Brentwood Press - Index

Brentwood Press - AntiochPress_07.25.08 - Index

A lawsuit against the city
of Antioch, charging that police
are racially targeting African-American
recipients of
Section 8 housing subsidies,
has been revised and expanded
to include a fi fth named plaintiff
and more than 800 unnamed
plaintiffs.
City offi cials are refuting
the new lawsuit as they had the
previous suit, saying that police
are responding to residents’
complaints about the behavior
of troublesome neighbors, and
the offi cers’ actions are not
based on anyone’s skin color.
The new plaintiff in the
lawsuit is Priscilla Bunton, who
joins Karen Coleman, Alyce
Payne, Mary Scott and Santeya
Williams in alleging that
the Antioch Police Department
Community Action Team
(known as the CAT Team) tried
to get her family removed from
the Section 8 program, despite
the family having done nothing
wrong.
The suit alleges that CAT
Team offi cers came to Bunton’s
YOUR HOMETOWN WEEKLY NEWSPAPER
Vol. 8, No. 30 Antioch, California www.antiochpress.com July 25, 2008
Expanded lawsuit charges racism
by Dave Roberts
Staff Writer
residence on Sept. 25, 2006 to
discuss complaints from her
neighbors about noise from juveniles
playing basketball late
at night in her backyard. The
offi cers saw her boyfriend in
the driveway, discovered that
he was wanted on an outstanding
warrant and arrested him.
Offi cers then asked to
search her home, but Bunton
refused unless they had a war-
Photo by Dave Roberts
Gary Gilbert, former head of United Citizens for Better
Neighborhoods, in an interview with Channel 2 at City Hall,
defends the city against charges of police racism.
rant. They didn’t have a warrant
but searched anyway, saying
they were authorized to do
so by her boyfriend’s parolee
status, and found men’s clothing
and personal items in a
closet and bedroom, according
to the suit.
The next day the police
sent a letter to the Contra Costa
Housing Authority in an attempt
to get Bunton removed
from the Section 8 program
because she had an unauthorized
person living with her. The
authority terminated her from
the program.
The suit states that she appealed
the decision to Superior
Court, which sent it back
to the housing authority for
reconsideration due to a lack
of evidence against her and
failure to consider Bunton’s
evidence. The authority then
rescinded its decision to terminate
her, and she remains a
Section 8 recipient. Bunton’s
story is similar to those of the
other four plaintiffs.
The original suit fi led by
Bay Area Legal Aid (BALA)
on behalf of those four plaintiffs
has been superseded by the
new suit. BALA has been replaced
by four other Bay Area
organizations: the ACLU, Public
Advocates, Impact Fund
and Lawyers’ Committee for
Civil Rights of the San Francisco
Bay Area.
Brad Seligman, the lead
lawyer on the class-action suit
fi led in federal court on July
see Lawsuit page 21A
Officials fear train traffic may increase
by Dave Roberts
Staff Writer
East County residents living near
the little-used Moccoco railroad line
will likely need to get accustomed to the
house-shaking, horn-blaring roar of as
many as 40 trains rumbling by each day.
Those trains also will lead to traffi c tieups
at several major intersections.
“This has a tremendously negative
impact on the community,” said Antioch
Mayor Don Freitas at the July 8 City
Council meeting. “That means that cars
will be stopped at Hillcrest, at ‘A’ Street,
at Somersville. There’s going to be issues
of circulation, fi re vehicles, ambulances,
school buses. This is a very big issue for
this community.
“People who have their houses backed
up to this line have not experienced a train
rumbling by and shaking their house and
backyard. We better clearly understand
the impact that it has. It impacts public
safety, economic development, quality of
“ Because of the high cost
of gas and congestion, a lot
of cargo is being moved off of
highways and onto trains. We
are looking at lines we have
had out of service and can be
used to relieve congestion and
help out the environment.
”
Zoe Richmond,
Union Pacific Railroad
life. It also becomes a nuisance.”
Freitas said that the Union Pacifi c
Railroad’s Moccoco Line, which also
runs through Oakley, Brentwood and Byron,
has been primarily used as a storage
yard and hasn’t been maintained or repaired
in decades, forcing trains to travel
no more than 2 to 5 miles per hour on it.
“So when I read that no signifi cant
improvements are planned, that concerns
me from a safety perspective,” he said. “I
want to know exactly what they are going
to do – because they have done nothing
for decades on this particular line. So this
is a big issue.”
Freitas said he’s also concerned about
noise.
“If we are going across Hillcrest, ‘A’
Street and Somersville, those trains will
be using their horns,” he said. “It’s a constant
source of irritation for many people
in this community. If there are 40 trains
that are going to be doing that all during
the day and night, it will exacerbate
a nuisance that a lot of people would like
to see stopped entirely. We are very concerned
about this.”
Union Pacifi c spokeswoman Zoe
Richmond said the plan to run trains on
the Moccoco Line, which has been out of
service for about 20 years, is still in the
see Train page 12A
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INSIDE
Business .......................... 9A
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Community .................... 3A
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