You Tell Us: A gang injunction could have saved my daughter’s life

The city of Oakland is a beautiful place. It’s visually attractive from the hills to Lake Merritt to the Port and Jack London Square. We have the Raiders, the A’s, and the Warriors. We are lucky enough to have Children’s Hospital to heal our wonderful children. The fabulous architecture, gardens and multi-colored sunsets are gorgeous. And the weather is perfect, with or without fog. There are many residents, like myself, that believe Oakland could still be one of the best cities in the Bay Area to live in, because of all we have. I just wish I could enjoy it.

But we live under the threat of gang violence every moment of every day. From the north, east, west and south no one is safe from mindless, murderous groups with guns. My shy and innocent teen daughter was slaughtered by stray bullets meant for someone else, fired from a carload of boys out for revenge of some rival, or who knows what, on a beautiful sunny afternoon in North Oakland. We did not live in the area; my girl drove two girlfriends there to visit another friend. They took a stroll to get some ice cream and as they returned, a car pulled up, bullets were fired by unskilled shooters at some males in the area, but their bullets killed my daughter instead, immediately. She was such a lovable person. She did not belong to a gang. She preferred using her free time working a job for the extras that she wanted, or to have friends over, or to be in her room listening to music. She had no drugs or alcohol in her body at autopsy. She did not run the streets. My girl did not deserve to be murdered and she did not know her murderers.

Her family does not deserve to live in grief for the rest of our lives, but we will now because these murderers take lives without thought or care and they use guns.

If the anti-gang injunctions were in place before she was slaughtered, she may still be alive. If they were in place today throughout the city, like in North Oakland now, maybe these wonderful kids that were shot recently due to gun/gang violence would be alive, not murdered (or fighting for their lives in the hospital). They are not coming back. No matter how hard we pray or wish, these kids, our kids, will never come back to us. They will have no graduations, love, marriages, homes, children, grandkids, hugs or kisses.

And they are gone for no reason at all. It is time to save our kids, loved ones, friends and ourselves from this horrible fate. The injunctions include restrictions on only those verified, gang affiliated offenders with criminal pasts. The pain we feel after losing our kids to murder is endless and ever-present and should not happen to one other person. We need to stand behind our city officials, City Attorney John Russo and Police Chief Anthony Batts, as they are trying to keep us alive, including the children and families of these murdering gang members. We cannot determine how many lives are saved by these injunctions, but we can count how many lives are lost, as we do, one by one, sometimes day by day, until the end of the year when we tally over 100. Whose child will be next? Yours? And aren’t we all tired of hearing gun shots all the time, everywhere?

The attorneys representing the anti-gang injunction opponents speak without first hand knowledge of the life-crushing blow these gang-related murders make on the remaining family members. If they truly knew that 24 hours a day, without stop, we feel ripped apart, shattered, unable to breathe, unable to function, terrorized, often vengeful, lost and hopeless, they may re-think their positions. But most likely, these attorneys will not understand what they are doing until one of their own children is randomly murdered by those they represent. To represent someone in court for their criminal acts is the job of the criminal attorney, however, defending the right of these offenders to continue their criminal acts, while using guns, is far from ethical, moral or human. These attorneys should be defending the right of life for the hundreds of victims slaughtered by their gun-using clients.

And they talk of a conspiracy? The conspiracy is the hot air, smoke and mirrors they present to the public defending  their client’s heinous crimes.

The city of Oakland can be a beautiful place to live in again; however, with these anti-gang injunction opponent attorneys advocating the need for gang mentality and criminal actions against the innocent by their representation, we won’t stand a chance of having a peaceful existence in this beautiful city. How can they do that to us? Where do these attorneys live?

D. Davis is an Oakland resident.

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You Tell Us is Oakland North’s community Op-Ed page, featuring opinion pieces submitted by readers on Oakland-related topics. Have something to say? Send essays of 500-1,000 words to staff@oaklandnorth.net. We’d love to hear from you!

All essays reflect the opinions of their authors, and not of the Oakland North staff or the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Oakland North reserves the right to edit submissions for length, clarity and spelling/grammar. You Tell Us submissions must be written in civil and non-offensive language. We do not publish hate speech, libelous material, unsubstantiated allegations or rumors, or personal attacks on individuals or groups.

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