Corruption and De-Policing of Oakland
Ignite Officer Protest

Police officers, sergeants, and lieutenants of the Oakland Police Department are so upset over the de-policing of Oakland and the accompanying corruption that they are going public with details.

Police chief Oakland Wayne Tucker fabricated a non-existent "acting sergeant" position for officer Robert Valladon, who has run the Oakland Police Officers Association for 18 years. The charge is made in a formal complaint filed with the city auditor and OPD internal affairs by Lt. Lawrence Green and is confirmed by a letter from recently retired Lt. Patrick Garrahan. The position, occupied by Valladon since last February, will boost his pension to an estimated $101,000 a year. The arrangement may constitute fraud upon the CalPERS retirement fund.

Chief Tucker pays off sellout head of police union

Why would the police chief hand an unethical, possibly illegal plum to his presumed adversary, the chief of the police officers' union?

According to the complaint filed with the internal affairs unit of the police department, Tucker rewarded Valldon because he managed to "delay or prevent a vote of no-confidence vote against the chief" by the police.

Officers, like Oakland residents, have good reason to be upset. The latest police contract extended their hours from 40 to 42 hours a week (84 hours every two weeks). It forced patrol officers onto 12-hour shifts despite their overwhelming opposition to the schedule.

Underneath these latest turns of the screw, police are upset at the gross understaffing of the department. Oakland has half a police force compared to most major cities. This city of 400,000 residents needs at least 1,100 police.

Instead of setting a staffing goal and a firm plan to reach it, mayor Ron Dellums recently completed a political farce. He raided the Measure Y parcel tax fund nine months ago, announcing the police force would get to 803 officers by year end. In fact that happened, showing that recruiting excuses made for years by councilmember Jean Quan and others are groundless.

Immediately after the November 2008 election, however, Dellums canceled a police academy, sent more than 40 recruits home, and announced staffing will drift down with retirements and resignations, letting it go below 803 by summer 2009.

• Chief Tucker has gone along with City Hall's low priority for public safety. At community and council meetings he repeated the mayor's and councilmembers' alarmist falsehoods that adequate staffing would force the City to shut down all parks and libraries.

• Not long after becoming chief in early 2005, Tucker announced that he did not care about officer morale, saying it is not important to operation of the department.

• Chief Tucker was recently caught lying about the police department's raid on the Your Black Muslim Bakery criminal enterprise. The raid was postponed several days in order to accommodate a deputy chief who was out of town yet wanted to be in on the action. During the delay journalist Chauncey Bailey was murdered, allegedly by an employee of the Bakery.

Mayor Dellums gave the Bakery a letter of recommendation when it tried to shuffle assets in a bankruptcy filing. Dellums has never repudiated the letter nor his support for the Bakery despite a long history of killings, vandalism, kidnapping, and extortion.

Police want to do a professional job. As ORPN co-founder Charles Pine told KTVU recently, "The officers, I think, are like anybody else you know. When you've got a job, you want to do it and you want to do it well. When they feel there are political constraints, they feel they don't have the required backup. We [have] half the police department in Oakland compared to most major cities; when they feel that when they make an arrest they're not going to get the support they need or the investigation resources aren't there to follow-up and make the case, that impacts the quality of their work. That's part of the reason we have such a problem in this city. We're ranked the fourth or fifth most dangerous city in the country." (KTVU, Dec. 31, 2008)

Residents and officers are united in their demand for peaceful neighborhoods, for the normal safety of an average American city. On the other side are mayor Ron Dellums, police chief Tucker, most councilmembers, and a host of poverty pimps eager to grab money for their "nonprofit" agencies. Indeed, City Hall practices conciliation with the thug culture that dominates our streets.

Here are excerpts from retired Lt. Patrick Garrahan's response to deputy police chief Howard Jordan:

Assistant Chief Jordan,

Thank you for getting back to me last week with the information regarding the acting sergeant position at Eastmont. You were correct when you mentioned that it was not likely the answer I was looking for. Your overall response really bothered me and, after thinking it over for several days, I feel compelled to write you with an explanation of my perception and position.

First allow me to preface this by stating none of the following should be construed as any form of sour grapes. I have always been extremely proud to be a member of the Oakland Police Department even if of late there have been a number of incidents occur that have made me embarrassed to be a command officer.

The reason I was so persistent with this issue is that a number of officers and sergeants approached me about it.

To place an officer [OPOA president Robert Valladon] in an acting position that, according to bureau administration, does not exist was the first red flag. Even allowing that perhaps the position did exist (or was legitimately created) a second flag was raised when sergeants were not allowed to draw for the position. Most any member of the department would reasonably perceive the assignment to be some form of back room deal.

You contend the department takes care of "everybody" as they prepare to retire but that is simply not true. Quite a few people finish out their careers with no special consideration from the department.

This situation is another example of inequities that exist throughout the department and perpetuates the wholly reasonable perception by many officers, supervisors, and commanders that there is some form of quid pro quo agreement between the executive management team and the president of the OPOA.

In our phone conversation you also told me, "the Chief kind of signed off on it" or words to that effect. This statement came across to me as an attempt on your part to disavow any responsibility for the decision. While this may not be the case, my perception of such was further bolstered by your response when I told you the whole situation "stank." You replied, "You're right, it doesn't pass the smell test." Your euphemistic reply about failing the smell test certainly seems to be an implicit acknowledgement that something is not right with the entire situation. More to the point, I believe this is a form of corruption.

Following are excerpts from by Lt. Lawrence Green's complaint to Internal Affairs:

Chief Tucker, Assistant Chief Jordan and Deputy Chief Kozicki have improperly assigned and paid Officer Valladon as an "Acting Sergeant" for a position that does not exist as a quid pro quo arrangement to (1) delay or prevent a vote of no-confidence vote against the chief within the OPOA and (2) as payback for Officer Valladon's negotiation of the most recent captain's contract which resulted in substantial raises for the entire executive chain of command.

Chief Tucker and Assistant Chief Jordan are threatening to move me from Patrol to CID effective 7 Feb 09 as retaliation for my public airing of my dissatisfaction with the OPOA and the improper quid pro quo arrangement with Chief Tucker that amounts to improper conduct, if not criminal conduct.

On Sunday, December 21, 2008, OPOA President Robert Valladon contacted my brother, Sergeant Phil Green, at the Raider's game and told him that he (Valladon) had been told on Saturday that I was being transferred to CID. On Monday I talked to my boss, who stated that neither he nor Assistant Chief Jordan was aware of this pending transfer.

If my boss and other executive command did not know of the possibility of me being transferred, it appears that Valladon (the source of the original rumor) is a direct line to the chief and may be, in part, responsible for my possible transfer.

Given the City's financial circumstances, this pay "out of class" [to OPOA president Valladon] is particularly troubling. Further, this appears to be a fraud to CalPERS which will be paying Valladon a higher retirement income for the rest of his life.

There are many people at OPD who have information about corrupt practices at the high command levels who would come forward in a safe environment. For instance, I assume that there is an investigation of Chief Tucker for ordering that exculpatory evidence (letter of exoneration from Deborah Edgerly) be removed from the Internal Affairs file of a case involving Lt. Meeks.