OAKLAND — First, the Oakland Police Department put out a Cinco de Mayo news release called “Fiesta Time or Jail Time” that equated the cultural holiday with getting buzzed on margaritas and shots of tequila. Then, early Tuesday, after receiving complaints that some of the language in the advisory about extra DUI patrols was offensive, police officials issued an apology. But apparently that was not enough. By Tuesday afternoon the department said it was pulling the plug on the special enforcement plans.
“The decision was made that that particular operation was going to be canceled,” police Spokeswoman Johnna Watson said. Watson said she could not say why.
Watson stressed that the department would still deploy extra officers who will be on the alert for drunken driving and other criminal activity during the holiday. However, she said, the specific DUI traffic patrols that are paid for by a state grant will be moved to another date.
The decision came just hours after a public apology for an advisory that the department called “completely insensitive to the cultural holiday.” The message said, “In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has become synonymous with festive fiestas and salty margaritas,” and later added ” … present-day celebrations often lead to drunken driving.”
Watson said the department had received a half dozen email complaints. “It’s important not to lose focus that our intention is to remind everyone of public safety and if you are going to be drinking, to designate a sober driver,” Watson said. “At the same time, we have to be careful about our language and not use words that can be offensive.”
The language was drafted by the California Office of Traffic Safety, and used by other law enforcement agencies as well.
The fifth of May commemorates Mexico’s victory over France at the Battle of Puebla during the Franco-Mexican War. But like St. Patrick’s Day, New Year’s Eve and July Fourth, the holiday is also associated with large numbers of drunken-driving incidents.
Oakland City Councilman Abel Guillen, who is Mexican-American, said he can see how some people would find the news release offensive. “Not everyone celebrates that day by drinking margaritas,” Guillen said. He’s helping organize a Cinco de Mayo event called “The State of Latinos in California,” at LinkedIn in San Francisco.
Oakland chef Dominica Rice-Cisneros is also pushing back against perceptions of the fifth of May. “It gives people an excuse to drink and be rude and is geared more toward a frat boy mentality,” she said. “We’ve always hated that side.”
Rice-Cisneros will be holding her first “Decolonizing Cinco de Mayo” dinner at Cosecha Cafe. It will pay tribute to Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, who was born May 5, 1801.
“This is a way of taking Cinco de Mayo back,” she said.
Not everyone was offended by the OPD Cinco de Mayo advisory.
“Unfortunately people take advantage to open up parking lots and sell beer and cause problems,” says former City Councilman Ignacio De La Fuente, who represented the Fruitvale district when the city organized the Cinco de Mayo celebration. “I guess that’s why I don’t see it as being so insensitive like other people.”
Contact Tammerlin Drummond at 510-208-6468. Follow her at Twitter.com/Tammerlin.
