Kayla Moore

After years of community advocacy, the city of Berkeley plans to launch a mental health crisis response team that is independent from law enforcement this summer.

UCPD’s email affirming its “allyship” to Queer staff members and students for Pride Month seems utterly performative, and the message ostensibly showcases the way police departments neoliberalize queer spaces.

As a mother and a grandmother, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber expressed the pain she feels when faced with the stark reality of police violence in the United States during a virtual Graduate Assembly, event Saturday.

“We who believe in freedom cannot rest.” The words rang out as a chorus of more than 100 community members gathered on the birthday of a Black transgender woman who died in police custody in Berkeley eight years ago.

Transphobia is not a new phenomenon, and thus, neither is transgender activism. Berkeley and the Bay Area as a whole have served as a nexus of much advocacy, which has often included LGBTQ+ rights.

Chants of "Black lives matter," booming music and the names of people who have died at the hands of police — all of these could be heard in the Berkeley streets this weekend as thousands of protesters reacted to the death of George Floyd.

The family of Kayla Moore, a 41-year-old Black transgender woman who died in Berkeley Police Department custody, is appealing a wrongful death suit against the city at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January.

For years, transgender individuals have faced severely high rates of violence, discrimination and hostility in all areas of life. If our community truly believes in creating a safe world for transgender people, transphobia must be called out and addressed in all spaces — big or small.

Efforts to restore some of the commission's original power have been ongoing, as city officials and local activists examine civilian oversight agencies in neighboring Bay Area jurisdictions to see which models might best suit Berkeley.

The documents released this week about Kayla Moore’s death in 2013 merely reminded Berkeley community members — once again — of the complete lack of power that police oversight commissions have.