Recently there was a national report published that Oakland had the third highest rate of violence in the United States, behind Camden, New Jersey and St. Louis Missouri.  The only comments heard from Oakland officials were (a) that we cannot be compared with other cities, and (b) we are reducing our crime rate this year.

                Let’s get serious for a moment, take our heads out of the sand, and get angry that we are even on the same planet with the most violent cities.  It is unacceptable… no excuses, no rationalizations, no more putting nice on an intolerable situation.  Besides, a little more sense in numbers and we are easily the #1 most violent city in America.

                First, with respect to St. Louis we are not behind them.  We actually had a violent crime rate 4% higher in 2008, the year of the study.  The U.S. Census lists their population as 354,361 and Oakland’s at 365,875.  We had 7,905 violent crimes (reported) and St. Louis had 7,383.  Divide these numbers by population and you’ll note Oakland had 216 violent crimes per 10,000 population and St. Louis had 208.

                As for Camden, New Jersey, shouldn’t we compare apples to apples.  That small turbulent city has a population of only 75,456.  Look at it this way… most who know concede that most of Oakland’s violent crime occurs “below MacArthur.”  Being a little more generous, and including the entire “flatlands,” let’s just say that 80% of the violent crimes are reported in half the city.  That would mean that in 2008 about 6,325 violent crimes happened in a population of about 183,000.  Camden has a violent crime rate of 236 per 10,000 citizens.  “Below MacArthur” had 346.  In other words, “below MacArthur” had a violent crime rate 47% greater than the number one most violent city in the United States.

                Of course we’re asked not to compare ourselves with other cities.  After all, Detroit, Flint and Memphis were all more violent than we were in recent years, but now we’ve surpassed them and everyone else.  Our violent crime rate is +57% higher than in 2000. Yes, higher. Detroit is -21% lower.  St. Louis is -7% lower.  Yes… lower.

                As shown in detail in an earlier essay, Oakland’s violent crime rate is now at a daily rate higher than at any other time in our recorded history.
What will it take to get down to business?

ronoz