PEOPLE’S INVESTIGATION REPORT FINDS BERKELEY POLICE AND INADEQUATE POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR IN-CUSTO
SUPPORT JUSTICE FOR KAYLA MOORE!
Copwatch to Release Findings of People’s Investigation
PEOPLE’S INVESTIGATION REPORT FINDS BERKELEY POLICE AND INADEQUATE POLICIES RESPONSIBLE FOR IN-CUSTODY DEATH
Press Conference and Rally
Demand that Police Review Commission to hold Special Hearing into the Death Of Kayla Moore
WHERE: Veterans Memorial Building, 1947 Center Street, Berkeley, CA.
WHEN: Wednesday October 16th, 2013 4pm
According to a detailed report just released by a People’s Investigation, the in-custody death of Kayla Moore never should have happened. A coalition of groups and individuals will convene in front of the Police Review Commission offices on Wednesday October 16th at 4pm to submit the necessary signatures to administratively compel the Police Review Commission to hold a special hearing. Our goal is to present the report to the Commission and allow members of the public to express their concerns.
“I think the report is eye opening and extremely accurate in terms of what is going on with mental health services in Berkeley. The lack of those services means that police are the first responders to people in mental health crisis and they are not trained for these situations,” said Maria Moore, sister to Kayla Moore. “Our family is completely in the dark regarding what the city intends to do about this situation. We hope that the report and special hearing will act as a catalyst for the PRC and the City Council to take action.”
Although the PRC maintains that it began an investigation in March, no findings have been released or updates on their investigation made public.
Berkeley Copwatch convened a variety of individuals and sources to find out what actually happened to Kayla Moore when police entered her home on February 13th 2013. The People’s Investigation directly interviews witnesses and reviews documents in order to make a honest appraisal of a particular event and provide findings to the community.
After a thorough examination of witness statements, police policies, mental health budgets, police reports, after interviewing Moore’s neighbors and family members, the People’s Investigation has reason to believe that, in addition to poor judgment and insufficient training of individual officers, there is a lack of city services, funding and policies about how to humanely provide emergency mental health services to the people of Berkeley. The reports identifies these as factors that contributed to her death.
“The city of Berkeley has slashed the budget for mental health ‘Crisis and Assessment’ in half since 2011. People in crisis are treated like criminals instead of patients. The Berkeley Police Association repeated their calls for tasers in response to a recent episode involving a mentally ill man. Are tasers really going to be the way that Berkeley provides mental health care? It is time that our city comes to terms with the fact that people are dying because we don’t provide adequate mental health services,” said Andrea Prichett of Berkeley Copwatch.
PLEASE JOIN US ON WEDNESDAY OCT 16th!!!
Note: This piece previously used Kayla's name assigned at birth, and has since been changed to reflect her chosen name.
