The city of Oakland has agreed to pay $360,000 to settle a federal lawsuit filed by a former councilman who claimed that city staff and police officers racially discriminated against him and used excessive force during his arrest nearly three years ago at a planning office.
Wilson Riles Jr., who served on the City Council from 1979 to 1992, and ran unsuccessfully for mayor three times, said he plans to use “as much of this money as I can” to advocate for changes at the Oakland Police Department after recently agreeing to settle the federal lawsuit. The City Council approved the settlement during its meeting on Tuesday, during which the city did not admit fault in the incident.
A day after the council’s vote, Riles voiced pessimism that the payout would spark any lasting changes at the city or its police department.
“I don’t believe that it’s justice,” Riles said. “Because the city, in making the settlement, is not admitting that it’s wrong, or that its officers need to be re-trained. So even though in some ways I get compensated for my injuries to my body and to my reputation, nothing will change in terms of the behavior of the Oakland police officers.”
The Oakland city attorney’s office declined to comment Wednesday.
The settlement stems from a federal lawsuit that Riles filed nearly three years ago claiming “racial discrimination, retaliation, excessive force, and unlawful arrest” on the part of city staff and Oakland police officers during a dispute in October 2019 over his backyard sweat lodge.
Riles operates a sweat lodge for Native American ceremonies at his Oakland home, which includes free-standing yurts for overnight stays. The lodge had become a point of contention among neighbors, who complained about smoke and a lack of parking during events.
A dispute over whether permits were needed for the yurts prompted Riles to visit the city’s Planning and Zoning office — leading to a meeting with city officials that led employees to call 911 and report a “hostile individual” in the staff area.
Riles claimed that the 911 calls were racially motivated. “I guess a black man is not supposed to raise his voice, because me raising my voice caused them to call the police department,” he told the East Bay Times, at the time.
He said the officers blocked him from leaving and tried to twist his arms behind him while throwing him to the floor. However, police told dispatchers that Riles resisted being handcuffed, and they booked him into Santa Rita Jail on suspicion of battery and obstructing an officer.
The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges.
The underlying dispute over his backyard sweat lodge remains ongoing in state court, Riles said, where he is fighting a requirement to pay for a series of tests on a fire pit on his property.
On Wednesday, Riles lamented that the city had to pay out another large sum of money for misconduct by its police department.
“This is not really a step forward,” Riles said. “And I intend to use as much of this money as I can to change that, in the city I love, by the lobbying of changing the laws and the codes, and dealing with the lack of justice and sensitivity from the Oakland Police Department.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com