"All politics is local." - Tip O'Neal -Speaker of the House (1979-1986)
[Originally started as a comment but expanded into a diary]
Citizens of the City of Oakland, like any city, have a plethora of local avenues with which they can address their concerns regarding police brutality.
However, I seriously doubt anyone on here complaining about the Oakland Police Department has even bothered to do any of this because its much easier to bitch, complain and clatter way at the keyboard on this site, demonstrating that you weren't paying attention in your high school civics class with completely uninformed or misinformed statements about the role Obama should play in local police matters (which btw is VERY LITTLE and should be VERY LITTLE!).
Also, to the extent that the U.S. Attorney General and his Justice Department may be looking into the Oakland Police Department's actions, statements by President Obama may be inappropriate and may actually interfere with and hinder the department's investigation or inquiry.
Meanwhile, please ask yourselves, have you done any of this? BE HONEST!
Have you called your elected Mayor's office?:
http://www.oaklandnet.com/....
Have you contacted your elected City Council members:?
www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/CityCouncil/
Have you demanded action from your elected District Attorney?:
http://www.alcoda.org/
Have you filed a complaint with Oakland Citizen's Police Review Board? (members appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council):
http://www2.oaklandnet.com/....
Have you tried contacting the Police Chief? They will atleast take a complaint:
www2.oaklandnet.com/Government/o/OPD/o/OfficeofChief/index.htm
How about filing a complaint with the California Attorney General (Public Inquirey Unit)?:
http://ag.ca.gov/....
How about your local ACLU?:
http://www.aclunc.org/....
Have you tried contacting your elected state legislators?:
http://www.legislature.ca.gov/
Have you contacted any other local citizen's groups and watch dog organizations?
http://www.peopleunited.org/
Have you contacted local mainstream media and alternative media?
This applies to any city in the United States. Any city will have very avenues at the city, county and state leve for addressing these types of concerns. Like Tip O'Neal said, "all politics is local" and these are the actions that make a difference. These are the things that need to be done at the grassroots level. Immediately calling on the President to micromanage a local issue everytime it arises is pretty lazy and will likely get you nowhere.
11:16 AM PT: This applies to all cities in the U.S.!