Berkeley Copwatch : History

History

March 1990	Copwatch begins street patrols to document police harassment of homeless people on Telegraph Avenue	COPWATCH REPORTS Copwatch Report Winter 2007 (PDF) Copwatch Report Winter 2006 (PDF) Copwatch Report Spring 2005 (PDF) Copwatch Report Summer 2004 (PDF)

May 1990	Copwatch's Newsletter, the "Copwatch Report" debuts, highlighting patterns of intimidation, selective enforcement, misinformation and excessive oversight by police against Southside's population.

July 1990	Copwatch holds its first "Know Your Rights" training- over the next decade hundreds of trainings, orientations and forums on police accountability follow, held at churches, schools, youth groups, community centers, parks and at Berkeley's Grassroots House (Home of the Copwatch Office)

November 1990	Police brutality beat Osha Nueman, a civil rights attorney and Berkeley Police Review Commissioner, Copwatch protests and demands accountability.

January 1991	UC Police Seize the Free Box out of People's Park - Copwatch helps organize protests; the Free Box was re-established.

Summer 1991	People's Park Demonstrations-Copwatch documents police brutality, protests the use of rubber bullets, files complaints, and leads demonstrations at the Berkeley Police Commission.

July 1991	Local needle exchange activists harassed. Copwatch documents arrests; information is later used to build court defense.

April 1992	Verdict exonerating police involved in the Rodney King beating is announced-Copwatch organizes a peaceful protest in response that draws 2000 to the corner of San Pablo and University Ave

May 1992	Copwatch and other justice groups form the Bay Area Coalition for Police Accountability, a local arm of the National Coalition for Police Accountability. March 3rd becomes National Day of Protest.

August 1992	Park activist Rosebud Denova is killed by UcPD; Copwatch questions police reports that the shooting was in self defense and demands further investigation.

Fall 1992	"Copwatch for Credit" becomes available though UC Berkeley's Peace and Conflict Department.

November 1992	Jerrold Hall, 19, is fatally shot in the back of the head by a BART police officer, Copwatch spearheads demonstrations and speaks out at investigative hearings, in the courtroom, to the media, and in the streets, demanding the officer be tried for murder.

March 1993	Berkeley Police Department adds pepper spray to chemical arsenal; Police Review Commission approves. Copwatch protests.

April 1993	Copwatch assists in Streetwatch in San Francisco, the first of dozens of organizations nationwide modeled after copwatch.

Spring 1993	Copwatch Report questions pepper spray's use on peaceful protestors in campus demonstrations and exposes "Community Oriented Policing (COP) as a public relations scam that fails to confront the real roots of crime.

Summer 1994	Copwatch Report exposes secret meetings held by Berkeley's City Council that lead to the approval of ant-homeless legislation. Copwatch's Campaign to Defy Unjust Laws begins, encouraging people to challenge laws against loitering, panhandling, washing windows in a parking lot, etc.

July 1994	Copwatch helps lead signature-gathering effort that suspends enforcement of Berkeley's new anti-loitering ordinance. Council if forced to place new law on November ballot for city wide vote. Copwatch aggressively campaigns against laws, but Measure O is passed with the help of $24,000 in funds donated by property management companies and local businesses. Copwatch joins in lawsuit opposing measure, and helps to document cases where people were wrongfully harassed.

November 1994	Copwatch investigation discovers that Oakland resident Doze Thomas died in police custody after being pepper sprayed.

August 1995	Berkeley Police begin another "sweep" of Telegraph Avenue, 23 arrests are recorded on first day. Copwatch gets runaround at BPD when attempting to get police records on a sweep-related arrest.

September 1995	A disabled man, Carl Gregsby, is brutalized by Berkeley Police officers. Copwatch demands justice and helps to fundraiser for Gregsby's legal defense. Two years later, the City of Berkeley settles the suit for $33,000.

December 1995	Copwatch's campaign to ban use of pepper spray officially begins.

May 1996	Copwatch campaign prompts Berkeley City Council to hold public hearing on pepper spray.

Fall 1996	Copwatch files complaint with Berkeley Police Commission over restrictions on the release of police reports, arguing department is violating federal Freedom of Information Act.

October 1996	Copwatch helps organize a rally for the first National Day of Protest against Police Brutality in San Francisco. Other events held in cities including Los Angelos, New York, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Philadelphia. In the years to follow, October 22nd becomes a powerful national coalition for organizing as well as an annual event.

November 1996	UC students protest passing of Proposition 209, the anti-affirmative action measure. Campus police brutality break up demonstration. Copwatch helps publicize abuse.

February 11 1997	Berkeley City Council awards $75,000 to Otis Stillwell and members of her family who were abused and pepper sprayed repeatedly by a Berkeley police officer. A city-sponsored task force votes 5-2 in favor of discontinuing police use of pepper spray, but ban is never approved by City Council.

April 1997	UC Police again brutalize peaceful anti-209 protestors. Copwatch assists student groups in documenting abuse and organizes Police Review Commission hearing on the UC Berkeley campus to make public accusations against UC Police.

January 1998	Copwatch joins Police Watch and other police accountability groups to campaign for justice in the killing of Mark Garcia, who died after being beaten and pepper sprayed by San Francisco police officers.

June 1998	Berkeley Police begin Operation Avewatch, and $80,000 paramilitary exercise against homeless people and the youth that frequent Telegraph Ave. Copwatch organizes concerned citizens to protest at a meeting of the Police Review Commission. Commissioners organize a public hearing to get more testimony and call on the City Council to put a moratorium on the discriminatory program.

September 1998	Copwatch conducts workshops at "Critical Resistance" conference, organized by Critical Resistance and other human rights groups working to stop oppression and for radical change of the criminal justice system.

February 1999	Copwatch teams up with Boalt law students to create Community Advocates for Police Review (CARP), to provide much needed advocacy to people filing complaints with Berkeley Review Commission.

September 1999	Copwatch weekly class series is launched, giving UC students credit for learning about the struggle for police accountability. Class is free and also open to the public.

Spring 2000	Six African Americans in three separate incidents in the same neighborhood of South Berkeley are brutalized and arrested by Berkeley police officers. Copwatch searches for witnesses, investigates their complaints, organizes community support meetings, and attends their court dates. Copwatch draws media attention to the pattern of racial profiling.

July 2000	Copwatch organizes a protest at the dedication of the newly-contructed Berkeley jail, drawing attention to the questionable back-room financing of the jail.

August 2000	Copwatch presents workshops to Amnesty International in Denver, CO - which led to the creation of Denver Copwatch.

Summer 2001	Copwatch works with other activists to successfully pressure Berkeley City Council to make enforcement of PC 647(j)(Ca state law that makes sleeping in public a crime) the lowest enforcement priority of the Berkeley Police Department.

October 11, 2001	Copwatch responds to the attacks of September 11th with a forum at UC Berkeley that examined the government's new laws that threaten our civil liberties, and produced a special edition Copwatch Report on the aftermath of 9/11.

Fall 2001	After receiving numerous complaints from South Berkeley about police misconduct, Copwatch begins outreach campaign to the neighborhood, collecting complaints, and informing people of their rights.

February 2002	Copwatch has forum on police crackdown of peaceful demonstrators and the importance of civil disobedience with Julia Butterfly Hill and other forest defenders.

Summer 2002	Copwatch Berkeley assists in Cincinnati activists in the creation of a new Copwatch chapter in the wake of the April 7th riots.

Winter 2003	Copwatch helps assist in legal trainings and distribution of know your rights information to deal with the upcoming protests against the attacks on Iraq.

July 2003	Berkeley resident Glennel Givens is shot dead by OPD and BPD officers. Copwatch begins investigation and pressures PRC to examine evidence and to conduct a truly independent investigation.

July 26 2003	Berkeley Copwatch member Jacob Crawford is arrested and charged with felony obstruction for videotaping Cincinnati Police almost run over children while crashing Cincinnati Copwatches first annual block party. Police tapes as well as videos taken by Copwatchers would help in Crawford's defense and would be found not guilty of the charges.

December 2003	"These Streets Are Watching" training video by Copwatch is released and distributed.

July 2007	FIRST NATIONAL COPWATCH CONFERENCE July 13-15, 2007 - Oakland, CA For more information, click here.