Safety
A young African American man enters the grocery store, hides behind a shelf, holding in his left hand what appears to be a gun. His hand is shaking. He is breathing heavily, bleeding from an injury, fighting his pain. The young man starts talking to himself. “I was born in jail, I grew up in jail,” he shouts. “I was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around my wrist, fluid in my lungs so I couldn’t say ***t. They should…
In one of her last organizing projects as mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan announced last week a new effort to stop the sexual exploitation of children along a stretch of East Oakland. The city began putting more police officers on the streets late last month in order to discourage pimps, as well as adult males seeking to buy sex, from preying on victims and minors at risk.
As many as 170 people were arrested in Oakland after protests erupted in the days following a grand jury decision in Missouri to not indict the officer responsible for the death of Michael Brown. Over three nights, arrests were made in connection with vandalism in the Temescal and downtown areas, as well as attempts to shut down local freeways.
More than 400 protestors marched through the rain-soaked streets of Oakland Wednesday night in sympathy with the family and supporters of Eric Garner, an unarmed African American man who died at the hands of New York City police. On Wednesday morning, a New York City grand jury declined to charge a white police officer who used a banned chokehold that resulted in Garner’s death. The decision set off protests in several cities. Demonstrators in New York City tied up Grand…
Sex worker advocacy groups in the Bay Area have taken to social media and traditional media methods to express their outrage over Oakland’s recent updates to an existing “nuisance eviction ordinance” for housing. Advocates believe that the newest addition will allow landlords to unfairly evict those who are voluntarily working as sex workers in commercial and residential spaces. Oakland’s city council unanimously voted on October 21 to amend an existing eviction ordinance—originally instated in 2004—to allow landlords and/or the city…
For three months, Phyllis left her house every night at 9:30 p.m., stood on the sidewalk and looked around, the streetlight illuminating 54th Street in a fluorescent haze. She studied the windows of the homes next door and across the street, wondering if anyone inside might have peered out and seen what happened on the night of June 5. Her gaze would drift to the ground in front of her driveway, stopping on a fist-sized square drawn in chalk. If…
A second night of protests in Oakland started peacefully but became aggressive, with looting, vandalism, and fires in the streets in the Temescal and in Emeryville.
Oakland is feeling the effects of protests that swept the city after Monday night’s news from Ferguson. Vandalised businesses are boarded up, some closed. The police department announced that 43 were arrested during Monday’s protests.
In this photo gallery, Oakland North photographers capture imagers of the local protests Monday night, following the announcement from Ferguson, Mo., that a grand jury decided not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for the August 9 shooting of teenager Michael Brown.