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More at Inside Bay Area” : “OAKLAND — A rash of shootings struck the city over the weekend, leaving several injured and at least one person with life-threatening injuries, police said. Two people were shot around 2:15 a.m. Sunday in the 1700 block of Ninth Street. One victim suffered a minor wound to the hand, but the other took a gunshot wound to the back that police said is life-threatening. Police have three suspects in custody in connection with this shooting. The department's felony assault section has been called out to investigate the incident. At about the same time, a shooting in the 5800 block of International Boulevard left a victim with a gunshot wound to the face, though that injury does not appear life-threatening, police said.” -- And this will only get worse with the economy.

More at The Oakland Tribune From the Trib: "OAKLAND — Barring any deadly New Year's Eve revelry, Oakland is poised to finish with 124 homicides in 2008, three fewer than the 127 recorded in 2007. Regarding numbers, it is not much of a change. But in a city where homicides seem to get more public interest than other crimes and in a city looking for any kind of good news when it comes to crime, it was reason for optimism. "I'm the eternal optimist," Assistant Police Chief Howard Jordan said Wednesday. "Three less is better than three more. But we are not satisfied with that, and we will work harder to get those numbers down to double-digit reductions." There were eight homicides in December, six fewer than in December 2007. One of the eight was a man who died from a beating in April. Another was a determination through new evidence that what had been considered an accidental killing in July was actually a homicide."

Oakland forum tonight to address police-involved shootings - Inside Bay Area : “Forum on officer-involved shootings: Oakland's Citizens' Police Review Board will hold a public forum tonight on officer-involved shootings after the city saw a string of them earlier this year. The event begins at 6:15 p.m. in City Council chambers at 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza. Patrick Caceres, Citizens' Police Review Board analyst, said the forum will include presentations from the Oakland Police Department on use of force and what procedures the department goes through when officers do fire their weapons. Also scheduled to attend is Jim Chanin, an attorney who has represented clients in a number of police misconduct cases. "The main reason this was organized is because there were a number of high-profile officer-involved shootings at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008," Caceres said.”