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Oakland police need support in crime-ridden city

Uploaded: Nov 30, 2021
The riots and looting of the summer of 2020 have now turned into organized theft rings attacking luxury stores and mainline retailers alike.
To see the video of these planned attacks and how helpless clerks and customers are to intervene is shocking. Reports have indicated that it’s easy for the gangs to use the internet to move the stolen items quickly and efficiently.
Frankly, it was a shock last summer to see the San Leandro car dealerships attacked as well as Nordstrom in Broadway Plaza in downtown Walnut Creek. The city and the shopping center partnered to assign off-duty officers to provide additional security, but that’s no match for hammer or sledgehammer bearing thugs that out-number them by 10 or more.
The organized theft rings around Union Square in San Francisco certainly got the mayor’s attention as well as the police chief and the embattled progressive district attorney, Chesa Boudin, who is facing a recall next year. He and colleagues of similar philosophy routinely don’t charge minor crimes—he made a point of announcing three felony charges last week.
My friend, retired sheriff’s lieutenant Jim Knudsen of Pleasanton, forwarded an East Bay Times opinion piece written by the president of the Oakland Police Officers Association, Barry Donelan.
Donelan wrote, “There is mayhem on the streets of Oakland. Last weekend alone, we saw homicides, shootings, carjacking, lootings and robberies. Uniformed Oakland Police officers were shot at twice in three days. Communities around us also saw crime. In San Francisco and Walnut Creek, caravans of marauding thieves looted high-end stores. However, in those cities, there was a different response: Elected officials condemned the theft and destruction and vowed to bring those responsible to justice.
“In Oakland, the six members of the City Council that voted to defund their police department responded with deafening silence. Oakland has had historical challenges with violent crime. But this year, we are at crisis levels. Homicides are up to 124, with more than a month still left in the year, compared to 109 for all last year. Homicides and shootings combined have reached 675, compared to 604 for all last year. Carjacking has reached epidemic levels, with 460 vehicles violently taken from drivers on Oakland streets so far this year — that’s more than one a day — compared to 296 for all of last year.”
He continued, “During a typical 24-hour period, about 120 street cops and sergeants are assigned to patrol and endeavor to respond to an average 2,000 calls for service. Last weekend, as officers struggled with the mayhem, our 911 communications center stopped accepting nonemergency calls and citizen requests for police reports. Even after taking this drastic measure, by Saturday afternoon, 229 emergency calls were awaiting a police response, and there were no officers to send. Police commanders resorted to calling in off-duty officers as reinforcements to try to stop the surging violence.”
Donelan also pointed out that twice as many officers were resigning each month as normal. Governors in Tennessee and Florida have publicly welcomed any officers who want to move into their state.
Knudsen urged concerned people to reach out to their county supervisor to encourage support for the embattled department. We’re fortunate here that our elected officials have supported the police and stopped way short of defunding or reimagining the departments.

Democracy.
What is it worth to you?

Comments

Posted by Lahommed, a resident of Dublin,
on Nov 30, 2021 at 11:00 am

Lahommed is a registered user.

Who does Oakland have to blame but their own mayor and city council with their stupid rhetoric nonsense of BLM and defund the police insanity last year and this year. Now they pay the price for liberal judges and DA's who will not charge appropriately the laws we have on the books already. This all could have been avoided but NO with democrat liberal imbeciles this is what you get and how many people have to be victims before enough is enough. Maybe if you guys at the media would start holding many of these imbecile democrats responsible like you did Trump much of this could be avoided. The media and bad politicians both contributed to this BS. Shame on you all


Posted by Dirk Svensen, a resident of Country Fair,
on Nov 30, 2021 at 11:56 am

Dirk Svensen is a registered user.

This is the kind of statistical and comparative reporting that is missing from our local and regional news. Why is this not being reported?? It is critically important for citizens know the impact of certain policies on their personal safety, and how this is affecting brick-and-mortar businesses they need. Oakland's crime is now spilling into the suburbs at a greater rate.

Oakland likely has three shifts per day; so there may only be 40 street officers on at any one time. They are no match for a group of 20-80 criminals that descend on a business, lasting only a few minutes. Is help from the Sheriff, CHP, surrounding agencies practical? They cannot respond fast enough to help, so they must be present in the city all of the time - and be paid. Most cities only have 1.25 to 1.65 officers for every thousand citizens, and only a fraction are on on duty at any one time.

No wonder the rate of personal gun ownership has reached records level over the past two years, to a point last year where no handguns or ammunition were even available to purchase locally - display cases empty; I have never seen that before. And for the B&M businesses - they are now competing with Amazon, the pandemic, riots and now this. Could this be the end of retail businesses in the metropolitan areas?

Tennessee and Florida (including ID and WY) are looking good to many of us as well. Why? These states don't subject their citizens to grand social justice experiments at the expense of their citizens. We all need to wake up and consider who we are voting for in our local elections.


Posted by Jake Waters, a resident of Birdland,
on Nov 30, 2021 at 7:47 pm

Jake Waters is a registered user.

The retired S.O. Lieutenant and the two comments above cover anything I would have written, so I Just want to give kudos to Tim for keeping this subject front and center. Democrats need to be reminded often that they are on the wrong side of history. We need Cops. Only morons would come up with the idea to defund them, particularly in the third world country like Oakland.


Posted by KG, a resident of California Reflections,
on Dec 1, 2021 at 5:53 pm

KG is a registered user.

I agree that the same criminals who broke into stores and looted last year are now at it with mall thefts. I also agree that we need to re-energize our police force, especially in large cities, not defund them. I recently saw a report about how the pilot policing program in Austin, Texas, that seems to have had a good start.

I don't agree with associating BLM with these thugs. I went to a lot of peaceful BLM protests in Oakland and San Francisco.

There is a minority of Democratic politicians, mostly at local and state levels who are on the extreme left and support defunding the police, etc. A majority of Democrats support the police including majority of African Americans and Latinos.

Both parties have extremists (eg. Green, Boebert, etc. from the Republican Party) who do and say things that most people


Posted by Willy, a resident of Old Towne,
on Dec 2, 2021 at 10:33 am

Willy is a registered user.

I personally think the best way to stop these crimes is to allow the Police to shot if these criminals are told to halt and don't. I think the message would be very clear and be a strong deterrent. Enough is enough!


Posted by Gene, a resident of Happy Valley,
on Dec 2, 2021 at 11:56 am

Gene is a registered user.

We have created a society where there is little to no consequences to the acts that these thugs are performing. If they are caught they are rarely prosecuted nor penalized in any significant manner. Until the risks and consequences of bad behavior are sufficient enough to deter it the bad behavior will continue.


Posted by Malcolm Hex, a resident of San Ramon,
on Dec 3, 2021 at 9:50 am

Malcolm Hex is a registered user.

KG states that he does not agree with associating BLM with thugs. C'mon now, surely you jest. What group or groups were responsible for torching our cities? BLM and Antifa. And by the way, the majority of those riots happened in Democratically run cities: Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York, etc. facts are facts, KS. Now, let's take a little look under the hood to find out who's behind all this destruction.

Ibram X Kendi is an American author, professor, anti-racist activist, and proponent of critical race theory. However, it's not just critical race theory Kendi is concerned about, it's about ideology. Kendi said the following: “The life of racism cannot be separated from the life of capitalism," he says. “In order to truly be anti-racist, you also have to truly be anti-capitalist." This is what Antifa is all about.

The self-avowed Marxist, Patrisse Cullors, co-fouder of BLM, is a proponent of critical race theory, defunding the police, and doing away with prisons. She also cites Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong, as "provid[ing] a new understanding around what our economies could look like." By the way, Cullor's snapped up four high-end homes as donations poured into BLM - something like $3.2 million. Makes ya wonder where she got that money from, don't it?

And least we forget about that former Governor of the State of New York, Andrew Cuomo - another Democrat. Boy howdy, he sure went out in still, eh? And least I forget to mention his brother, Chris Cuomo - another Democrat who has since been suspended by CNN for his unprofessional conduct regarding his brother's affairs. Those two are shining examples of good Democrats, ain't they?

And last but not least, the current Disaster in Chief... President Mumbles and Fumbles. His gaffs are too numerous to mention here, but the main point Is he is another Dem-o-crat.


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