Crime

In the face of criticism, OPD’s Ceasefire strives to move forward

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…

Crime on BART goes up despite new ban on offenders

A new law that gives BART Police the power to prohibit individuals from riding the transit system is not reducing the number of assaults committed in BART stations, according to BART’s Quarterly Service Performance Review. The law, passed in May, gives BART Police the authority to hand out prohibition orders if a person harms an employee, steals, or gets cited for urinating in stations more than three times in 90 days. The ban is for 30 days and can be…

Oakland passes ban on “tools of violence” at protests

Councilmember Noel Gallo’s ordinance prohibiting demonstrators from carrying “tools of violence” went through final passage at Tuesday night’s Oakland City Council meeting, effectively banning items such as hammers, shields and knives from protests. The ordinance was brought up again before the council in light of the protests against George Zimmerman’s acquittal this summer in the Trayvon Martin case in Florida; specifically, after Drew Cribley, a waiter at Flora, was struck in the head with a hammer during the protests. “Hammer”…

Friends and relatives remember Judy Salamon

Salamon, 66, was fatally shot while driving in front of the Home of Peace Cemetery, a 113-year-old Orthodox cemetery on the 2400 block of Fern Street in Oakland in the afternoon of July 24. For her life to end at a place where six million Jews are remembered for eternity is symbolic of her fighting spirit.

City council votes not to censure Councilwoman Brooks

The Oakland City Council has voted not to censure District 6 councilmember Desley Brooks for allegedly interfering with the construction and operation of two recreation center projects in East Oakland. Angry community members attended the meeting Thursday night to defend Brooks. In a recent report the Alameda County Grand Jury accused Brooks of violating city rules in contracting, purchasing and hiring for the Rainbow Teen Center at 58th and International Boulevard and Arroyo Viejo Recreation Center on Krause Avenue. City…