Public Comment

When the pandemic shutdown hit Berkeley, its first moves framed its values: a majority of the citizen commissions were shut down. There were a few exceptions, such as commissions tasked with marching developers bravely forward. But despite all events and groups, including the city council, meeting only virtually, certain commissions were unplugged claiming health concerns. It's something certain city leaders have dreamed of for years. Consider it the upside of the global pandemic; streamlining development by sidelining and sidestepping tedious, time-consuming traction with the public -- they're so out of the loop.

Development isn't all that's being streamlined. The Downtown Berkeley Association (DBA), the unaccountable, unelected property owners' lobby with a budget of public money floating at around 2.8 million, decided to create a program to arm its "hospitality ambassadors" with the "right to arrest", batons, handcuffs, and pepper spray. But that's not all, reassures DBA CEO John Caner. They have forms which, after using their pepper spray, have little boxes saying that the use was either "effective" or "ineffective." Who gets to decide whether the use was effective or ineffective? That's easy. The guy holding the pepper spray. Not the dead guy. That's how the Berkeley police do it, so what's not to love. 

With certain voices out of the way, and despite no crime surge cover, this initiative has skipped through toward the finishing line of its 90-day pilot program, including the acquisition of two $20,000 "T3 Patrollers", white electric tricycles the "safety ambassadors" with the handcuffs, batons, and pepper spray get to ride. Because it's so dang exhausting walking around the quarter-mile area considered the "premium" zone where a pepper spray spritz is already in use to underscore the DBA's creative take on the First Amendment. 

This is the organization whose "hospitality team" beat up two homeless guys who were well out of anybody's way in an alley behind the CVS: if you've never seen it, take a look on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sQ8nNr03cU. This is the organization which honestly thought - and may still think - they could make content-based decisions about what could and couldn't be posted around downtown. This is the group that repeatedly tried to outlaw panhandling, then sitting down, and finally got the majority of the current council to agree to 3-foot-square rules and two-hour rules on belongings for the poor all of which are just convenient paper. Because when push comes to pepper spray, they've cleared their "premium" shopping area free of panhandlers by force, intimidation, and the sweet sleep of the Berkeley voters who are still re-watching Game of Thrones and shaking in their shoes when the take-out is delivered. 

The "effective" and "ineffective" boxes are particularly entertaining to those who remember that oleoresin capsicum, if properly and professionally used, according to one UCSF study of police encounters, is only considered "effective", or useful, less than half the time. Another ratio of people sprayed with it appear to be unaffected, while another slice get even more aggravated and angry after being sprayed. And then there's that pesky ratio who die. When you die, that's...effective? Ineffective? Who decides that? Oh, that's right - the guy holding the pepper spray. 

No such findings were in the DBA's pepper spray, baton, and handcuff initiative's foundational information. There was no information regarding the lethal potential of the weapon, especially for the vulnerable population the DBA has targeted for years with their anti-homeless, anti-poor legislation these unelected, uninformed bigots cook up in the back room. Kate Harrison, City Council representative for District Four, which includes the downtown, knows all about it. Mayor Jesse Arreguin knows all about it. And now you know all about it. Be sure you ask any candidate running for office how they feel about it. Just so you can watch them wonder whether you think killing a vulnerable old vet with pepper spray is effective or ineffective. It's so hard to tell. 

Years ago, former Mayor Shirley Dean stated plainly that the Downtown Berkeley Association, having originated with generous public funding and mandated property-based fees, should of course transition their merchant lobby to voluntary fees, like any other interest group. But the DBA hates having to give up mandatory, property-based fees, including fees on all public property including UC property and federal property such as the post office. It's so tedious trying to explain the efficacy of using public money to hold politicians by the balls. 

They're unelected. They're unaccountable. And now they're armed. Pepper spray use isn't just an admission of failure, although it is surely that. Take a hard look at this one. It isn't just our values which are at stake. It's our democracy. 

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