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With Eyes on Policing, Oakland Looks to Change

Michelle Quinn

   It was the birthplace of the Black Panthers movement in the 1960s. The
   scene of waves of protests after the death of a black man on a train
   platform in 2009. It is also where the term "Black Lives Matter" was
   coined in 2013.

   With 400,000 residents, the city of Oakland has long been a stage for
   conflict between its police force and parts of the community.

   But the recent death of a black man in police custody nearly 2,000
   miles away, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, has spurred residents to take a
   closer look at how policing is done in their city.

   One of them is Tamara Lawrence, an African American woman who attended
   a recent march with her sister.

   "This has been happening since, god, when my grandparents were alive,"
   she said. "And we're still dealing with the same things."

   Lawrence, an administrative assistant, said she wants the whole
   criminal justice system to be revamped.

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