Reader Commentaries:

The Importance of Protecting Civil Rights in Berkeley

My daughter, who is 28 years old had just picked up her 3-year-old toddler from childcare and was on her way home from work. She made a right hand turn onto a busy street when her car was struck on the passenger front door damaging her front passengers mirror by a Caucasian male riding a bicycle. After the incident happened, she heard a crowd of people yelling and screaming angrily at her. The incident startled her and her baby as well and was frightening, because she was unsure what had occurred at the time; maybe it was a car jacking, or someone trying to snatch her baby. She tried to make a turn on a street to come back on the street where the accident occurred but got lost. When she did return, she parked her vehicle about a block away where the accident occurred and waited for the police to arrive. She was kept separate from the bicyclist and the crowd of people and was questioned by Berkeley Police. The ambulance with the medical team arrived to examine and give first aid to the bicyclist, but the medical team never examined the baby or my daughter to see if they were physically injured or in shock, etc. My daughter was arrested. This was the first time she had ever been arrested and placed in jail. She bailed out of jail three days later and got a public defender to represent her. The public defender stated that there was a possibility her case would be dropped. After I spoke with him, pertaining to the bicyclist being the one to cause the accident, he assured me that the bicyclist was not responsible and that my daughter had left the scene of the accident which made her automatically guilty.

Under the special circumstance, that my daughter felt threatened, and was shocked by what happened, was the main cause for her struggling trying to find a safe place for her and her baby to park and wait for the police to arrive.

It was clear that my daughter suffered shock and was traumatized. She and her child never received any kind of medical treatment by paramedics at the scene of the accident.

Although some of the charges were dropped against her, she was told by her attorney that it was in her best interest to plead no contest to a misdemeanor to hit and run. He also stated that the man on the bicycle claimed that he had injuries to his hand and then the next appearance in court, the bicyclist claimed he had injuries to his teeth. The judge found her guilty with time served, placed on probation and paid a court fine of $130.

Here is a person who can barely afford to pay her bills, who was incarcerated, had to pay bail. While incarcerated, the jailers failed to feed her, she had to seek medical treatment after she was released from jail for herself and her baby, she had to pay for her own damages to her vehicle, and the public defender representing her from Alameda County stood up in court and demanded they district attorney stipulate as part of her probation that she pay for the bicyclist medical cost for dental work if any occur. I thought that the public defender was supposed to work in the total best interest of its client.

African Americans plead guilty to most cases because they do not have the money to bail out or to afford good attorneys to represent them. It makes no difference if that person is totally guilty or innocence. And we call this justice.

Prior to this incident, my wife received two parking tickets in the same day and at the same location that she was parked. Although she had a handicapped sticker clearly hanging on the rear view mirror, she was cited twice by a parking code enforcer located in Berkeley.

On another my son tried to throw a birthday party at a park recreation center located. He was given permission by the Parks and Recreation people on site to have music but was stopped by the Berkeley Police Department stating that the reason was for disturbing the peace. The same park was used by other groups playing baseball late at night and the noise from the baseball game could be heard four blocks away. No action was ever taken by the police department pertaining to the noise by these people playing baseball late at night. From what I have seen, none of the people playing in the baseball game were African Americans.

I feel that it is very important to enforce equal protection as well as civil rights to insure that every American regardless of color or sex should be able to enjoy the same liberties and protections as any other American.



Earl V. Levels, Sr. is an East Bay resident.