Crime

BOSS graduates celebrate changing their own lives

Stay the course. That was the message given to those sitting in the front row of Oakland’s city council chambers Friday night, when friends and supporters gathered to watch 29 men and women graduate from the BOSS Career Training and Employment Center, in a ceremony that acknowledged the significant hurdles they had overcome to gain employment while under the supervision of the Alameda County Probation Department. BOSS, which stands for Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency, is an East Bay non-profit which…

Night shift workers speak out against sexual assault

Leticia Soto—single mother, undocumented worker and rape survivor—stood in the auditorium at the Oakland State Building and addressed the crowd. In one hand, Soto clasped a placard reading: “When you’re alone at night, no one can hear you.” In the other, she gripped the microphone. “Just because I’m an immigrant or just because I’m a janitor does not mean I need to live in fear of being raped,” she said. Soto, along with sexual assault support groups and a union…