Athletics Offer Support & Donation to Local Groups in Wake of Downtown Oakland Protests
With the City of Oakland in yet another day of protests and police pushbacks in the wake of the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, the Oakland A’s reached out to the community Sunday evening.
The club issued a statement of support and said it was making a donation of $100,000 to the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, the Oakland NAACP and 100 Black Men of the Bay Area.
These are all groups that work daily in Oakland and the East Bay trying to serve the community.
The A’s statement read as follows: “We are heartbroken and saddened by the inequities that persist in this country and the impact felt in our community. We stand in solidarity with the Black community in Oakland and beyond against racism and injustice.
“We will continue to support local organizations by donating $100,000 today to the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce, Oakland NAACP, and 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, who work tirelessly to serve the needs of the Black community.”
The statement and the donation came in the wake of trouble times in downtown Oakland where on Friday one federal security officer was killed and another was critically wounded. The Department of Homeland Security called it an act of domestic terrorism.
Speaking with the local media, former Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said that without a motive having been established, it would be a “stretch” to call the killing domestic terrorism. As of Sunday, the second federal officer was in critical condition in a nearby hospital.
Protests resumed in Oakland Saturday and again Sunday, in both cases the crowds chanting “Say his name – George Floyd,” the African American man who died after a Minneapolis police office knelt on his neck for nine minutes Monday.
The Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) system’s closest station to the confrontations at 12 Street/Oakland City Center was closed because with demonstrators facing off with police less than two blocks away from the station’s entrance.
Video of Floyd’s death at the hands of a white police office has ignited protests around the country, and some of those have, as is the case in Oakland, seen violence.
Follow Athletics insider John Hickey on Twitter: @JHickey3
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