Crime
Many North Oakland residents said they were in disbelief after learning Tuesday afternoon that the jury in the Johannes Mehserle trial won’t include any African Americans. “It’s a slap to the face of people with color,” said Oakland resident Audra Robinson at the MacArthur BART station Wednesday.
For nearly 30 years, a con artist named Alan Young has been living the high life around the Bay Area – on other people’s tabs. He pretends to be what he’s not – a member of a famous Motown group, like the Temptations or the Four Tops.
If you are arrested in Oakland, prepare to have your immigration history checked. Alameda County is now participating in a federal immigration enforcement program that mandates fingerprint checks of everyone booked at local jails to determine whether they are subject to deportation.
Over one hundred students and parents gathered for the conference that was a collaboration between the Criminal Justice Department at Merritt College and the Oakland Police Activities League (PAL), a non-profit organization that aims to forge a relationship between kids and cops.
The proposed Oakland gang injunction has, in recent weeks, been the focus of heated listserv debates, community meetings and a rally held Thursday afternoon in front of the Alameda County Superior Court. The injunction, which aims to restrict certain behaviors of members of the North Side Oakland gang, has sparked considerable debate about the balance between crime prevention and individual rights. But supporters and detractors of the injunction will have to wait for a definitive pronouncement on its future.
“There’s another one there,” the undercover cop says to me from the driver’s seat. He gestures up the street with a nod. Half a block ahead, I can see who he is talking about: a young woman crosses the street wearing tight jeans tucked into black leather knee-high boots with tall, spiky heels. Her black hair hangs in a braid pulled through the white sequined baseball cap covering her head. She wears a black tank top with thin straps, and…
When is a homeless person a vagrant nuisance? And when is a homeless person just a fellow human being victimized by circumstance and bad luck? Sometimes with the indigent, there’s more than meets the eye.
Oakland Community Organizations (OCO), a faith-based federation of fifty congregations and schools, held a meeting Thursday night to educate and engage the community about violence intervention strategies.
For decades, the law enforcement and justice systems have treated juvenile sex workers as criminals, not victims, arresting and locking them up. Now the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office and an Oakland nonprofit that works with sexually exploited youth are exploring alternatives to incarceration. But what’s the best way to do it?