Berkeley NAACP

For Daniela Gonzalez-Perez, the Day Labor Program Assistant at the Berkeley Multicultural Institute, the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified the struggles that have confronted racial minority groups even before the country first shut down in March 2020.

Berkeley Copwatch, an organization formed in 1990 with the intention to “empower and unite the community to resist police abuse” through education and supervision, hosted a virtual forum Wednesday highlighting five events of alleged racist policing in Berkeley during the pandemic. 

The forum, held at Berkeley City College was organized by League of Women Voters, or LWV, and Berkeley NAACP. LWV president Adena Ishii hosted the forum, and four candidates of District 1 –– Mary Behm-Steinberg, Rashi Kesarwani, Igor Tregub and Margo Schueler.

At a meeting on Tuesday, June 27 City Council passed the 2018 budget, unanimously voting on about $425 million in net appropriations.

The Berkeley chapter of the NAACP sent a letter listing a series of complaints May 10 alleging discrimination against Black students and employees by the Berkeley Unified School District to the district’s Board of Directors.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, held a community forum on racial justice Saturday at which she — along with Berkeley City Council members, campus activists and the Berkeley NAACP branch president — discussed issues faced by underrepresented minorities nationally and locally.

Students and city residents are criticizing Berkeley police officers for allegedly engaging in racial profiling during traffic stops, basing their findings on a seven-month period of data that showed black and Latino people were detained at a disproportionately high rate.

To make up for last week’s canceled meeting, Berkeley City Council has scheduled a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. before its regular 7 p.m. meeting on Tuesday.

City officials and residents called for further investigation into the scope of Berkeley’s potential workplace problems at a Tuesday meeting complaints by Berkeley employees of nepotism and discrimination.

In the next month, Berkeley Police Department aims to completely implement a policy to reduce police bias, as part of a push by multiple city organizations to promote more impartial policing.