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by Minister of Information JR Valrey
In mid-July, former Alameda County prosecutor Amilcar “Butch” Ford, who currently works for the San Francisco District Attorney’s office, was given a misdemeanor charge by Alameda County DA Pamela Price’s office that may result in his being disbarred if found guilty.
On July 17, Ford was charged with giving confidential information to Michael Rains, who is representing San Leandro police officer Jason Fletcher in a voluntary manslaughter case for the death of Steven Taylor, who was killed inside of Walgreens in 2020. Ironically, Ford, at one time, had been in charge of a division in the Alameda County DA’s office that was responsible for prosecuting the exact same case.
In another case that DA Price is prosecuting, a female guard at juvenile hall is being charged with committing sexual acts on a minor, and, in another case involving the Oakland Police Department, Officer Phong Tran is being charged with perjury and tampering with witnesses, among other things.
The first Black District Attorney in Alameda County history, Pam Price is blazing a pioneering trail of prosecuting police terrorists in a way that this area has never seen before on behalf of the Black and Brown communities which are and have been the most terrorized by the presence of police historically.
Because of the authentic trek that she is embarking on, her opposition has been working hard at amassing support by recently organizing a political action committee for her recall and by planting negative propaganda about her in the mainstream white media to try and negatively warp her public perception.
DA Price sat down with the SF Bay View newspaper to set the record straight and to conduct this exclusive interview at this historic time when the police in Alameda County are being prosecuted for crimes against the people. During this interview, we compare her philosophy around being the DA to that of her predecessor, Nancy O’Malley. We talk about the Oakland Police Department being in federal receivership for the last 20 years. We talk about Los Angeles and Chicago dropping bail for non-violent crimes – and more. Stay tuned.
JR Valrey: There has been a political action committee created to fundraise and organize a recall on you. When you opened more than a half a dozen police misconduct cases, did you expect this kind of backlash?
DA Pam Price: Yes, I expected the backlash. There was backlash from the moment that I was elected. Anytime you stand up for justice and you stand against racism, there’s going to be a backlash that is the history of our presence in this country.
JR Valrey: I didn’t even say racism, so how are you equating racism with police misconduct? What made you say, “when you stand up against racism”? lol
DA Pam Price: I am the first Black woman to hold this seat, and many of the cases that I have been involved in in my 40 years practicing law and more importantly that have come out of this office have been driven with the animus of racism. The cases that we see where people have been victims of police misconduct are overwhelmingly Black and Brown people, so the expectation in our justice system in Alameda County is that if you are Black or Brown and you are the victim of police misconduct, then there is no accountability. So when we decided that we were going to review particular cases, we went against the status quo, and we challenged those who believe, and have believed, and have stood for the principle, if you are Black and Brown in Alameda County and the police brutalize you, then it is OK.
JR Valrey: You kind of explained it, but to be clear, what is the difference between your administration’s philosophy and that of your predecessor Nancy O’Malley?
DA Pam Price: We will not turn a blind eye to police misconduct. No one is above the law. As someone who has been a lawyer for 40 years, my belief is that those of us who are privileged to be in positions to know what the law is, we should adhere to a higher standard.
JR Valrey: I agree one hundred percent. So how do you see implementing that with a police department that has been in federal receivership for over 20 years? And I also want to ask the caveat question: With you being the “top cop” in the city but yet there is a rebellion being led against you, can you speak to both of those?
DA Pam Price: I am the “top cop” in all of Alameda County. We have 14 cities and six unincorporated areas. I am not a cop though. That moniker has been given to the district attorney because I am a constitutional officer and I have accountability responsibilities over all of law enforcement. But in the real sense, I am not a cop. I am still a lawyer. I don’t run the police department, and what I said to law enforcement repeatedly is that I can’t tell you how to do your job. I can hold you accountable to the Constitution, that’s my role.
I don’t get to decide on how resources are deployed, what cases are investigated by the police, what their response is, who they charge, who they arrest or recommend for charging, that’s their job; and I don’t get to tell them how to do their job. And they don’t get to tell me how to do my job. As a lawyer, I’m trained and responsible for making decisions about who should be charged, what the charges should be, what the plea bargain should be, how the services should be provided to victims. I have a different role in the system than police agencies.
That’s why when I ran for this seat. I did not take money from police PACs (political action committees). I didn’t take endorsements from police because it is important for the district attorney as an administrator of justice to serve independently and provide checks and balances to the police agencies. I don’t supervise them, but I have to work with them.
JR Valrey: Does it concern you that they have been under receivership for over 20 years and they are known as one of the worst police departments in the country?
DA Pam Price: You are referring to the Oakland Police Department?
JR Valrey: Yes. I know that that is only one city that you are over, but it is a very prominent city in your county, right?
DA Pam Price: Right. Oakland is the largest city in our jurisdiction, so having the Oakland Police Department (in federal receivership) is a matter of concern primarily for me as an advocate for Civil Rights and for justice, and as a resident of the city of Oakland. Before I was elected, I was pro bono counsel for the Coalition for Police Accountability and we were very engaged in monitoring the results of the consent decree and the progress of the consent decree.
I brought litigation for the community to have a voice in how the monitoring is going and how we are to be released from the receivership. So I have been involved in that activity for years before I became the district attorney. As the district attorney, I do not have any role to play with the consent decree or how the monitor supervises the department. I have no role in the federal court litigation that is responsible for the receivership.
JR Valrey: Can you speak about the climate of police misconduct in the Bay Area? I know that you played a lawyer role in the Celeste Guap case, but recently in a nearby county there was a whole bunch of madness with the Antioch Police Department saying racist things about the Black mayor. Can you speak to the kind of climate, for people who are not aware, that Northern California has in terms of police misconduct?
DA Pam Price: The climate, as you describe it, unfortunately has existed for as long as I’ve been here. I lived less than three blocks from the freeway when Melvin Black was killed in 1979, shot by an Oakland police officer. I remember that. We have had a long history of in-custody deaths in Alameda County and across the country.
This is nothing new for Black and Brown people who experience police violence, police misconduct, abuse. The George Floyd event was not unique in our history; look at Rodney King. There are just so many names. In Alameda County, we have prosecuted and charged two sheriff deputies, who I believe contributed to the death of Vinetta Martin? Vinetta Martin – no one says her name. The circumstances in which she died are very similar to the ones when Sandra Bland died.
Vinetta Martin is Alameda County’s Sandra Bland. I’m sure there are many others. This phenomenon that has created controversy in the culture is not new. The activism around police misconduct is not new. I represented the family of Oscar Grant and was involved in that litigation to try to hold Anthony Pirone accountable, at the time, right after Oscar died. Fast forward 12 years later, we’re still trying to hold Anthony Pirone accountable for the murder of Oscar Grant,
JR Valrey: What was O’Malley’s position?
DA Pam Price: She would not charge Anthony Pirone. She gave him essentially immunity for his behavior. We can’t fix that now, but we are not turning a blind eye to it.
JR Valrey: What do you want DA Pamela Price’s legacy to be at the end of all this? Hopefully you are serving the people for many years. What do you hope that your legacy is as a DA?
DA Pam Price: My legacy as a DA I hope will be that I conquered the racial bias and eliminated it. And that I conquered the gender bias and eliminated it – that we move this county forward, and that we follow the signs to young people, and that we improve the lives of young people and thereby make the county a healthier place to raise your children – that we empower people to feel safe in this community because we did our part to reduce recidivism. We did our part to address mental illness. We did our part to remove the drivers of crime. And if we brought people together around moving forward, and having a more fair, compassionate and just criminal justice system, that’s the mission that we are on.
JR Valrey: Last but not least, Los Angeles has taken a position similar to Chicago where they are dropping bail for anybody short of serious crimes like murder? What do you think about them dropping bail for less egregious crimes?
DA Pam Price: Understand the setting of bail is not just one person deciding. The DA plays a role; the judge plays a role; the public defender plays a role. It is a collective process, but the California Constitution in the Humphrys case said that money bail, as it has been applied, is unconstitutional. And so we have to move towards constitutionality, but we have to do it in a way that doesn’t result in more people remaining incarcerated because of the racial bias, because of the gender bias, because of the old attitudes to keep people incarcerated who don’t necessarily need to be held without bail.
And that is the challenge for us: If we eliminate money bail, which we must do, then you have to do an assessment of the risk to public safety, and unfortunately that assessment is often infused with all sorts of bias and stereotypes that are not real and that influence the process in ways that are detrimental to Black and Brown people.
JR Valrey: So how has Chicago made out statistically – because they have been doing this a little longer than Los Angeles?
DA Pam Price: I have not had a chance to engage with State’s Attorney Kim Foxx. She is a pioneer in this area. Chicago is the second or third largest city in the country, so we certainly should be watching what is happening in Chicago and how they are managing that. And Kim Foxx has been a dynamic leader and an advocate for fairness and justice. So I’m excited to be able to work with her, to engage with her. She is very supportive of my administration, and my team is in contact with her.
JR Valrey, journalist, author, filmmaker and founder of Black New World Media, is also the editor in chief of the San Francisco Bay View newspaper. He teaches the Community Journalism class twice a week at the San Francisco Bay View newspaper office. He can be reached at jr@sfbayview.com.
