Temescal District Wins Crime Wave Award

The Temescal district of Oakland won this week's crime wave award. San Francisco Chronicle columnist Chip Johnson tells the story of the crime wave.

Temescal won not only for publicizing its current crime wave but also for producing candid remarks by the area police lieutenant. Lt. James Meeks told columnist Johnson, "In some ways, I'm ashamed we can't provide better service, but we're doing the best we can with what we have. I don't have enough patrol officers and investigators to do the job."

This week, We're #1!

Several previous winners of the crime wave award have produced similar revelations of the fact that the mayor and city council do not take care of priority number one for any city, public safety.

When Rockridge held a community meeting demanding action in response to its crime wave, mayor Dellums promised to deputize several city attorneys who would prosecute misdemeanors. The idea did not pass through the city council. Councilmembers made a clear distinction between prosecuting crime (they're against money for that) and supporting social programs that celebrate sideshow culture (they shower grants on that). Dellums said nothing.

Earlier, the Lakeshore-Grand Avenue district won the crime wave award for bringing in the Guardian Angels to patrol the area. Residents grasped at this volunteer effort because City Hall does nothing.

The Dimond district won attention two years ago when the councilmember, Jean Quan, told merchants and residents they were imagining their crime wave. Quan resisted demands for a walking officer for as long as she could, but the eventual appearance of one such officer did not do enough.

Winning the crime wave award brings a moment of light on the problems of a district. A brief period of concentrated police attention follows. Later, though, little has changed. In the Dimond district, for example, stores this past May featured a Merchant Alert poster in their display windows, two years after the uproar over crime in the commercial area.

When a robbery victim in the Fruitvale district discovered and publicized the fact that the police department has no staff to read fingerprints, she won the crime wave award for her district. The department still lets most fingerprints dry up, contracting out to Contra Costa County for a few cases.

The Glenview, Montclair, Laurel, Elmhurst, west Oakland, north Oakland, and deep east Oakland areas have also won the crime wave award at various times.

As the reader must be aware by now, ORPN bestows the crime wave award in bitter jest. Every district in Oakland has won or can soon expect to "win," with the possible exception of Crocker Heights, because armed robberies, burglaries, open drug dealing, "boom" cars and other disruptions plague the entire city.

When the Maxwell Park district won the crime wave award after several homicides and a Sunday afternoon shooting in Brookdale Park, residents took the citywide view. They added their voice to the growing movement insisting that Oakland needs at least 1,100 police for its 400,000-plus residents. As one resident writes this morning after reading the admission by Lt. Meeks that he does not have enough officers, "Kudos to Lt. Meeks for openly admitting what the Oakland City Council refuses to acknowledge in any meaningful way. Redeployment is not a long term solution. The city council needs to confront reality and commit to at least 1,100 police officers. An increased visible police presence is what Oakland needs. Not more excuses."

Reader's Comment

Our city council and the police department need to correct some of the serious errors they have made in trying to address the crime waves we continually have in this city. Not only do we have a police force that is too small, we have one that is not designed to support the police services we need.

What was the rationale for eroding community policing and discontinuing the Beat Health units? When those two units existed, we saw more police presence than I have ever seen in this city. We knew who our local police were and interacted with them on a regular basis. We also had an excellent working relationship with Russ Giuntini (who was our local rep. in the DA's office). Another plus was the intervention of the Highway Patrol officers who came into our neighborhood on weekends and made a significant difference in removing the many drug dealers hanging out in the community. We also had fewer homicides in the community during that time. Why can't we restore those services?

I am truly disappointed in the lack of leadership we have in our elected officials, and it has existed for at least 25 to 30 years. There is no imagination or creativity there, only looking for ways to increase taxes for everyone. Not one of them came up with an idea to create retail businesses that would generate sales tax revenue. It took the Port of Oakland to generate the retail on Hegenberger Road for us to get the new businesses we have there.

Another big mistake they are making is the huge number of housing units being built in this city. Did it ever occur to them that all of these housing units are forcing the people living in them to shop in other cities? So the sales tax revenue goes outside of Oakland. How smart is that!

On a final note, have these elected officials read the health statistics on the increasing poor air quality all of these additional cars are creating in this city? Do they care that they are all trying to kill us (including their families and themselves)?