The C.L.A.E.R. Project Responds to the Four Slain Officers in Oakland

The C.L.A.E.R. Project
1099 Sunnydale Ave.
San Francisco, CA
415.333.3017

Media Release 3/26/09

*Sharen Hewitt, Executive Director 415-724-4794
*Lacrecia Gardner 415-595-1446
*Laurel Moeslein 707-696-7951


We at The C.L.A.E.R. Project extend our most sincere and profound sympathies to the families of the four slain officers of the Oakland Police Department, and also to the Oakland Police Officer’s Association, who lost their colleagues and friends.

As first respondents to homicide and violent crime in a disadvantaged community, we at The C.L.A.E.R. Project are not strangers to death, destruction, and grieving families. We know that at this time the officer’s families need love, support, and above anything else, answers.

This tragedy is horrific, but not unexplainable. Mr. Mixon was a part of a deeply flawed and broken system of ex-offender reentry. The parole board is severely backlogged, with too many cases and not enough agents to manage them. Mr. Mixon’s parole agent manages over 70 cases, so its no wonder that he missed the signals that Mr. Mixon had gone back to his old ways.

Many news reports since the shooting have noted that Mr. Mixon’s parole agent did everything “by the book”. This is a clear and devastating sign that “by the book” is clearly not good enough, and that the parole system as it stands is a major threat to public safety. Like many parolees, Mr. Mixon was allowed to skate through the system and various reentry programs until he finally violated his parole on February 19th. Our overcrowded prisons show that this pattern is not extraordinary, but it fact, is the norm.

The parole system and any ex-offender reentry programs cannot be successful without using a direct and personal model of intervention and prevention like the one used by The C.L.A.E.R. Project. Rather than promote programs that allow participants to meet the absolute bare minimum just to get by, the parole board must find ways to engage ex-offenders through civic participation, job training, anger management, and drug rehabilitation. Without all of these elements we cannot expect parolees to triumph and successfully reenter society.

The C.L.A.E.R. Project is praying for the grieving mothers, sons, and wives of these brave officers. We are also praying for a comprehensive reentry program for ex-offenders, and a subsequent increase in safety for everyone.