manager acts as the CEO of our city and gets to run the show, unless the city council, which acts as a board of directors, overrules her.
But the council cowers under Williams-Ridley and is justifiably concerned about retaliation. She prioritizes the list of initiatives given to her by the council. If a member crosses her, she may put their item at the bottom of her list.
It’s a horrendous cycle, which leads to no accountability; where community-sought programs like Ceasefire get stalled. There’s talk of a 2024 ballot measure to switch Berkeley to a strong mayor structure, but that’s a story for another time.
Even though gun violence prevention programs are most effective when they are community led, the city manager assigned the implementation of Ceasefire to — wait for it — the police last fall.
Thankfully, when Interim Chief Louis was recently asked about the Ceasefire program during the 2022 crime report question period, she indicated that law enforcement-based approaches wouldn’t be as effective as a community-based approach.
We’ll never know if Berkeley’s Ceasefire program could have prevented Jazy’s and Angel’s deaths last fall, but let’s do our best to ensure no more of Berkeley’s children die by gun violence.
Call or email your city council member. Ask your friends and neighbors to do the same. If our city leaders truly want to address violent crime in Berkeley, a Ceasefire-type of program must be prioritized and implemented — immediately.
This article first published in the Berkeley Times on April 13, 2024.
