Safety
by HENRY JONES Nov. 16–International Boulevard and 68th Street was a big spectacle Friday night. Orange cones, squad cars, and floodlights took over the southbound side of International. Tow trucks idled around the corner. Cops waved traffic through with big red flashlights, looking like authoritarian movie theater ushers, stopping every fifth car to check for driver’s licenses and any signs of intoxication. An audience of at least fifty people from the neighborhood watched from across the street, most dressed in…
By CLARE MAJOR Nov. 17–A bad day got worse this afternoon for drivers who decided to get back behind the wheel after their driver’s licenses were suspended this afternoon at the Alameda County Superior Court: the Oakland Police Department had a sting waiting for them. After those on the docket surrendered their licenses to the court, undercover officers in the courtroom relayed their descriptions to motorcycle officers outside. Those officers watched them to see if they called for a ride,…
by MAGGIE FAZELI FARD Nov. 21–A bicyclist was mugged and threatened four doors from her Locksley Avenue home last week in an incident that police call “a random act,” but that worried neighbors and may have been the second attack on a local cyclist in recent weeks.
With this week’s police academy graduation, the Oakland Police Department finally reaches its officer staffing goals–and exceeds them. Click here for the story.
by SAMSON REINY Nov. 14–In a packed auditorium at Montera Middle School last night, Oakland Police Cpt. Anthony Toribio commended both the Montclair neighborhood and Oakland officers for capturing two suspects believed to have been involved in a number of forced-entry burglaries in the Oakland Hills throughout September and October. Charles Langley and Kevin Simmons are charged with multiple felonies, and as more forensic evidence becomes available, more charges will likely be added. On Oct. 28, officers apprehended the duo…
by ISABEL ESTERMAN Nov. 13–Nanci, 50, a teacher living in Montclair, hardly ever uses her front door. She and her family just go in through the carport. But one bright Tuesday afternoon in September, a burglar came right through it. “They just broke the door,” says Nanci, who asked her last name be withheld because of the recent burglary. The deadbolt was locked, she and her husband say, but their hollow-core door barely slowed the burglar down. It gave way…
Nov. 5 – Measure NN, which would have increased taxes to expand the city’s police force, won 54 percent of the vote, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
While the presidential election and the same-sex marriage initiative rule California headlines, little-noticed Proposition 3 could have serious impact in North Oakland. Click here for the story.
By ISABEL ESTERMAN OCT. 28 — A police chase through the Oakland hills ended yesterday with the arrest of two men police say may be connected to burglaries throughout the Bay Area–including a rash of recent Montclair break-ins in which homes’ front doors were kicked hard enough to force them open. Oakland police said officers apprehended Chas Langley, 24, of Marin City and Kevin Simmons of Denver, Colo. Monday afternoon after the men tried – and failed – to ram their car…