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TexasTowelie

(111,315 posts)
Tue Feb 14, 2017, 11:24 PM Feb 2017

Oakland releases more proof police were aware of problems at Ghost Ship

OAKLAND — Despite getting called to an illegal rave at the Ghost Ship warehouse — complete with $25 cover charge and sales of booze and drugs — an Oakland police officer in 2015 decided to break up the party but not cite the uncooperative promoter for code violations, according to newly released records.

Oakland officials, who had heavily censored police incident reports last week before releasing more than 600 pages of documents under threat of lawsuit by this newspaper, released those same records Tuesday with key passages now intact. The new information provided the clearest picture yet of the advance warning the city had of unsafe conditions and illegal activities at the warehouse before 36 people died there Dec. 2 in an inferno during a dance party.

At this newspaper’s request, other records that had previously been redacted were also released Tuesday, adding new details of a fight involving the art collective’s founder, Derick Almena, along with an arson investigation at the site, both in 2014.

Between mid-2014 and the deadly fire, police visited the building and associated properties nearly three dozen times, dealing with thefts, reports of child abuse, a stabbing, gun threats, drug sales, illegal housing and more.

Read more: http://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/02/14/exclusive-city-releases-more-proof-police-were-aware-of-problems-at-ghost-ship/

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