Guns continue to be a huge problem in Oakland. Most of us, I suspect, have been quietly enjoying the holiday season, trying to stay warm and dry, maybe bingeing on streaming T.V., eating and drinking and enjoying our loved ones. But the thugs—the bad guys who won’t let us live in peace—continue on their rampage, as the most recent ShotSpotter data from OPD shows.
During the week of Dec. 20 - Dec. 26, gunshots detected by ShotSpotter were up by double digits over the same period last year in all 5 police areas of the city. The biggest increase, 53%, was in Area 1 (Downtown/West Oakland), followed by Area 5 (East Oakland/Knowland Park), up 34%; Area 4 (East Oakland/Mills/Leona), up 33%; Area 3 (Fruitvale/Central Oakland), up 32%; and Area 2 (North Oakland/Uptown), up 23%. Because of this shocking rise, OPD “encourages residents & businesses to consider installing security cameras.”
Yes, it’s come to that. We’re basically on our own, folks.
In the coming year of 2022, the City Council and its defund-the-police types are going to renew their efforts to further weaken the police department, so we’re going to have to keep a close eye on them. This is a secretive City Council, mind you. They’re guarding the chicken coop, theoretically, but who’s watching them?
Three council seats are up in 2022: District 2 (Bas), District 4 (currently Thao, who won’t be running again) and District 6 (Taylor, who also won’t be running again). Concerning Bas, I think the Coalition will oppose her because she’s a bit too woke for us; at this early point, we don’t know who might run against her. The other open districts, 4 and 6, are question marks. We’ll just have to see who announces; it may be a case of “pick your poison.”
Oakland is a dangerous city, despite the protestations of the anti-police crowd. Although we’re not on the list of the ten most dangerous cities in the U.S. (Stockton is the only California city to achieve that dubious distinction), Oakland is consistently among the hundred most dangerous cities. According to a recent analysis, Oaklanders have a 1 in 76 likelihood of encountering danger—far less than, say, East St. Louis’s 1 in 36, but far more than the 100th most dangerous city, Farmington New Mexico (1 in 88). What can we as a city do about crime? Clearly we can hire more police, and release them from the shackles the Police Commission, City Council, and the odious Negotiated Settlement Agreement have imposed upon them. Oakland needs—in Chief Armstrong’s view—at least 1,100 sworn officers in order to address our level of criminality. That is a lot more than the 750, or 790, or whatever it is, that the City Council reluctantly is prepared to fund. The Coalition for a Better Oakland is going to be lobbying heavily for 1,100 police officers to be in place by the end of next year.
Steve Heimoff