Letter to Attorney General Kamala Harris

2/27/2013

JUSTICE FOR ALAN BLUEFORD

To: California Attorney General Kamala Harris

From: The Justice for Alan Blueford Coalition

We call upon you as the Attorney General for the State of California to prosecute Oakland Police Officer Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford.

Alan Blueford was 18 years old and was about to graduate from Skyline H.S. in Oakland. Just after midnight, on May 6, 2012, Alan and two of his friends were waiting for some girls to pick them up on 90^th Ave, when a car slowly pulled up with its lights off. It was an OPD vehicle. Alan ran. OPD Officer Masso gave chase. A few blocks later, Alan was shot and killed by Masso. Masso also shot himself in the foot. Over a dozen witnesses said that Alan had no weapon and posed no threat to the officer.

Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley is derelict in her duties with respect to the Oakland Police Department. Despite the findings of continued non-compliance of the OPD by Federal Monitor Robert Warshaw, O’Malley has functioned as a rubber stamp for the OPD. She has failed to charge a single OPD officer for any criminal wrong-doing. Specifically on the killing of Alan Blueford, our coalition did a thorough analysis of the DA’s findings and found them to be biased, unprofessional and extraordinarily selective in its use of witness statements.

Some excerpts from our report:

“ALAN BLUEFORD SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN STOPPED.

Mr. Blueford’s stop and subsequent death were the result of racial profiling. The officers had no reason to stop these individuals other than their own racial prejudices.  OPD statistics indicate that had the three individuals spotted across the street by Officers Masso and Fesmire been white, they would not have been stopped.”

“THE USE OF DEADLY FORCE BY OFFICER MASSO WAS UNJUSTIFIED, BECAUSE THE EVIDENCE SUGGESTS THAT ALAN BLUEFORD DID NOT HAVE A GUN WHEN HE WAS SHOT.

The DA’s report states: ‘Officer Masso fired a third round at Mr. Blueford, which he fired because Mr. Blueford was still looking directly at him with the gun in his hand.’ At this point — by everyone’s account — Alan was on the ground, lying flat on his back.  Alan Blueford was mortally wounded by this third shot, and yet the only gun that could have been in Alan’s hand was found twenty feet away.” from where Alan lay, up an inclined driveway, ‘atop a pile of garden rocks’ and was only noticed several minutes later.”

We also call on you to reopen all the cases of OPD officer-involved shootings from the Riders case in 2003 to the present, due to the pattern of flawed and biased investigations which has shown an unprincipled relationship, lacking objectivity, between the D.A’s office and the Oakland Police Department which continues to lead to OPD officers being unjustly cleared and immune from criminal charges for brutality and murder.

Finally, we demand that you create a strategy and policy to end the criminalization of the Black and Brown Communities, stop the militarized Oakland Police Department from terrorizing Black and Brown Communities, and allow the Black and Brown communities of Oakland to exercise their right to political, social and economic self-determination.

We are holding a rally on Tuesday, March 5^th at 3pm at Nancy O’Malley’s office at 12^th and Oak St in Oakland. We demand that you announce the prosecution of OPD’s Miguel Masso for the murder of Alan Blueford.

See our website for our detailed analysis of the D.A.’s “investigative” report: http://justice4alanblueford.org

email us at:  alanblueford@yahoo.ca