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This is the Lenox Av Abduction Matter Teen charged as an adult in kidnap, rape Second suspect sought in 'vicious' Oakland hills assault of 35-year-old By Harry Harris, STAFF WRITER - OAKLAND TRIBUE OAKLAND — A 17-year-old high school dropout will be prosecuted as an adult in the kidnap-robbery-rape last week of a 35-year-old woman that one investigator called the most brutal assault he has ever seen. A second suspect is being sought. West Oakland resident Clifton Haynes was charged Tuesday with forcible rape, kidnapping to commit robbery, carjacking and three other sex crime counts. Haynes has acknowledged his involvement, authorities said. Authorities could only confirm one prior arrest for Haynes. But Assistant District Attorney Norbert Chu, who filed the charges and made the decision to prosecute Haynes as an adult, said that made no difference. Citing the severity of the crime, Chu said he would have made the same decision had Haynes' record been clean. "This was

Listen to the interview over at Zennie's Zeitgeist.

After a series of crimes in our neighborhood, Adams Point residents are exachanging ideas online. One of the ideas is for a "Whisle Stop" program. According to message board reports, it works like this: "The WhistleStop concept is simple: If you see a crime being committed or you need to call for help, blow your whistle. If you hear a whistle, determine the nature and location of the problem and call 911, then blow your whistle to scare the assailant away and alert the victim and the assailant that the police have been called and help is on the way" It's used in Rockridge, but I don't yet know how well it's worked to this date.

I first met Bea Wong when I was wrting for The Montclarion in 1994. After that, I would run into her on occasion when I visted my friend John Russo's home, as she lived next door (he's moved since then). She's always warm. A very nice person. Outside of my own Mom, I can't think of anyone more deserving...Oh, my Mom doesn't live in Oakland anymore! At long last, recognition with the Mother of all city awards By Hilary Bothma, CORRESPONDENT - Oakland Tribune Oakland's mother of the year, Beatrice Wong, is a volunteer at the Chinese American Citizens Alliance. She will be honored Saturday at the Morcom Rose Garden for her dedication to community causes. (Sean Connelley/staff) OAKLAND — Beatrice Wong does not expect any reward for the thousands of hours of community service she has donated to city causes. With characteristic humor and self-deprecation, she says, "If I were waiting for recognition, I wouldn't be doing this for 40 years, unless I was

A good friend of mine just sent an email to me because he explained his reasons for supporting De La Fuente, and believed my reasons were based only on race -- uh, that he's black and so am I. Well, I'm not going to shy away from that, but my reasons, as befits my character, are far more complex. Here's my response. Hi, It's not just a matter of race. I've worked closely with Ignacio. Too close. As a result, I have a perspective on him that few possess, even of those I know. Ignacio has wanted to be Mayor since 1997. And during this time, he's not worked to build coalitions of people at all. Indeed, he uses his power to try to get what he wants, and to punish his ememies. Period. That's his way. I've been in rooms where he always explains how he's gonna "do or get something -- or someone. I represented Mayor Harris-- and was at one point even more powerful than Ignacio in committee because I understood the rules and how to build coal

This information was just posted on the 14X Yahoo Group. "A juvenile suspect is in custody and has admitted involvement in this terrible crime. Sgt. Paul Bernard was on patrol yesterday in West Oakland. He spotted avehicle matching the one stolen from the victim. Sgt. Bernard conducted a stop to investigate. This eventually led to the arrest of the suspect who was later interviewed by investigator. I am unable to give specific details but this is a significant arrest. I bring you this news with mix emotions due to the nature of this crime. However, the arrest will hopefully bring some peace of mind to the community. Thank you. Lt. Tracey"

This is from the "15X Yahoo Group." It reports the arrest of two men in the "23rd Avenue Corridor" which is not the Lake Merritt area, and more toward Central Oakland. Still, the Lake is just a walk, car drive, or bus ride away and in as little as five minutes. "On 13 Apr at approximately 8:30 pm, Officers Jones and Perrodin were patrolling the 23rd Ave corridor. They spotted Mr. Lonnel Moore and Albert Antone on E21st hanging out. The officers have extensive knowledge of the area (prior contacts / drug hotline) and decided to contact the two to see what they were up to. This ultimately led to the arrest of Mr. Moore who was in possession of a large quantity of narcotics. Another example of the good work by your CRT. It also highlights the importance of your involvement by calling that drug hotline. Congrats and another small win PSA 3! Lt. Ed Tracey" If you need help. This is the person to contact: Hoang Banh Neighborhood Services Coordinator Oakl

Earlier, I reported on an Oakland Tribune article on the abduction of a woman on Lenox Avenue in Adama Point. Here's more information on that crime, again from Tribune wire reports and reported on the Adams Point Yahoo! Message Board. NEW: Woman robbed, raped in Oakland Hills FROM STAFF REPORTS OAKLAND - A 35-year-old woman was robbed Thursday night in Adams Point by two men who then abducted her at gunpoint, drove her car to the Oakland hills and raped her, police said. Investigators stopped a juvenile driving the woman's car in West Oakland Friday afternoon and interviewed him, police said. According to police, the woman was getting out of her car about 7:45 p.m. Thursday on Lenox Avenue when two men confronted her. Police would not say whether the woman lived in the area or was visiting someone. The men took various items from the woman, who then tried to walk away, police said. But the men pointed guns at her, demanded she get into her car with them and drove off. At one p

Again, this is under the watch of two Oakland City Councilmembers who are running for Mayor: Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel, who's our Adams Point (District Three) representative, but nothing's being done about it. City quietly reins in police force's mounted patrol Peggy Stinnett - Oakland Tribune Article Last Updated: 05/06/2006 05:09:27 AM PDT 'Oh, no, not again!" Those anguished words were exactly the ones in my mind when I read the small sign posted on the Oakland Police Department's mounted patrol stables on the shores of Lake Merritt, discreetly tucked behind Children's Fairyland. I read on: "Our Oakland leaders are once again trying to close our mounted units," the sign said. It was undated, so perhaps there was still time for the city to change its collective mind. But it had done the dastardly deed already. Last week, when I visited the old wooden shack where the stables used to be, they were oddly silent and padlocked. The chain

This is from the Adams Point Yahoo! Message Board: Dear Neighbors, The Westlake Community Coalition (what we’re now calling ourselves) made some headway at the Whole Foods pedestrian/cyclist meeting with Council Member Nancy Nadel, CEDA Director Claudia Cappio and Public Works staff on Monday night. MANY THANKS to Nancy Nadel and her staff person Carletta Starks for calling the meeting, ensuring city staff were in attendance and for having already followed up on some commitments (see below). The City’s Pedestrian Coordinator Jason Patton deserves a BIG THANKS, too for identifying solutions to our concerns, rather than questioning whether they are valid. What did the City commit to? - signs directing people to I-580 via 27th rather than Harrison - right turn only out of Whole Foods - signal at Bay Place and Vernon, ped crossing to be timed for slower moving folks - some kind of traffic calming at Lee/Vernon intersection, funding is secured, commun

From SF.Gate.com 05-05) 13:09 PDT OAKLAND - Oakland police are searching for at least two men who kidnapped a woman in her car in the Adams Point area near Lake Merritt, sexually assaulted her and stole her vehicle. The woman's car is a black, four-door 2001 Volkswagen Jetta, California license plate 4NIC969. Anyone who sees the vehicle should call 911, said Oakland Police Sgt. Blair Alexander. The woman was abducted Thursday at 7:45 p.m. on the 300 block of Lenox Avenue and released later in the night at an undisclosed location after she was assaulted and her property was taken, Alexander said. Police would release no further details about the incident. The Adams Point neighborhood is just west of Interstate 580, not far from the Grand Lake district where residents have complained of a recent upswing in crime, including a rash of car break-ins, holdups and muggings, and two fatal shootings in a six-week period.

Some Oaklanders in the more moneyed areas of our fair city think that improving economic development efforts in East and West Oakland will not help solve our overall crime problem. This video on Oakland Liquor stores is a dramatic rebuttal to that idea. Look and listen to its contents. Many of the people who talk on camera tell the producers of the lack of activity in the areas where liquor stores are. "There's nothing to do but hang out at the liquor store," said one person. The scenes of dilapidated buildings in the background in this video also offer proof of the severe level of economic underdevelopment in the areas where liquor stores are located in Oakland. A varied number of people are also questioned on the November 23rd, 2005 attacks on liquor store owners by alledged members of the Nation of Islam. Many understand the anger of the attackers, but don't support the action. One Oaklander said it best: why aren't there liquor stores in Blackhawk? Why

You can't have it both ways -- unless you're the Oakland City Council. According to the report from this unfortunate and sad video by Stephanie Alexander called "My Friend James," on September 7th 2005, the City of Oakland ordered the removal of homeless residents who had established a tent city near Embarcadero and Fifth Avenue (in the area that's planned for the "Oak-To-Ninth" development), and as the City Council was extending a hand of aid to the homeless from New Orleans in the wake of the loss of homes suffered by Hurricane Katrina. So, when Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel talk of compassion for those less fortunate, ask them about James and the homeless city that was destroyed. Here's the video called "My Friend James."

As far as I've experienced the problems faced in Oakland have always stemmed from the simple fact that many kids of color in East Oakland and West Oakland have nothing to do at all. There's no large community center. No "Laser Tag" or indoor game arcade. No large set of basketball courts. No field of baseball diamonds. Nothing. Meanwhile, business owners like Ken Rawlings who was founder of Otis Spunkmier Cookies, attempted to build sports fields for East Oakland but ran up against the constant nightmare of political ego and bureaucratic entanglement that is Oakland's goverment, which controls much of East Oakland in the form of the 7,200 acre Coliseum Redevelopment Area, the largest in the State of California. This problem has grown over a 30-year period of time and while it's reduced somewhat by Oakland's population dynamics, it' has not gone away. Oakland's kids of color have nothing to do because they live in areas that have been underdev

I saw this on the Yahoo Message Board for my neighborhood. That's just plain shocking. We need more than one cop walking the neighborhood at night. Five would be better and between the hours of 7 PM and 1 AM. Where's De La Fuente and Nadel (who's the District 3 Council representative)? A recent poll by CBS Channel Five says she's mostly unknown -- if she jumped into this problem in her district that would change. As to the solution, Adams Pointers need to get out and walk the neighborhood and introduce themselves to each other. We need to form a large, connected ring of people who really know each other. We're targeted by people who don't have jobs, because we do. The economic situation has become that bad. Meanwhile, the City of Oakland needs to get back to helping small businesses in the poorer areas grow, and forget the "big think" development for a while. The only Councilmember who seems to "get it" is District 6's Larry Re

The next regular meeting of the Adams Point group "14 X NCPC" will be held May 8th at 7 PM at the Veterans Building, 200 Grand Av, accross from Lake Merritt and near Kaiser Center. Here's a note about the meetings's objecives: "> Hello Neighbors: > > Please join us next Monday at 7pm for our regular Monthly meeting. > Flyer with details and agenda attached. PLEASE pass on the word, > print and post this flyer on bulletin boards, pass to your friends, > neighbors etc. It is CRITICAL we band together in this unsettling > period of crime > > Past monthly meetings are bringing 60-80 people in one room to > effect change in OUR neighborhood. There is not enough police so it > is simply up to ourselves to band together and be more alert > > Ladi will discuss her Neighborhood Watch experience next Monday. > She had 40 people at her block meeting. This is what we want to > replicate across Adams Point. Awareness and al

This poll produced by CBS TV Channel Five is the latest evidence yet of Ron Dellums massive lead over his challengers Ignacio De La Fuente and Nancy Nadel. De La Fuente has more people who view him unfavorably than favorably in this poll; on Nancy Nadel, a large number of Oaklanders report they know nothing about her. This also flies in the face of the SF Chronicle's flight of fancy in ignoring the hard facts that lead 8,000 Oaklanders to draft Ron Dellums to run for mayor. The SF Chronicle was clearly out of touch and makes me wonder if they really WERE smoking crack. Hmmm.... Here are the poll results; the link to the webpage containing the results is in the title of this post. CBS 5 Poll: Dellums Favored For Oakland Mayor (CBS 5) OAKLAND Results of a Survey USA Poll commissioned by CBS 5 KPIX from 4/22-4/23/06 among 516 Oakland registered voters about the city's mayoral candidates. The poll has a margin of error of roughly 4%. Is your opinion of Ronald Dellums favorable,

This meeeting was held by District Two Councilmember Pat Kernigan and District Three Councilmember Nancy Nadel's name isn't associated with it, yet the problem's in District Three. I guess Nancy's too busy running for mayor. She can balance the two, the people need her. She shouldn't worry about what they may think; just take action. Grand Lake residents demand action Recent slayings send area into rage over crime By Heather MacDonald, STAFF WRITER, OAKLAND TRIBUNE Inside Bay Area OAKLAND — Anger, frustration and fear boiled over Thursday night as Grand Lake residents demanded city leaders get a handle on the violence that has claimed two lives in their community in recent months. At a forum hosted by Councilmember Patricia Kernighan, the standing-room-only crowd agreed that the slaying of Sonethavy Phomsouvanhdara, 29, while he worked at Bangkok Palace on Monday night was the final straw. "We've never seen anything like this," said Ken Katz, who h

If you live in an area bounded by Grand Avenue, Mac Arthur Blvd, Harrison, and Oakland Avenue, you're in "Adams Point." Now I don't know why it's called that, but I do know it consists of about 32,000 people. There's a Yahoo Group I encourage you to join, if only to keep up with the problems and crime matters of the area. To see it, just click on the title of this post.

Well, I leave the city for one glorious working trip to New York for the NFL Draft and then to Atlanta for Mom, only to find the San Francisco Chronicle up to its own common, and not-well-disguised crack-smoking habits (read, "We don't want a black mayor"...Puff..."Pass that bong!") that wandered their way into an endorsement taken seriously only because of the size of the newspaper. The Chronicle, in the form of John Diaz as editorial page editor and Chip Johnson, who I easily best at Madden NFL 2000-whatever, backed the wrong horse for the wrong set of reasons. For Chip, the reason is simple: he doesn't want to lose his meal-ticket source of news and fodder for his columns. He knows this and knows I know this. Chip's not blind to the fact that Ron Dellums was drafted to run for mayor by 8,000 totally pissed off Oaklanders, mostly black. Chip's black, but -- as one who's seen this side of him in action -- seems to delight more in the kind of