By: Maeve O’Brien
OAKLAND/SACRAMENTO, CA – The Oakland Police Department (OPD) is the target of a “People’s Investigation” by the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) after murdering a victim in Sacramento last Wednesday night who authorities claim exited his house with a firearm, according to a recently released statement.
The Sacramento Police Department (SPD) called OPD for backup when answering to an alleged suspect in a Sacramento homicide, the APTP statement notes.
APTP is a “Black-led, multi-racial, intergenerational coalition,” looking to create a safe community, and to hold police accountable for excessive abuse, as noted by the released statement.
Executive director and co-founder of the APTP, Cat Brooks, expressed her distrust in the OPD and SPD’s analysis of the murder by police, stating, “The police as a rule cannot be trusted in these incidents, and their first story should never be taken at face value.”
The APTP statement explains strategies that law enforcement officers have been trained to exhibit in order to avoid taking responsibility for their actions.
“More and more, we are hearing the claim that the victim was a sudden, imminent, and unavoidable threat… in an effort to dampen community support and lay the framework for a legal justification,” the statement asserts.
APTP’s co-founder and creator of Mental Health First, Asantewaa Boykin, criticized SPD’s history of violence and disingenuous work, while offering support for every family member affected by the recent tragedies.
“SPD is undeniably heinous, violent, … outright dishonest—particularly when engaging with folks who are in a mental health crisis, or part of a marginalized community exercising their First Amendment rights,” charged Boykin.
APTP’s First Responders Committee said it has been working with families affected by police terror and has reported police abuse in the Bay Area after the committee uncovered additional investigations, the released statement notes.
As stated in the press statement, APTP said, “These investigations have led to discoveries like the fact that 38-year-old mother and grandmother Yuvette Henderson was murdered with an AR-15 in broad daylight by the Emeryville Police Department.”
The organization said its goal is to protect people by fighting for justice, maintaining that “we undertake a People’s Investigation of the actual facts to demand transparency (and) create accountability… in the tragic wake of state violence.”
