REELING FROM THE news that the city of Oakland missed a deadline for a state grant for a potential $15 million to fight organized retail crime, community leaders gathered Monday for a news conference hosted by the NAACP at Acts Full Gospel Church.
A range of issues were addressed including recent shootings, the missed funding opportunity, the search for a new police chief, a possible business strike and the call for a state of emergency by the Oakland NAACP. In addition to representatives from the church and the NAACP, speakers included Chinatown community leader Carl Chan and District 5 City Councilmember Noel Gallo.
Emotions were high after a pair of weekend shootings. A 42-year-old mother of two died when she was hit by a stray bullet in the Laurel district, and a 25-year-old mother of four remains in critical condition.
“[R]ight now we are under siege under all the attacks, and not only the people, but small businesses are suffering. We want to send a strong message to our city. Enough is enough. …” Carl Chan, former Chinatown Business Association president
Carl Chan, longtime community advocate and former president of the Chinatown Business Association, said that he will be announcing a business strike Wednesday. “Because right now we are under siege under all the attacks, and not only the people, but small businesses are suffering,” he said. “We want to send a strong message to our city. Enough is enough. Things got to be done. So, stay tuned for this business strike.”
Terry Wiley, Oakland Branch NAACP Investigator, said, “The failure to apply for the grant demands a thorough investigation by the city auditor, an entity that’s trusted to act independently.”
On Friday, Oakland City Administrator Jestin Johnson stated that the city worked with police and community leaders to draft their application in time for the June deadline, but the Oakland Economic Workforce and Development Department did not get their part done on time.
‘The buck stops with the mayor’
At Monday’s meeting, Councilmember Gallo confirmed that department was the weak link, but still holds the mayor accountable, “At the end of the day, we have a mayor form of government. It’s not the council that directs the administrator.” Gallo also acknowledged that the city manager is new at his job, saying “He just got here! He was hired a few months ago. He’s never managed a city the size of Oakland. So, he’s learning as other people are learning.”
Cynthia Adams, president of the Oakland NAACP, said, “The buck stops with the mayor. We need to hear from the mayor. We need to hear a statement. We need to hear an apology from the mayor for what she did to the citizens of Oakland.”
The NAACP’s tense relationship with the mayor was visible when Bishop Bob Jackson, senior pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church, outlined their own 10-point plan. “We discovered that there was no plan concerning public safety,” he said. Among other measures, his proposal includes hiring 1,000 police officers and a new chief, job training for youth, fully staffing 911 centers, installing security cameras and license plate readers, organizing community policing and getting more assistance from the Highway Patrol and the Sheriff’s Office.
“We all know it’s organized crime. When they go in and they take those phones out of your cars, they take it down to the fence and then they go right back out in the street.” Greg McConnell, Jobs and Housing Coalition
The term “state of emergency” has been tossed between agencies and community groups in recent weeks, starting with a call for a public safety state of emergency by the NAACP. In Monday’s meeting, Greg McConnell, president of the Jobs and Housing Coalition, addressed the term. “We wanted to do what happens when you have a hurricane and it wipes out things, when you have a firestorm and it wipes out things,” he said. “It is to focus the attention and resources of the city of Oakland, county of Alameda, the state of California, and, in fact, the federal government on addressing this issue.”
Because the crime is now organized, the community is asking for the involvement from higher levels of government. “We all know it’s organized crime,” McConnell said. “When they go in and they take those phones out of your cars, they take it down to the fence and then they go right back out in the street.” He ironically addressed unemployment for the youth. “They are employed. They’re just employed in crime! So, we wanted the federal government to look at organized crime.”
Fired up over fired chief
The mayor used the term “public emergency” last week when she threatened to declare a state of emergency if the police commission didn’t hurry the process of hiring a new police chief. The city of Oakland has been operating with an interim police chief for seven months.
Tyfahra Milele, Chair of the Oakland Police Commission, the agency doing the hire, said in a Sept. 12 reply, “We urge the mayor to not threaten to usurp the Commission’s legal authority and responsibility of the hiring process, like she did with the dismissal of the former police chief before the Commission deliberated.”
In the Monday meeting at Acts Full Gospel Church, when the topic turned to the mayor’s firing of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, community members clapped in support of Armstrong. Community member Ronald Muhammad asked if there were any legal obstacles to bringing him back. “Because he’s from my ground,” he said, “he’s my little brother, he would come back because of a crisis. He would, he would come back.” Panelists didn’t have an answer for reversing the process, but Gallo replied that the timeline for the search has been shortened to conclude before the end of the year.
The Oakland Police Commission was expected to receive an update on the search for a new police commissioner during a special meeting Tuesday night. The proposed timeline includes a six-week candidate search that will end Sept. 30, followed by on-site interviews and final selection by Oct. 23.
