This is from a Yahoo! Message board for the Adams Point community.. It expresses the outrage and pain of many who have been assaulted for no reason in downtown Oakland and the surrounding area. For me, I walk from BART to a restaurant many times at night and nothing has happened, but that's no reason not to have feelings for those who seem to appear vulnerable to attackers.
Dear Mr. Mayor,
My co-worker was mugged last night in downtown Oakland last night as we were talking on the phone about commuting to work in the morning. She lives a couple blocks from the area that prosecutors call the Axis of Evil because so many crimes occur there.
Do you know where the Axis of Evil is? It is right outside of your office at City Hall.
A sex offender across the street from me is suspected of participating in the kidnapping and repeated rape of a 15-year-old girl last month -- but our two child endangerment investigators are each carrying a load of more than 200 active cases and they don't have time to look into these "allegations."
I don't blame the police investigators. They came back from a tour duty in Iraq and immediately started trying to save the children of Oakland. A frightening number of their active cases include children who were abused yesterday, are being abused today, and will be abused tomorrow thanks to your lack of action.
I don't blame the police. But I do blame you and every other member of the city council for repeatedly lying about the situation to me and other residents of our city.
You have allowed the daughter of the city administrator to continue to be carried on police payroll though she has proved unfit for police work. Meanwhile, you have stopped paying two officers because their deployment in Iraq was extended. You are supporting a 12-hour day for police officers when you yourself decline to work overtime for the residents of Oakland.
You encourage patronage and punish commitment.
You are a disgrace. Please resign so that we can make our city safe again.
A few weeks ago, my neighbor, as disabled woman, was attacked by a 14-year-old drug-dealing crack head because she asked him to stop throwing trash in her yard. It took more than three weeks of lobbying of top commanders at the police department to get an investigator on the case. They still haven't made an arrest, though we know exactly who is responsible. Indeed, a second man who participated in the attack was recently arrested on a traffic violation and is being held in the Santa Rita County Jail. He was on probation for another crime committed earlier this year in Solano County. How is it possible that the city lacks the resources to charge these cases?
It is possible because you have deliberately misrepresented Oakland's crisis.
A year ago, the boys in my neighborhood murdered one of their friends -- an 18-year-old retarded boy who made the mistake of having a romance with the girlfriend of a 19-year-old drug dealer. We know who ordered the killing, but no cell phone analysis was ever done to track down the killer because our police department does not have those kind of resources, because you and other city officials, including former officials like the current attorney general, have done their best to cripple law enforcement.
You might think I live in a bad area. I don't. I live near Lake Merritt, and I pay $900 a month in property taxes.As you can see, I am not afraid of speaking out. If this is happening in my neighborhood, I can only imagine the horror that residents are experiencing in Fruitvale, Dogtown and other areas, where people traditionally have suffered in silence.
These people deserve a mayor who cares enough to tell the truth. You were once known as a civil rights advocate. Civil rights includes the freedom to be safe from being attacked by thugs who are actively supported by city officials. African Americans and Latinos live in fear in Oakland because of your lies. Middle-class residents working two jobs live in fear because of your lies. Nurses, teachers and social workers live in fear because of your lies.
OPD does not submit fingerprints for testing because it does not have resources. It does not enter ballistic information into databases shared by law enforcement because there is only one technician, who quite, simply, has no time. This effects victims of crime all over the country.
Alameda County is the fourth richest county in California, and yet you plead poverty. I voted for you hoping you would be as effective as Mayor Anthony Williams was in DC. To my dismay, I have since discovered that I helped elect a man who had no qualms about publicly declaring his support for a criminal organization that had terrorized members of his own community. That's what the Black Muslim Bakery did, and you knew it when you signed the letter in support of them that was submitted to the bankruptcy court.
You are not effective, you are not honest, you have no integrity and you should step aside.
You complained that Chip Johnson's articles had a "personal tone."
Mr. Mayor, my friend held up at gun point is personal. The teenager who was repeatedly raped around the corner from me is personal. The woman attacked across the street is personal. And yes, I took your statements to Chip Johnson in today's article very personally.
This is between you and me and all the residents of Oakland. If you lack the stomach to truthfully represent us, you need to step aside.
Oakland Resident, an...
Oakland homeowner
Dear Mr. Mayor,
My co-worker was mugged last night in downtown Oakland last night as we were talking on the phone about commuting to work in the morning. She lives a couple blocks from the area that prosecutors call the Axis of Evil because so many crimes occur there.
Do you know where the Axis of Evil is? It is right outside of your office at City Hall.
A sex offender across the street from me is suspected of participating in the kidnapping and repeated rape of a 15-year-old girl last month -- but our two child endangerment investigators are each carrying a load of more than 200 active cases and they don't have time to look into these "allegations."
I don't blame the police investigators. They came back from a tour duty in Iraq and immediately started trying to save the children of Oakland. A frightening number of their active cases include children who were abused yesterday, are being abused today, and will be abused tomorrow thanks to your lack of action.
I don't blame the police. But I do blame you and every other member of the city council for repeatedly lying about the situation to me and other residents of our city.
You have allowed the daughter of the city administrator to continue to be carried on police payroll though she has proved unfit for police work. Meanwhile, you have stopped paying two officers because their deployment in Iraq was extended. You are supporting a 12-hour day for police officers when you yourself decline to work overtime for the residents of Oakland.
You encourage patronage and punish commitment.
You are a disgrace. Please resign so that we can make our city safe again.
A few weeks ago, my neighbor, as disabled woman, was attacked by a 14-year-old drug-dealing crack head because she asked him to stop throwing trash in her yard. It took more than three weeks of lobbying of top commanders at the police department to get an investigator on the case. They still haven't made an arrest, though we know exactly who is responsible. Indeed, a second man who participated in the attack was recently arrested on a traffic violation and is being held in the Santa Rita County Jail. He was on probation for another crime committed earlier this year in Solano County. How is it possible that the city lacks the resources to charge these cases?
It is possible because you have deliberately misrepresented Oakland's crisis.
A year ago, the boys in my neighborhood murdered one of their friends -- an 18-year-old retarded boy who made the mistake of having a romance with the girlfriend of a 19-year-old drug dealer. We know who ordered the killing, but no cell phone analysis was ever done to track down the killer because our police department does not have those kind of resources, because you and other city officials, including former officials like the current attorney general, have done their best to cripple law enforcement.
You might think I live in a bad area. I don't. I live near Lake Merritt, and I pay $900 a month in property taxes.As you can see, I am not afraid of speaking out. If this is happening in my neighborhood, I can only imagine the horror that residents are experiencing in Fruitvale, Dogtown and other areas, where people traditionally have suffered in silence.
These people deserve a mayor who cares enough to tell the truth. You were once known as a civil rights advocate. Civil rights includes the freedom to be safe from being attacked by thugs who are actively supported by city officials. African Americans and Latinos live in fear in Oakland because of your lies. Middle-class residents working two jobs live in fear because of your lies. Nurses, teachers and social workers live in fear because of your lies.
OPD does not submit fingerprints for testing because it does not have resources. It does not enter ballistic information into databases shared by law enforcement because there is only one technician, who quite, simply, has no time. This effects victims of crime all over the country.
Alameda County is the fourth richest county in California, and yet you plead poverty. I voted for you hoping you would be as effective as Mayor Anthony Williams was in DC. To my dismay, I have since discovered that I helped elect a man who had no qualms about publicly declaring his support for a criminal organization that had terrorized members of his own community. That's what the Black Muslim Bakery did, and you knew it when you signed the letter in support of them that was submitted to the bankruptcy court.
You are not effective, you are not honest, you have no integrity and you should step aside.
You complained that Chip Johnson's articles had a "personal tone."
Mr. Mayor, my friend held up at gun point is personal. The teenager who was repeatedly raped around the corner from me is personal. The woman attacked across the street is personal. And yes, I took your statements to Chip Johnson in today's article very personally.
This is between you and me and all the residents of Oakland. If you lack the stomach to truthfully represent us, you need to step aside.
Oakland Resident, an...
Oakland homeowner
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