OPD chief says she'll investigate crowd control tactics within 6 months; civil rights attorney sue

OAKLAND, Calif. - In an open letter to the Oakland community, the interim police chief said her department has been overwhelmed over the last two weeks with protesters and looters coming out in force to decry the death of George Floyd, systemic racism and police brutality.

For the first time, Interim Police Chief Susan Manheimer laid out the number of businesses that were looted and injuries she said was suffered. And she again, she stood by her officers' use of force and deployment of tear gas and munitions.

Though in this letter, she vowed to investigate all uses of force and report back to the public in six months. This is a longer time frame than what one of her staff has promised. At a meeting early this week, Deputy Chief Leronne Armstrong said he'd have a report completed by July 15. 

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"Unfortunately, like many departments throughout the Bay Area and the Country, OPD also responded to assemblies disrupted by violence, requiring crowd management to control physical attacks on officers and threats to public and officer safety," Manheimer wrote. "In addition, individuals engaged in widespread looting, vandalism, and arson that damaged our city’s most vulnerable merchant corridors and communities."

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But Manheimer's words did not ring true with several people who were at the protests and civil rights lawyers who said the chief is exaggerating the mayhem her officers and the city experienced. The attorneys also said her letter shows her lack of understanding of Oakland's own policies. 

"Apparently the department has now changed its story from flatly denying that they used the weapons to trying to concoct a justification for their use and for blatantly violating OPD's own policy," civil rights attorney Rachel Lederman said. 

In her public letter sent Wednesday night, Manheimer ticked off what she said her officers had to deal with starting shortly after Floyd was killed in Minneapolis on Memorial Day by a white officer kneeling on his neck. 

Since May 29, Manheimer said about 200 businesses were looted and vandalized; 137 arson fires were set; more than 300 people were arrested and more than 700 calls for service were delayed.

Manheimer also said that there was a homicide during this time related to the looting, and two federal protective services uniformed officers were shot; one of them was killed.

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She also said that four civilians and more than 30 first responders were injured, of which 21 were police officers and two were firefighters. 

Manheimer did acknowledge that smoke, gas, and specialty impact munitions were used on May 29, 30, 31, and June 1 - the last of which was following a youth rally at Oakland Tech, during what she described as "unlawful assemblies and in exigent circumstances."

However, Lederman, who helped write Oakland's crowd-control and tear gas policies, took many issues with Manheimer's narrative.

"Many more than four people were injured," Lederman said. "People don't report injuries to OPD because of the low level of trust in the community."

KTVU has spoken to several protesters including Jennifer Li, 39, who have complained of not being able to breathe properly and ringing ears nearly a week after the protest. 

Also, a 22-year-old woman was severely bruised by about 20 specialty impact munition rounds, which Lederman displayed on Monday during an Oakland Police Commission meeting to address police conduct during the protests. This woman has not wanted to speak publicly about what happened to her, but a nurse at the scene described her hematomas as horrific. 

It's unclear if this woman is one of the four injuries cited by the chief. 

Plus, Lederman said that Manheimer' s description of violent attacks on officers "in conjunction with demonstrations is greatly exaggerated."

If anything, Lederman said, the protesters were reacting to police violence after officers engaged in a barrage of toxic chemical weapons, explosive grenades and impact munitions.

Lederman also said that Manheimer's letter shows her lack of understanding of the department's crowd control and management policies.

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These rules did not come about through the Negotiated Settlement Agreement and federal monitoring as Manheimer cited in her letter, but as a result of "OPD's repeated mass civil rights violations against demonstrators," which cost the city more than $10 million in suits and settlements between 2004 and 2014, Lederman said.

These policies were negotiated because of three different civil rights lawsuits with the National Lawyers Guild and the American Civil Liberties Union, of which Lederman was a part. 

And in fact, now there is a fourth such suit against the city and police department.

Walter Riley from the National Lawyers Guild and Oakland attorney Dan Siegel announced on Thursday they're filing a federal lawsuit seeking an injunction to ban police from using tear gas, flash-bang grenades, wooden and rubber bullets, and other dangerous tactics against protestors. It also seeks damages for all those injured during the protests. 

Youth organizer Akil Riley is a plaintiff in this suit. He co-organized a 15,000-person strong demonstration and march on June 1 at Oakland Tech, after which police launched tear gas about 20 minutes before the curfew that night. 

"I've seen the brutality of OPD firsthand," Riley said. "They are out of hand right now." 

Lederman said the current policy prohibits shooting specialty impact munitions, like bean bags, and throwing blast grenades into crowds, as was done on each of the days the chief mentioned.

The policy was intended to promote non-forceful, unobtrusive crowd management rather than crowd control, Lederman said, such as mass arrests and militarized responses - which she said the chief conflates with crowd management.

"All of this simply shows that we made a mistake in allowing OPD to retain toxic chemical agents, explosive grenades, and Specialty Impact Munitions in its arsenal at all," Lederman said. "They must be banned from having these dangerous weapons entirely because they are unable to follow their own policies for their use."

Lisa Fernandez is a reporter for KTVU. Email Lisa at lisa.fernandez@foxtv.com or call her at 510-874-0139. Or follow her on Twitter @ljfernandez