Ceasefire
In this episode of the “Tales of Two Cities” podcast, we explore the different ways we look at tracks and borders — the boundaries that separate us, bring us together, or control our movement.
On Friday morning, the Oakland Police Department Ceasefire Team and the FBI arrested five people and recovered weapons and drugs in a raid targeting the Ghost Town gang.
Individuals and groups work to diversify the local police force to show Oaklanders that their community is being properly represented.
Voters will be deciding this November on Measure Z, which if approved would continue a parking and parcel tax that funds public safety services and violence prevention programming.
California Assemblymember Nancy Skinner has proposed legislation that would allow for restraining orders to be placed on individuals who are deemed at risk for violent behavior with a firearm.
For six weeks this summer, no one was murdered in Oakland, the longest stretch without an unlawful killing since the 1990s. That streak was broken on Sunday, September 14.
After serving for a year as interim police chief, Sean Whent, an 18-year veteran of the force, was named permanent chief of Oakland Police Department by Mayor Jean Quan at Oakland City Hall Wednesday. “As a no-nonsense chief, he has led the Department’s reorganization, built a strong leadership team and strengthened police collaboration with neighborhood leaders,” Quan said in making the appointment. “We’ve made significant progress in the last year, reducing crime and completing mandated federal reforms. We have much…
In a tightly-moderated discussion Thursday evening at Temple Sinai in Oakland, mayoral candidates took questions from journalists, querying one another and making closing statements. Many aimed shots at Mayor Jean Quan, but most refrained from taking jabs at one another.
Pastor Billy Dixon Jr. leaned forward in his seat. “Do you know what 26 seconds of solid gunfire sounds like?” he asked. He placed his cell phone on the table, and started a timer. “Bang bang bang … !” he cried repeatedly, as a table full of Oakland North reporters, students at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, looked on in silence. Dixon wasn’t joking. As co-chair of the Oakland Ceasefire program and a longtime resident of Oakland, he…