Crime
Wearing royal blue shirts that said, “A little boy not forgotten, Hasanni Campbell,” a smattering of people representing the non-profit organization Citizens for the Lost gathered in front of the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in downtown Oakland to remember the missing Fremont boy on Tuesday.
It’s been one year since Hasanni Campbell went missing. The little boy, who had cerebral palsy and used braces to walk, would be six years old now. The Oakland Police Department still considers the boy’s foster father, Louis Ross, a primary suspect in his disappearance.
Carrying bowls of pasta salad, watermelon, and meat to grill, on Tuesday night people left their houses and streamed into hundreds of neighborhood gatherings being hosted throughout the city as part of National Night Out—a nationwide block party that encourages people to get to know their neighbors and promotes community safety.
Since the layoff of 80 police officers, Oakland’s policing strategy has changed, and neighborhood safety groups are grappling with how to react. The Oakland Police Department plans to focus more on emergencies and less on community problem-solving and the investigation of non-violent crimes.
Wearing a white tank top spotted with blood, Susan Harman, a 69-year-old former school principal and resident of Oakland, told a crowd of reporters that she was a victim of police aggression during the protests following the July 8 Johannes Mehserle verdict. The tank top she was wearing was the same one she had on that night when, she said, while peacefully protesting she was pushed down, hit on the head with a baton and arrested.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you could be taking dance lessons in Jack London Square or having a drink. But no, we’ve had too important a week, haven’t we?” With that, Aimee Alison, host of the KPFA Morning Show and founder of OaklandSeen.com, opened the Oakland mayoral forum on public safety held Thursday evening, July 15th at the Lakeshore Baptist Church.
As the Oakland Police Department works to identify the people involved in the property damage and looting during the protest following the Johannes Mehserle verdict, one anarchist, who came from out of state and was arrested that night, speaks about anarchists’ role in the Oakland riot and the “grassroots global civil war.”
The Oakland Police Department has released photos of people allegedly looting and destroying property during the protests following last week’s verdict in the 2009 shooting death of Oscar Grant. They published 15 photos on the department website in the hopes that citizens will come forward to identify those in the photos.
Johannes Mehserle won’t be sentenced until later this year, but his involuntary manslaughter conviction could mean he faces up to 14 years in a state prison. Because the notoriety of his crime, the ex-BART police officer could be gravely at risk among other prisoners, but the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has a system to protect high-profile inmates like Mehserle.