Clorox to City Hall: Clean up the crime

"Worried for employees' safety, consumer products giant Clorox Co. has led other building owners in asking police for answers about a recent spike in muggings and other robberies in downtown Oakland." (San Francisco Business Times, Jan. 27, 2006)

Clorox, joined by commercial landlords Shorenstein, Prentiss Properties and others, summoned police and City Hall officials to a meeting in late January. The businessmen expressed deep concern about the safety of their employees, particularly in remote parking lots at night and in venturing out to eat lunch during the day.

Clorox said two workers voiced their safety fears to the company, and security guards had observed more people loitering on the Clorox plaza on Broadway after business hours.

In an incident loaded with irony, developer Phil Tagami, who has sucked enormous dollars out of the City of Oakland, reported an assault that left a businessman bloodied and bruised.

According to a column by Chip Johnson in the SF Chronicle of Feb. 6, the city administrator herself sent an email in January warning City workers to be alert because of a recent robbery near the BART entrance on 12th Street.

When the "Enough Is Enough!" online petition for adequate police staffing went live in February and March, Chris K. signed and reported this incident: "I was mugged at 14th and Broadway and verbally threatened with racial slurs, a hate crime, and grave bodily injury in December 2005 by three young men. When I got in my car to drive away, they threw missiles, three unopened cans of soda, at my car. I reported the incident in person to O.P.D. and for whatever reason the crime was apparently logged as a mere act of vandalism."

Lt. Paul Berlin from the police department attended the meeting and later acknowledged that the City Center area has lost patrols "in part to a dearth of police officers" and also "because they have been assigned to West Oakland in response to homicides."

In other words, the basic problem is Oakland's understaffed police department, which at fewer than 700 officers is down more than 400 from the minimum needed. The department is also years away from reaching the 802 officers required by Measure Y, yet the City is collecting the taxes, freeing up general fund money and using it for unknown other purposes.

Until the city council stops stealing City money for favored projects and social programs, until the councilmembers make public safety the top priority that it should be for any city government, the problems will not be solved.

Shifting police from one area to another is like poking a balloon here and there with one's finger.

The commercial landlords can threaten to remove thousands of jobs, so they got attention, according to the Business Times report. Lt. Berlin provided them with direct cell phone numbers for local beat officers – bypassing central dispatch.

Merchants Across Oakland Report Increased Crime

A follow-up report in the East Bay Business Times quotes merchants from business districts around Oakland. They say crime is up and response from the understaffed police department is inadequate.

• In the Fruitvale business improvement district along International Boulevard and Fruitvale Avenue, robberies from July to December 2005 jumped 54 percent from a year earlier. District official Jennifer Kassan also listed an increase in public drunkenness, panhandling, people breaking into cars, throwing rocks at cars, graffiti, and vandalism.
  
• Robberies tripled in Rockridge. Desperate during the holiday season, the merchants' association, deprived of a walking officer's time, hired private security.
  
• In the Jack London neighborhood, sideshows and smashed car windows are now regular events.
  
• Merchants in the Dimond district warned that crime reports are understated because merchants no longer have the contact with police that they enjoyed when a full-time walking officer kept the scene under control.
  
• The Temescal-Telegraph merchants are considering private security, too, as they feel caught between unpenalized crime and a lack of police service. (Feb. 10, 2006)
  

The corporate political group OakPAC surveyed its members and reports that the top two concerns are Oakland's image and crime. (SF Business Times, Fe.b 17, 2006) The city's image is a result of the sideshow epidemic, the two city festivals that were discontinued as a result of thug disruptions, and the continuing crisis of policing.

The newspaper also noted, "Business owners are also tired of waiting for more officers," especially after the passage of Measure Y.