Lawyer who led long fight to reform OPD says department has been transformed
About this episode
John Burris discusses the transformation of the Oakland Police Department after years of federal oversight and legal battles for civil rights.
Oakland’s Police Department has been under federal oversight since 2003. The oversight began after a civil rights lawsuit was filed on behalf of 119 residents, most of them Black men, who alleged that multiple Oakland police officers had beaten and planted evidence on them. Yesterday we heard from Darwin BondGraham, news editor at The Oaklandside and co-author of the book, "The Riders Come Out At Night," an exhaustive history of decades of corruption inside the OPD. Today, we hear from John Burris, one of the civil rights attorneys who represented those residents and spearheaded the legal fight to reform the Oakland Police Department. Burris says the department has been reformed.
People in this episode
Guest: John Burris
Topics covered
- police reform
- civil rights
- Oakland
- law
- corruption
- federal oversight
Keywords
- Oakland Police Department
- John Burris
- civil rights
- police reform
- federal oversight
- corruption
- lawsuit
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Oakland Police Department, The Oaklandside
Books & works: The Riders Come Out At Night
Places: Oakland
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