"But we have, as of late, experienced a lot of violence related to San Francisco gangs and groups - from as far as Antioch, Vallejo - that have come over to Oakland and committed several violent acts," he said.
How can I be in a city where I can't even drive down the street without the fear of somebody putting a gun to my head?" Dee said.Īrmstrong, the police chief, said much of the violence could be attributed to “homegrown groups and gangs from Oakland." "I'm calling because I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired," said one caller, who introduced herself as Dee, urging officials to turn their words into actions. Many of the Oakland residents who called in to Forum conveyed a sense of fear and exasperation, some angrily accusing city leaders and law enforcement of failing to stem the violence.
"Arguments that before would be settled with words now may take a fistfight or even a gunfight." "And I think we also have to address the fact that all of us are left a little bit vulnerable mental health-wise since the pandemic," added Cespedes. Schaaf attributed the alarming rise to various factors, including the slowdown of the court system gang recruitment of "younger and younger juveniles who get treated quite differently in our court system," which, she adds "has not yet adjusted to our new reality" and the dramatic decrease in police staffing as a result of "exhaustion over COVID and the defund sentiment in Oakland" that, she said, has affected the enforcement of Ceasefire. Homicides in the city were up more than 50% in 2021, when the number of murders peaked at 100 for the first time in a decade. But the pandemic ushered in a new wave of violence across the region and the country, one that has hit Oakland particularly hard and has yet to recede. In fact, homicides were at a 50-year low in the Bay Area throughout much of the 2010s. And that all went out the window with COVID." Wave of violence We were recognized nationally as having one of the most dramatic and sustained reductions in gun violence that any city (has) ever achieved. "That very comprehensive kind of carrot-and-stick approach of Ceasefire had really created what many people called the Oakland Miracle. "It's just heartbreaking, because it really felt like Oakland had turned the corner by utilizing Ceasefire," said Schaaf, referring to Operation Ceasefire, a multipronged approach to reducing street violence through direct interventions and access to city services. Schaaf, who ends her tenure as mayor this year after serving two terms, lamented the alarming increase in bloodshed in her city. “What we're facing is … an ugly, perfect storm of conditions that all of urban America is facing,” said Guillermo Cespedes, Oakland’s violence prevention chief, who joined Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong on KQED’s Forum this week.
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