Traffic stops are notoriously biased. So why did Oakland just roll out the red carpet for CHP?

Published by the San Francisco Chronicle on August 13, 2021

By Cat Brooks

On June 6, 2020, Erik Salgado and his unborn child were shot and killed by California Highway Patrol Officers Eric Hulbert and Donald Saputa, and Sgt. Richard Henderson. Salgado’s girlfriend, Brianna Colombo, was also shot and critically wounded. She would survive. Survive without her child. Survive without her partner. Survive with the trauma of being profiled, targeted and assaulted by a law enforcement agency that had no business cruising Oakland’s streets.

That’s why on Wednesday, when Mayor Libby Schaaf let Oaklanders know that she worked out a deal with California’s governor to deploy the California Highway Patrol to conduct traffic stops on city streets, many people scratched their heads while the rest of us banged them into walls.

Traffic stops are the primary way people enter the criminal justice system in much of California. Cops have wide latitude to decide whom they pull over and why and how much they are going to harass the person being stopped. Many of those decisions are based on race. Black and driving is far too often a deadly combination.

In 2019, a Stanford University study revealed that Black people in America are 20% more likely than whites to be pulled over and searched by law enforcement.

Oakland is no different.

The ABC7 I-Team analyzed traffic stop data compiled by the Oakland Police Department for the years 2015 to 2018 and found that Black men were eight times more likely to be stopped by law enforcement. Latino men were three times as likely to be stopped.

But the mayor’s good sense tells her to bring in yet one more police agency to conduct traffic stops to target our communities? One that’s even less accountable to local residents?

The first thought I had when I read that CHP was coming to Oakland’s streets was: “Black people, stay inside.”

Between the FBI, ATF and now CHP, Black Oaklanders should consider themselves good and hunted.

The second thought was of Salgado’s sisters, who have been fighting for justice for him since June 2020. According to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, investigation into the incident is ongoing and the CHP isn’t saying whether the three cops who pulled their triggers are back on California’s highways. The city of Oakland has done little to nothing to support the sisters in their quest for justice.

What a slap in the face.

I asked Salgado’s sister Amanda Blanco for her response to the mayor’s announcement.

“Instead of holding CHP accountable for the death of Erik,” she said, “Libby (Schaaf) is empowering them to have a stronger presence in Oakland, even considering their violent history. CHP is a danger in our city streets.”

Our mayor loves to take knees for national headlines, but when we need her to stand for Oaklanders gunned down by law enforcement within Oakland’s borders, she’s nowhere to be found.

In addition to being racist and violent, traffic enforcement is a gross waste of resources with little beneficial returns. Traffic stops do not reduce dangerous driving and crashes. They also do little to nothing to prevent crime.

What they do accomplish is an increase in contact between vulnerable community members and law enforcement — and they set the stage for increased egregious uses of force. Almost 1,000 people have been killed by police in the past year alone.

Furthermore, what’s often overlooked is the fact that even nonviolent interactions with police do damage. Being profiled by law enforcement is a continuous source of psychological torture for Black folks. Regardless of innocence or guilt, having committed a crime or not, you can be pulled over, publicly humiliated, assaulted and in the most egregious cases, killed.

Sandra Bland. Philando Castile. Daunte Wright. Demouria Hogg. Erik Salgado.

According to an Oakland Chamber of Commerce survey, 4 out of 5 Oaklanders want to civilianize traffic stops, not militarize them. Perhaps we (Black and Brown folks) should all just move to Berkeley, where the city is moving forward with a plan to reduce the numbers of reasons, and people, the Berkeley Police Department can pull over.

Once again, our mayor is tone deaf.

What’s more, Schaaf implemented this policy with help from her friend the governor.

Gavin should take care. As efforts for his recall gain momentum, he might not want to piss off the progressives who support him. And trust when I say we are pissed.

The California Highway Patrol had to be sued last year before it would reveal use-of-force records that were mandated for release by the 2019 state law SB1421. They remained similarly obstinate when it came to releasing details about the Salgado killing. One of the cops who shot Salgado, Henderson, fired 30 rounds at the unarmed couple from just 5 to 10 feet away. He also killed another citizen, in a similar fashion, just four years earlier in Southern California.

The California Highway Patrol isn’t more efficient, better or less violent than other police. It brings the same dangers to Black and Brown communities as the rest. It has many of same the nasty habits (like abuse and racial profiling) that Oaklanders have been trying to purge from our Police Department for decades.

And our mayor just rolled out the red carpet.

Cat Brooks is an award-winning actress, playwright, the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and the co-host of UpFront on KPFA.