Transcripts For KGO ABC7 News 500PM 20240712

And well begin with whats happening in this video. This evening the abc 7 news iteam is learning new details about two of the Alameda Police officers who handcuffed and pinned a black man to the ground after reports he was dancing in the street. Good evening. Thanks for joining us. In an exclusive iteam interview, our iteam reporter spoke with alamedas police chief to see how the department is responding. She joins us live. Reporter we learned today the first two officers who detained Miley Watkins were brand new to the Alameda Police department, both still in training up until just a few months ago. There is not a single use of force that ever happens in police work where youre not concerned. Reporter the Alameda Police chief speaks exclusively to the iteam for the First Time Since this body cam footage was released last week. Youre dancing in the street. So what . Im dancing in the street. Yes. Hold on. Youre not free to go. Since when is dancing in the street a crime . Yeah. Im unaware of a specific crime section in any penal code or any california code that specifically bans dancing in the street. Being a pedestrian in the street is an infraction in california, but youre right. There is nothing about dancing. Yet the 44yearold black man was pinned to the ground and handcuffed by Alameda Police officers for close to an hour after a caller alluded he may be intoxicated or suffer from mental illness. Reporter are you embarrassed this happened in your department . No. Im not embarrassed right now. Im concerned. I think that the incident that began in alameda has become a big part of the National Larger conversation were having about racism and policing in america. The chief couldnt comment on whether any of will face disciplinary action as the outside investigation will determine that. We know the first two officers who responded are new to the force. But the iteam has filed a public records request to see if the remaining three officers seen cuffing watkins have a history of prior complaints. What needs to change within your department to make sure incidents like that dont happen again . So there is no chief, not me, not anybody who can ever Say Something will never happen again. It is just not possible. Heres what i am doing. Effective tomorrow morning, the Alameda Police department is completely restructuring the way we deploy our resources and provide services in the city of alameda. Reporter the chief says police will now only respond to any reports of criminal activity. This partially in response to what happened to mr. Watkins. Do you think they have a mental influence or under the influence . Either one. What we are not going to do is respond to Mental Health evaluation calls. Reporter ive reached out to the District Attorneys Office to see if the citation issued will be dropped but we are still waiting to hear back. For the iteam, abc 7 news. Thank you for the latest on that. A new call now for Police Free Schools within the Oakland Unified School district. The proposal will be heard at a schoolboard meeting in less than half an hour. Abc 7 News Reporter Lauren Martinez joins us live from met West High School where organizers talked about that today. Reporter yeah, earlier around 2 00 an Organization Called black organizing project held a press conference. They announced what is called the george floyd resolution. For the past nine years theyve been pushing this plan to eliminate ousd Police Officers from oakland schools. We got to Fund Education not police. We got to fund Mental Health counsellors not police. We got to fund College Counsellors not police. Reporter members of the black organizing project stood alongside parents, students, and even some members of the Oakland Unified School district to completely eliminate the presence of Police Officers on school campuses. They arent a safety presence. They are a fear factor. Reporter jamary burden has a 6yearold daughter who attends Piedmont Avenue Elementary School and questions who the ousd Police Officers are there to protect on campuses. Police with guns walk in Public School campuses, protecting and serving what and who . Reporter 46 principals and assistant principals signed a letter directed to the ousd board of directors and the superintendent. We say if you give School Leaders only a hammer they will treat every situation like a nail. Greater investments in school based support staff will reduce the need and the desire to utilize police as a response. Reporter superintendent Kyler Johnson trammell released this statement ahead of the School Board Meeting tonight. Together we can reimagine how to keep our schools safe, healthy, and welcoming. Together we can find a new way. A way that builds on ousds Strong Foundation of community schools, restorative justice, and social emotional learning. The School Board Meeting starts at 5 30. The superintendent is expected to make a statement on the topic during the meeting. Now the school board will vote on the resolution on june 24th. Reporting live from oakland Lauren Martinez, abc 7 news. All right, lauren. Thank you. In the north bay Sonoma County as one. Leaders today showing a Team Approach in changing police policies. Mayors from every Incorporated City and local Police Chiefs came together pledging to listen to the community to make necessary changes to local Law Enforcement agencies. The meeting started with u. S. Congressman. The last two weeks have shaken us all to the core. For many of us it is a heavy reminder that the violence and discrimination black americans and people of color face every single day. And for the rest of us it is a real wakeup call, a stark reminder that we need to do a much better job. These elected officials and Law Enforcement will kick off summer listening sessions to revamp Police Practices starting with a full ban on the carotid chokehold. The county leaders promise to include a minimum of 50 Community Leaders in these talks and report their findings in september. Meantime, berkeleys city Council Voted last night to permanently prohibit police from using tear gas. The idea grew from an original proposal by the mayor to ban tear gas, a pepper spray, and smoke during the coronavirus pandemic. The police chief weighed in on how that may limit officers but his answer about the other crowd suppression tools that police have resulted in immediate shock among some council members. Lets listen. Firearms. We can shoot people. Reporter later in the people chief Andrew Greenwood got choked up as he apologized. Im tired. As are my people. I should have been more mindful of that. And i should have said we have nothing else in the sense that gas and smoke are the last tools, the last resort that we have. We are reaching out to the police union to get a statement with its reaction to the ban. Well bring you that as soon as we get it in. Hurt and confused. That is the reaction from San Franciscos police union after muni sent a tweet saying it will no longer transport officers to antipolice brutality protests. Abc 7 News Reporter chris reyes explains what prompted muni to take a stand. Upset and confused like, you know, being picked on for no reason. Reporter Sergeant Tracy mcrae Vice President of the San Francisco Police Officers Association Says her union was blindsided by munis tweets sent out on tuesday the same day it paused service in honor of george floyd. The tweet read we will no longer transport sfpd to antipolice brutality protests. It was part of a series of tweets declaring the agencys commitment to Racial Equity work. We absolutely want to support sfpd and the chief in their mission but at the same time we need to also respect the specific concerns of our operators and our passengers. Reporter in response to munis tweets the poa tweeted back, hey muni, lose our number next time you need officers for fare evasion enforcement. Youre jumping on the band wagon trying to vilify us in public but in private asking for our help. Youre talking about something you never did in the first place. Reporter we reached out to sfpd for confirmation and they gave us this statement. We recognize we are all in the midst of a difficult, emotionally charged time. We respect and honor the actions sfmta is taking to advance the cause of Racial Justice and equity. The supervisor echoed those sentiments and condemned the polic unions tweet. That is dereliction of duty. I want to salute the fsmta for the courageous stance. My relationship is with management not their labor union at sfpd. So i believe as Department Heads we will continue to manage our resources for the public good. Reporter as for the union they say theyll continue to do their jobs even if they feel like theyve been thrown under the bus. In San Francisco, chris reyes for abc 7 news. Still ahead here the bay area suburb voting down mandatory masks in public. Plus the petaluma ball player just selected as the first overall pick in the major league draft. And that is a statue of sir Francis Drake. Some people here want it gone. They want his name taken off at walgreens, we know summer may look different this year. Luckily, we are right around the corner with safer ways to shop so you can enjoy the moments you do make. Like making sure you have pool toys the whole family can try out. And never running out of sunscreen before playing in the yard. And if you do spend the day indoors, always have enough snacks. This summer, walgreens is making shopping safer, with touchless pay and drive thru pick up, so you can keep your summer going. Walgreens a portion. A chunk. With dollarbased trading you can spend what you want, even on just a slice of a share. We are destined to do something meaningful. What do you think a private, christian, education looks like . Gcu offers over 175 high quality online programs. Find your purpose at grand canyon university. Visit gcu. Edu. At grandz3wvmz z1s6zersity. Y3wvmy y1s6y racism and the black lives Matter Movement is now giving sir Francis Drake a bad name. Drake is everywhere in marin. There is sir Francis Drake bowel jared and even a sir Francis Drake high school but it is his statue getting particular attention as abc 7 News Reporter Wayne Freedman explains there is a movement now to get rid of it just like in plymouth, england. Reporter its eggs within eggs called cosmic embrace. This marin county sculptor isnt exactly well known but follow the signatures and some of his work is getting to be that way. This one for instance. I looked at it once or twice but i thought it was don quixote. Reporter not quite. Since the black lives Matter Movement heated up this 30foot statue has become controversial. You look at that and what emotion do you get . Disgust. Reporter this statue depicts sir Francis Drake best known for making landfall here in 1579 but he also had a history of slave trading. He had to be the baddest bath tub on his boat and i didnt want to make a sculptor of him. I made a sculptor of the event. This is all about propelling this narrative of white superiority. Reporter when lauren brown saw protesters on sir Francis Drake boulevard last week it struck her as ironic hence the petition now signed by thousands and counting to get rid of the statue. I would use it as scrap metal. Maybe they could do something with it. Reporter not just the statue. In marin county sir Francis Drake is everywhere from the boulevard to the high school. Supporters of the petition want his name gone. Words matter and names matter. We need to make changes. Reporter this is not the first such recent battle in marin. Last year she forced the dixie School District into a name change along with activist noah griffin. They see george floyd as a catalyst for awareness and change. Its like somebody threw a petal in a stream or in a lake and all of a sudden circles go out. Reporter Dennis Patton meantime is all about interpretation. Theyre attacking anking anki loving heart. Mine. Reporter call it Collateral Damage in a world hoping for a Better Future by looking at mistakes from the past. If they actually pull this off, where theyre going to take my sculptor down ill rename it don quixote. New developments. A museum at Fishermans Wharf that remained unscathed after a raging fire has now launched an effort to financially survive the pandemic. Trying to raise 250,000 on gofundme to keep running, the owner of the family owned antique game collection says the museum will not be opening any time soon because of coronavirus restrictions. Theyre located at pier 45 and survived a fire there on may 23rd that destroyed a large section of the pier. A really fun, special place. Despite the surge in coronavirus cases Face Covering is will not become mandatory at stores, shops, and workplaces in stockton. In a unanimous vote the city council yesterday rejected an emergency ordinance to make masks mandatory. Stockton is the county seat of San Joaquin County which has seen a recent spike in cases with more than a 50 increase in two weeks. The city late last week reopened. Hair salons, shopping malls, and dinein restaurants. Dr. Anthony fauci is once again raising concerns about americas rush to reopen the economy. What they need to know is when they reopen that doesnt mean everything is okay and you can do whatever you want. You still have to practice a degree of caution and carefully go through the process of trying to normalize. You know, Everyone Wants to approach normality and get things back to normal including the economy. That doesnt mean all bets are off. Today on Good Morning America dr. Fauci cited the need for people to still wear masks, practice social and physical distancing and wash our hands as often as we can and people should avoid gathering in large numbers. With the first pick in the 2020 mlb draft the tigers just selected the phenom first baseman from right here in the bay area. The pick came about an hour ago. Torq he is from petaluma and played at casa grande high school. He was widely expected to be baseballs top pick after a remarkable three years at Arizona State university. Scouts consider him to be one of the best offensive prospects in the last several years. Good for him. Exciting. Cloudy on the coast. Hot inland. Youre looking live as a cooldown begins soon im szasz. [norm] and we live in columbia, missouri. We do consulting, but we also write. [szasz] we take care of ourselves constantly; its important. We walk three to five times a week, a couple miles at a time. Weve both been taking prevagen for a little more than 11 years now. After about 30 days of taking it, we noticed clarity that we didnt notice before. Its still helping me. I still notice a difference. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. B. A. R. T. Is unveiling what fare gates in the future might look like. B. A. R. T. Says the 5foot tall swinging doors discourage fare they pvide extrapa for whechai,e for it a stions at tomorrows board meeting. In accu weather it was another warm to hot day today but cooler weather begins to move in here tomorrow before we turn pretty windy on friday. Live Doppler Radar showing you a little fog up along the immediate coast line around san mateo county. Otherwise dealing with a lot of sunshine. The san jose camera right now a live look at the shark tank just soaked in sunshine in the south bay and temperatures really responding to the sunshine today. Made it to the 80s, 90s, and our hottest spot 82 in san jose and 86 fremont. 96 in brentwood right now. 95 concorde. 91 santa rosa. Away from the coast it is hot. San francisco you got the seabreeze kicking in. We are at a cool 66 degrees as our 5 00 p. M. Temperature. Were tracking high pressure. Its stillonol this evening and brought the heat again this afternoon. It will lose its footing overnight. There is an area of low pressure that is going to swing into the west coast tomorrow and really into friday and bring the cooler weather with it. Overnight tonight well see more in the way of fog around the bay shoreline. Patchy in nature. A little bit dense along the coast. Otherwise temperatures in the upper 50s to lower 60s for overnight lows the next 12 hours. So future tracker temperatures, tomorrow morning with a seabreeze early in the morning. A little fog. Warming a little bit slower tomorrow than we were today. You can see it is in the 60s to low 70s. Close to the waters. Away from the coast were in the upper 70s if not near 80 degrees. Now, tomorrow well have the typical summer spread of temperatures where youre mighty cool by the coast in the 60s but were still pretty warm away from the coast in the 80s if not low 90s. So a day of transition so ton t. 75 in oakland. Warm in the south bay. About 86 in san jose. 92 in antioch. 88 the high in santa rosa. Still hot inland tomorrow. Areawide on friday it is much cooler. Also breezy. Likely some coastal drizzle in the morning. Well keep the breeze on saturday. Even a slight chance in northern sonoma and napa county saturday morning. There could be a sprinkle. Otherwise we are warming back up early next week with a lot of sunshine. Thanks so much. Paying it forward. How a san carlos restaurant is making a difference in the i of metastatic breast cancer. E but i did pick clarity by knowing i have a treatment that goes right at it. Discover piqray, a treatment that specifically targets pik3ca mutations in hr , her2 mbc. Piqray is taken with fulvestrant after progression on hormone therapy and helps people live longer without disease progression. Do not take piqray if youve had severe allergic reactions to it or any of its ingredients. Piqray can cause serious side effects, including severe allergic and skin reactions, high blood sugar levels, and diarrhea, that are common and can be severe, and pneumonitis. Tell your doctor right away if you have symptoms of severe allergic reactions or high blood sugar while taking piqray. Your doctor will monitor your blood sugar before and during treatment, and more often if you befo sing, if you have y of diabetes, skin reactions, are or plan to become pregnant, or breastfeeding. Common side effects include rash, nausea, tiredness, weakness, decreased appetite, mouth sores, vomiting, weight loss, hair loss, and changes in some blood tests. Ask your doctor about piqray. It can feel lonely. Getting these little deliveries helps you remember were all still together even though wer. The flower stop idea just came to me. Giving them away to their neighbors. One said they gave their arrangement to their neighbor who had to celebrate her sweet 16 in quarantine. I just thought that was so nice. They got to enjoy it before they passed it along to somebody else to really coming up tonight on abc 7 news at 6 00 a day after an iteam investigation the owner of a local lab is arrested and charged with fraud in connection with his covid19 antibody test. At 6 00 a breakdown of the charges and why those administering the test say theyve been duped. And the pandemic has sparked a spike in puppy purchases and people getting ripped off, too. 7 on your sides Michael Finney shows how bad actors are preying on your emotions and taking your money all in half an hour on abc 7 news at 6 00. Well, the shelter in place order has been tough on just about everybody. It has been especially hard on seniors who live by themselves and have been left isolated but one restaurant on the peninsula is helping out by delivering free hot meals to seniors at their homes. The kitchen is bustling at this san carlos restaurant. Its not the lunch crowd that has the cooks busy but a good deed. My heart is pumping. Reporter steve is the owner of stamp bistro bar and grill. He and his wife are boxing up dozens of chicken and pork meals they are donating to seniors. So, good times everybody helps each other. It is important in tough times for us to give. Reporter it is a message theyve been following for quite a while. Eight years ago she launched fund a need an organization that helps low income seniors in san mateo county. We provide food, goods, items, money donations. Reporter when she heard many of the seniors have been feeling isolated during the stayathome order she wanted to do something extra for them. The seniors are cooped up in their homes and giving them a hot meal rather than just donating canned foods hopefully will warm their hearts and spirits. Reporter she and her husband packed up 66 hot meals and took them to this Senior Living facility, something theyve been doing continuously during the pandemic at Senior Centers throughout san mateo county. Were standing in front of the club house. It is usually very lively with bingo and pingpong and people are having to stay home right now. It has been very hard. Nobody else does that except you guys. We appreciate it very, very much. We do get hot Meal Services through other resources in the county but to have a restaurant meal is super exciting and is such a treat. I dont know how i can say thank you. Next time i hope we can treat you guys in our own place and celebrate together. And we invite you to join better bay area project thanks. Use the betterbayarea to show us how you are saying thankon well share it with the community. There are so many people doing such great things out there. Absolutely. We love recognizing it. World news tonight with david muir is next. We appreciate your time. For all of us here thanks for inviting us into your homes tonight. Well see you again at 6 00. Mrs. Walker. Michael vasquez come over here. Ive heard such good things about you, your company. Well, i wouldnt have done any of it without you. Without this place. This is for you. Michael, you didnt have to. And, were going to need some help with the rest. Youve worked so hard to achieve so much. 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