Horrendous, Horrible, Horror
[February 10, 2009]

            “But with so much violent street crime in East Oakland and with the Police Department understaffed, it's difficult to improve on response time to crimes deemed a lower priority or to increase patrols, police said.”  [Chauncey Bailey, Oakland Tribune Staff Writer, October 12, 2004]

            A team of top-notch journalists, known as the Chauncey Bailey Project, investigated Mr. Bailey’s horrendous murder in minute detail, leaving a trail of unanswered questions, innuendos, and the stink of a horrible truth.  Their work is undone, as was that of Chauncey Bailey.

            I wish I had known Chauncey Bailey.

            The fifty-eight year old editor of the Oakland Post was gunned down in symbolic horror during an early morning daylight moment at the corner of 14th and Alice streets.  He was the 72nd homicide victim of 2007, joining 500 people who have lost their lives to violence in Oakland since his article, “Fed Up With Crime...” 

            The agony of squeezing our hearts with Chauncey Bailey’s death yields cries and tears that demand to know... “Why?” Why is Oakland so violent?  Yes, Chauncey Bailey, just prior to his death, was investigating a certain on-going story that dealt specifically with a very small segment of violence, but his story was much larger and begging for transcendence.           

            Any specific homicide is a terrible occurrence, perhaps unavoidable, when seen with fateful individuality, but homicides in general are a consequence of violent lawlessness in general.  Lower the violence... and we will see the lowering of murder.            

           When Chauncey Bailey wrote of “...so much violent street crime...,” Oakland listened because we shared his sentiment.  The City Council spoke of  “emergency” and “crisis.”  The citizens passed Measure Y.  The Mayor appointed a new Police Chief.  There was much hope and determination.  The main focus was on “Change” at the OPD.

            Indeed, over the past four years changes that slashed and burned our police apparatus were immediate, dramatic, and intense.  The department was turned upside down and inside out.  Unfortunately, the nostrums employed were more for the sake of change than substance.

            The number of Part 1 Violent Crimes by the end of 2004, when Mr. Bailey reflected the dire frustrations of Oakland citizens, amounted to 5,150 Murders, Rapes, Robberies and Assaults.  Four years of “change” at OPD later and we find a sadness that violent crimes have spiraled to about 8,150 in 2008. 

            Violence had decreased significantly around the country and across California in the four years since 2004. To the contrary, violence in Oakland has escalated to a new paradigm.  Assuming we could take back the changes at OPD over the past four years, and at least sustained a stable, albeit unacceptable, 5,150 violent crimes for each of the past four years, Oakland would have been statistically spared 8,598 victims.  As I’ve tried to explain in previous essays: (a) We have had substantial relative and absolute reductions in demographic factors that are presumed to contribute to crime.  (b) We have had increased community and citizen engagement in the forums of violence.  (c) We have activated viable violence prevention (non-police) programs.  (d) We have had very concerned Council members and Mayors.  (e) We have appointed Task Forces, Advisors, Public Safety Directors and Coordinators.  (f) We have demanded and somewhat received Public Safety Strategic “Plans.”  (g) We have enervated NCPC, NSC, National Night Out, Candle Vigils, and other attentions.  (h)  We have suffered tremendous government distraction from other quality of life issues while all are forced to address deteriorating public safety at frustrating Council Meetings and related public safety committees.  (i) We have had extreme “Change” at OPD – with generous extensions of resources, including personnel, overtime, money, facilities, equipment, outside agency support, “annuitants,” consultants, a trust that the Chief should have his management rights, and an assumption that the Chief is the subject matter expert.” (j) The Eighth Floor at OPD was bolstered with the new highest management positions of Assistant Chief and Director of Administration.

            There you have it.  The attention on Public Safety has been up. The demographics fostering criminality have gone down. The Police Department got unprecedented resources and change. Violence elsewhere has been markedly receding. Violence should be down in Oakland.

            Yet, we have had an unprecedented four year consecutive escalation of Violent Crimes. 

            So to what must we attribute the additional 10,000 Oakland victims of Murder, Rape, Robbery and Violent Assault over the past four years – in excess of just staying even with secular patterns of violent crimes elsewhere since 2004?  This is more than a paradigm escalation; it is an uncontrolled epidemic occurring within our borders.

            Our work is undone, as was Mr. Bailey’s, and as is the Chauncey Bailey Project. 

ronoz