Oakland Focus News | Oakland News Online Blog

From KCRATV - About 20,000 people, including thousands of police officers, converged on Oracle Arena Friday for a funeral for four Oakland police officers killed in the line of duty last weekend.

From GimpingMan on YouTube: This was the procession that passed me as I was getting in the freeway this morning. By time I found my camera they had all passed. I got some good shots of them though, alot is really shakey, I dont know what my problem was.. haha

From NewsPoliticalNews: OAKLAND, Calif. - The city virtually halted Friday for the funeral of four slain police officers, with a populace still in shock jamming a large sports arena, spilling into an overflow stadium and filling the streets to pay their last respects. The funerals for Mark Dunakin, John Hege, Ervin Romans and Daniel Sakai, who authorities say were gunned down March 21 by a parolee, shut down major freeways into and out of Oakland for much of the day as their long processions made their way to and from the Oracle Arena. - 03/27/09

"StudentLawyer" a YouTuber who also contributes to the iReport, went to the funeral. Here's his interview and coverage.

More at Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — Members of the Oakland Police Department and the families of four slain officers will take a step toward closure today following one of the darkest chapters of their lives. They won't be alone. Law enforcement officers from all 50 states and a handful of foreign countries are expected to pour into the Oracle Arena for an 11 a.m. funeral honoring the four officers killed in related shooting incidents last Saturday. A list of tentative speakers includes acting police Chief Howard Jordan, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, state Attorney General Jerry Brown, and family and friends of the officers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to meet privately with the families before the service around 10:15 a.m., police said.”

On May 19th Alameda residents will be able to assure the economic future of the City of Alameda by voting for the Alameda Point Development Plan for the redevelopment of Alameda Naval Air Station as planned by the Alameda Base Reuse Committee and its subsequent evolutions to the Alameda Reuse and Redevelopment Commission of today. The plan consists of a mix of uses and an ambitious plan adding over 4,000 much-needed housing units. But the most important fact is the plan will mark the begining of the replacement economic development we have worked to achieve for so long. Opponents point to Measure A as the reason why the plan should be defeated, but the fact is Measure A was passed in 1973 and represents a time when Alamedans were interested in restricting development and maintaining Alameda from people of color. Those days are long gone. Now, Alameda needs jobs and the region wants to see The City of Alameda have an economic development project that replaces the closed Naval Air Statio

Brief video of Alameda Point with voice over narration on history of Alameda Point and Naval Air Station Alameda

  News is coming in that the election season has started early in Alameda this year and it looks like islanders are finally going to get a chance to make something exceptional happen out at the city’s run-down old Navy base. The backers of a plan to clean up and reuse the old Naval Air Station at Alameda Point today submitted the initiative language to the city. Now they will start collecting signatures to place the plan on the Nov. 3 ballot. This is frankly great news for Alameda. That old Navy base has sat unused and neglected for a long, long time. Finally a plan that someone can pay for is coming forward to get the place cleaned up and ready for real public use again. A lot of ideas have come and gone out there, but this is the only one makes any damn sense at all. Look, this has been a long time coming and I’m sure voters are going to get an earful from professional nimby’s who will oppose anything that even resembles a plan that could actually be achieved. And see my vid

The NFLTA crew talks Tom Cable, JaMarcus Russell, and what to expect from the Raiders in '09. This video belongs to NFL.com Courtesy of http://www.nfl.com/videos

This statement by "The Uhuru Movement" (Uhuru means "freedom") has been making the rounds unfortunately. It's not reflective of what many feel regardless of color, but it's important to know how cold some people can be. The African People’s Education and Defense Fund thanks all of our friends and supporters who have voiced their concerns about the position taken by the Uhuru Movement on the March 21 killings of four Oakland policemen and twenty-six year old Lovelle Mixon. We unite with your interest in dialog and resolution to this situation and in building unity among the various communities in Oakland through genuine social justice. The Uhuru Movement has always understood that our friends may disagree with some of our positions — positions that always uphold justice for the African working class community. We understand and unite with your concerns that the tense situation in Oakland must be resolved. It is unfortunate that it takes a

More at Inside Bay Area : “OAKLAND — In the wake of the shooting deaths of four police officers, African-American leaders from around the city gathered Wednesday morning for a closed-door meeting to discuss issues facing the black community. They said the killing by Lovelle Mixon, a 26-year-old fugitive parolee, was the tipping point for black clergy, civic leaders and police to air their concerns and create an action plan to address youth violence. The slayings also provide a lens to look more closely at existing rehabilitation and re-entry programs for ex-offenders and parolees, they said. "We are saddened and in shock," said Raymond Lankford, a pastor and founder of Healthy Oakland, a community organization that promotes nonviolence. "Words can't express what we feel."”