Activists in Oakland demand California officials hold law enforcement accountable
Public safety is a major topic of debate these days, but one Oakland mother says there was nothing safe about the way her son was treated while in police custody.
She and a group of activists are demanding that California Attorney General Rob Bonta pay more attention to making sure that those who enforce the law are held accountable to the law.
Terry Lovett believes what happened to her son in police custody was a crime that is being ignored.
"It's basically consumed me," she said. "This is what I do every day, all day. I do nothing else but try to find out what happened to my child."
Jalani Lovett was born and raised in Oakland but was arrested and convicted of robbery in Los Angeles. In September of 2021, he was awaiting transfer to another facility when he died in the county jail. Although her son was alone in his cell, Terry was told he died of a fentanyl overdose.
"If they only have contact with the deputies, where's the drugs coming from?" she said. "But I've got pictures from the coroner's department that shows that Jalani was beaten," she said. "I've got pictures in my discovery that show a hole in the back of Jalani's head."
So far, no one has been willing to talk to Terry about what really happened.
"I've climbed the ladder until I'm at the attorney general's office and he just refuses to talk to me," she said. "They pay out the taxpayer's money—your money, my money—to settle these cases and the officers don't get reprimanded. They don't get put on suspension, they don't get fired. It's ridiculous. When is he going to do his job?"
Jalani died in Los Angeles, but there have been a disturbing number of in-custody deaths in jails around the state, including the Bay Area. At Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County, more than 66 people have died since 2014.
"Anybody that's in custody, you have the right to come in the same way you left. Or if you get sent to prison, go to your next destination without dying in that custody," said Jalani's older brother Ladell Dickerson. "A lot of in-custody deaths happen and they sweep it under the rug because the families don't have money, they don't have support. And they just want to hush everybody up and we're not just going to be hushed up."
So, they've been traveling across the state to raise awareness and pressure Bonta to address the problem. At a Saturday rally in Oakland, justice reform activists said, so far, the only action has come from legal settlements, with almost no one being held criminally responsible. They said that's not going to change as long as information about police abuse investigations is allowed to stay secret.
"To be able to pursue these cases, to bring these officers to justice, to jail the killer cops, you need to be able to bring forward the evidence. And a lot of that evidence is held in secret by the police departments," said Max Brownstein with a group called Sparticist League. "So, we're demanding to open the archives. As the attorney general, he has the keys to the cabinet. He could actually release these files if he wanted to, but that's something that he's not willing to do in his role of protecting the police. He is the top cop."
While running for office, Bonta promised to work to curb abuse by officers both on the streets and in the jails. On his website, he wrote, "Whether you have a loved one in jail or are worried about crime in your neighborhood, we all benefit when there is action to ensure the integrity of policing in our state."
The activists are waiting for that action. They're demanding that Bonta hold monthly meetings with impacted family members, inspect conditions at all California jails and prisons, and stop taking campaign contributions from police unions.
