Pubdate: Fri,  2 Jan 2004
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2004 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Yomi S. Wronge

OAKLAND POLICE, COMMUNITY WORK TO STEM RISING VIOLENCE

On a recent drizzly December evening, a few dozen people gathered at 
Oakland City Hall to remember victims of homicide.

Grieving relatives and affected neighbors listened pensively to speeches 
intended to inspire hope. Detectives told mourners to hold fast; new police 
strategies are helping solve old crimes.

The mourners cried silently as Lorrain Taylor, a mother of two slain sons, 
sang a song calling on everyone to take a stand against gun violence. 
Finally, the people formed a line and, with cracked voices, spoke the name 
of their departed and in their honor hung colorful origami birds on a silk 
tree.

The ceremony, called An Evening of Remembrance, was designed to uplift a 
community ravaged by violence and preoccupied with body counts that are 
numbing.

In 2002 -- after a period where crime was on the decline -- 113 people were 
slain in Oakland, up from 87 in 2001. In 2003, there were 114, after two 
people were killed Tuesday -- one in the afternoon and one that night -- 
surpassing last year's mark.

Reflecting on the recent ceremony, Deputy Police Chief Michael Holland 
acknowledged it's hard to face a group of heartbroken parents and proclaim 
``we're making progress,'' especially because arrests have been made in 
fewer than 50 percent of the cases.

``We have a pretty good idea of who committed some of the homicides in that 
room that night,'' said Holland, a lifelong Oakland resident and veteran 
detective, ``but we don't have any evidence, witnesses, nothing. Homicides 
are tough.''

True enough, behind the hollow smiles and forced diplomacy that night, 
resentment festered in the room.

``If Oakland was a white city, if these were white people killing each 
other, something would be done to stop this violence,'' one 
mother-turned-activist said to a TV news reporter.

Holland, who keeps a photo on his desk of 18-year-old Khadafy Washington, a 
young man he mentored who was killed Aug. 4, 2000, said police are doing 
the best they can with limited resources. Recently, the department 
implemented a new strategy to concentrate virtually all police work -- 
including outside help on traffic enforcement from the California Highway 
Patrol -- on drugs.

``Knowing that a lot of our violence is related to drugs,'' Holland said, 
``we're focusing on drug dealers and putting a lot of pressure on them.''

The effort -- Project SAFE (Supplemental and Focused Enforcement) -- seems 
to have had some effect since its October launch. In September, Oakland was 
14 homicides ahead of last year.

But since Oct. 1, there have been 18 homicides in Oakland, compared with 41 
from the previous quarter and 28 from the same quarter in 2002. There was a 
stretch in November that saw 18 consecutive days with no killings, a 
remarkable turnaround considering that in the two previous months there had 
been weeks with as many as five homicides.

``We're really encouraged by the program's success so far,'' Oakland police 
Sgt. Peter Sarna said earlier in the week. ``The reductions are still 
holding strong. We've just got to try to carry this into next year.''

Oakland is not alone in fighting an increase in violent crime. A slumping 
economy, increasing rates of felons getting out of prison and a boom in 
youth ages 15 to 25 -- prime years for criminal activity -- all contribute 
to a recent spike in crime in cities nationwide, said Jack Riley of the 
Rand Corp., a private non-profit public policy research company in Santa 
Monica.

``In many communities across the country, starting in 2000 and 2001 we 
started seeing reverses in the trends,'' Riley said.

In addition to the recent emphasis on drugs, police, government officials 
and community leaders in Oakland are tackling crime from various perspectives.

Two years ago, the police department used grant money to launch a Cold Case 
DNA program. The department is looking at more than 500 cases dating back 
20 years and has 50 hits that could lead to arrests and, hopefully, 
convictions.

Mayor Jerry Brown, meanwhile, has made parole reform his single-minded 
mission. Felons are involved in most violent crimes -- either as victims or 
perpetrators -- so Brown wants to give local authorities the power to crack 
down on the most worrisome parolees.

But others question whether punitive measures alone will stem crime in a 
city where a mix of poverty, drug use, youth gangs and distrust of police 
boils above the surface.

``The drugs and gangs are the genesis of the murders, but there is 
something to do with that other than call in police,'' said Frank A. Jones, 
publisher of the Web-based Gibbs Magazine, which features frequent analysis 
of Brown's job -- all of it critical.

Others agree that policing alone won't solve Oakland's problems.

``People have always looked to police to solve the issue,'' said Larry 
Cohen, executive director of Prevention Institute in Oakland. The agency is 
acting as consultant on an Alameda County project to develop a violence 
prevention strategy that addresses crime as a public health crisis by 
bringing together social services, law enforcement, schools and grass-roots 
groups to work on the problem.

``The root of the problem is more spiritual than physical,'' said Lorrain 
Taylor of Hayward, whose twin sons, Albade and Obadiah, were shot to death 
in February 2000.

At the church-run Men of Valor Academy in East Oakland, former inmates are 
getting a chance for a better outcome. The program was started two years 
ago with a $500,000 grant from former Gov. Gray Davis and serves men being 
released from Santa Rita Jail in Dublin. The goal is to keep them from 
going back by teaching them skills in the construction trade.

``It's the only business that will not discriminate against you if you have 
a prison record,'' said Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church 
that runs the academy.

``These young men who were society's throw-away and rejects are now well on 
their way to becoming productive citizens,'' Jackson said, predicting that 
soon Oakland will see ``an African-American community completely turned 
around.''
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart