My name is Will Brotherson and I am a Black Public Defender and a resident of District 1. I am writing to continue to urge you to reconsider the previous approval of OPD's budget and instead commit to a more substantial reduction this year, and a 50% defunding of OPD by 2022. Please reopen the budget so we can preserve funding for our youth, homelessness, jobs, and other care programs.
Since 2012, OPD has been under the direct control of a federal judge and court monitor, as part of a settlement over violence and corruption committed by OPD. The city has paid millions for the monitoring process and has had to hire numerous consultants to help.
Fewer police means less policing. Less Policing means less police misconduct. Less police misconduct means less money spent by the City on OPD.
I propose we place a Freeze on all hires until the end of fiscal year 2022.
We should also layoff 80 Officers Before July 4, 2020. We did this in 2010 in response to the financial crisis. It will work even better this time if the City sets and enforces a hard overtime cap for all officers. The scandals regarding improper overtime are widespread and well documented. This Cap and hiring freeze will save millions.
Councilmember Bas, thank you for being on the right side of history. We will remember in November, Council Members McElhaney, Gallo, Reid, Kalb, and Kaplan.

I unequivocally support the ban on restraints and holds that block blood and oxygen flow. Even more so I support defunding and disbanding OPD immediately and redirecting those funds to equitable community enrichment and reparations.

I support the ban of restraints and holds that restrict blood flow and oxygen, just as I support defunding Police as their bloated weight on municipal budgets restrains the flow, respiration, and growth of our communities.

Thank you Dan Kalb and Loren Taylor for working to ban chokeholds! I am writing to encourage you to expand your list of banned or discouraged practices. As we all know, George Floyd was not held in a chokehold, and so if we want to prevent murders at the hands of the police we need to look beyond chokeholds. Thanks for taking the lead on this, I'm only encouraging you to go further. Kia Simon, district 1.

I agree and fully support an immediate ban on all forms of restraint that restrict oxygen and blood flow. Also of note: I've noticed that the Commission has requested policy changes and revision from OPD for numerous policies... it is a waste of time and public money. OPD has always failed to provide comprehensive policy changes for itself and fails to hold itself accountable. This issue is historic. We should stop asking OPD to work on reforming its own department as it does not work and they refuse to do so. The commission should work with the public and be given resources to do this work independent of OPD.

I fully and unequivocally support the ban of these chokeholds under any and all circumstances. I also fully support defunding OPD by 50% and reallocating that funding towards social services such as mental and behavioral services.

These forms of restraint should have been banned long ago and we are past the time of needing to "review" - you must move swiftly to ban them outright and do so immediately. This resolution falls short of that task. Please move to ban them outright and instead invest the time and resources of the Police Commission more appropriately.

While I support the idea, I urge the council to go furtheron this matter. A review process takes time and implies that perhaps there are situations which call for Carotid Restraints or Chokeholds - this is unequivocally not the case. These methods have already been proven to be both potentially lethal and not necessary. This technique should be banned completely

All forms of restraint that restrict oxygen and blood flow should be banned now.

Unfortunately, this resolution is totally inadequate and would not rule out many, many other methods to prevent a person from breathing. The focus should be on De-escalation and preventing Asphyxia. I support directing the Police Commission to research the issue of preventing Asphyxia in a person under police custody and to create a policy and training demands to prevent Asphyxia.

These tactics should be banned completely.

I support this movement and agree with my fellow commenters that this action is long overdue and is an immediate need as lives are at risk while this policy remains. Please make this ban immediately and continue to move toward the ultimate goal of defunding the OPD and investing in the community.

Carotid restraints and chokeholds should have been banned long, long ago. We need an immediate outright ban.

I honestly cannot believe carotid restraints and chokeholds aren't already banned. Please ban these immediately as they can so easily lead to death.

I support this resolution, and urge the City Council and Oakland Police Commission to act as quickly as possible to ban the use of carotid restraints and chokeholds. This should be a first step in changing the Police Department's use of force policy.

This ban is an absolute bare minimum. It must be approved and implemented immediately as one of the first of many steps toward reducing police violence and working toward racial justice in Oakland.

While this resolution is a step in the right direction, a lengthy review process only risks more lives - we already know the dangers of these practices, and an immediate outright ban is the only logical action.

While I support the sentiment, I urge the council to take a firmer stance on this matter. A review process takes time and implies that perhaps there are situations which call for Carotid Restraints or Chokeholds - this is unequivocally not the case. These methods have already been proven to be both potentially lethal and not necessary. Please consider amending the resolution to simply ban these techniques, effective immediately.