Safety
Loved ones and acquaintances attended an event in honor of the late Brandy Martell on Friday in Oakland. Martell, a 37-year-old transgender woman, was killed in downtown Oakland on April 30. Witnesses said she sitting in her car parked at the corner of Franklin and 13th Streets when an unknown suspect shot her repeatedly through the partially open window. While members of the public have raised concerns that this was a hate crime, the Oakland Police Department is still investigating the case.
Seven-year-old Jose Hernandez swiped through images on his mother’s tablet device in Oakland’s Verdes Carter Park as they took their place in a swelling crowd of parents and other children waiting for events marking the National Missing Children’s Day to begin.
In an effort to get more illegal guns off the streets of Oakland, the city’s police department is now collaborating with the federal government. Oakland Police officers have been partnering with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) on a four-month campaign that targeted robbery crews responsible for much of the violent crime in the city, OPD Chief Howard Jordan said at a press conference on Tuesday morning at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building.
Brandy Martell, 37, a Hayward resident, was killed in downtown Oakland early Sunday morning. Martell, who identified as transsexual, was in her car at the corner of Franklin and 13th Streets in Oakland’s city center when she was shot repeatedly through the window and side door. Hers was one of three murders in the city that night.
The Oakland Police Department announced Thursday that officers had raided a commercial building in East Oakland and seized approximately $1 million worth of marijuana as well as a stash of weapons and body armor.
Nearly six months after the first clashes between police officers and Occupy Oakland protesters in the middle of downtown Oakland garnered national attention, the Oakland Police Department is changing its crowd control policies, chief Howard Jordan announced at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Justin Samaniego is attending the Oakland Police Department’s Citizens Police Academy because he wants to become a police officer. Jan Gilbrecht signed up because she believes that citizens need to be aware of the OPD’s practices and make sure the department is following the rules. Gilbrecht and Samaniego were two of 45 people who attend the first night of OPD’s Citizens Police Academy, which is for Oakland residents and department applicants who are interested in learning more about OPD’s “policies and procedures” according to the course booklet that’s passed out to each of the students.
Until April 2, when a shooter killed seven and injured three students and staff members at Oikos University, few in Oakland had even heard of the school. Now, reports about the school’s future are mixed. University officials have signaled that they may begin holding classes off-campus, and state officials have raised concerns about Oikos students’ pass rate on a national nursing exam.
Trayvon Martin was killed more than six weeks ago, and Oakland and Sanford, Florida are nearly 3,000 miles apart. But that didn’t dim the outrage of a group of about 30 people gathered at the intersection of International Boulevard and 71st Avenue in East Oakland on Tuesday afternoon to “demand justice for Trayvon Martin.”
“It’s been six weeks since Trayvon was murdered and Zimmerman is still walking free. What kind of a system is this?” said D’andre Teeter of Berkeley, an organizer for the demonstration. “This is a system that protects this kind of racism.”