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Fireworks Canceled – Get Ready for Fireworks
The City of Oakland canceled its official July 4 fireworks show in Jack London Square. Although the excuse was that nearby construction poses a hazard, the real reason is to get up to 100 police around the city to deal with a rising tide of illegal, dangerous fireworks.
The police department will require mandatory overtime by all officers working the day or graveyard shift, freeing up the regular swing shift contingent to concentrate on fireworks.
Once again, the only hope of a real solution proves to be an adequate number of police. Oakland needs at least 1,100 officers, but City Hall has only 700-some employed and has capped its budget for police at 803. We hope that the mandatory overtime helps for one day, but this is no way to run a police force.
Political fireworks over policing Oakland
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The City has previously closed down the Festival at the Lake, the Carijama Festival, music celebrations in front of City Hall, and other ongoing events. Those who practice the culture of disrespect have more power over the street than our understaffed police department, and City Hall is unwilling to change the balance of forces.
According to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle, people who have gone into the hills on recent July Fourths say many illegal fireworks displays are larger than the Jack London show. The newspaper's website also quoted neighborhood activist Hannah James on the behavior that flourishes under the cover of the widespread chaos of fireworks: "Morons start doing sideshows, breaking windows, jumping on cars, and firing guns." (The Chronicle deleted this remark from its June 27 print edition.)
In Oakland it is illegal to buy, sell, transfer, use, or possess fireworks. A person cited for these violations can be fined up to $1,000. A key unanswered question is whether OPD will instruct officers to cite and if necessary detain more than a handful of the dozens of offenders, or just shut down particular incidents.
The City knew weeks ago that its alter ego the Port of Oakland was canceling the Jack London show but let the news slip out only at a June 26 city council committee meeting. The arrogant we-know-what's-best attitude and the insider game at City Hall continue because for these officials, politics is a career beholden to special interests rather than a few years of public service.
A Suggestion for July 4
Although the police department has a fireworks hotline, in past years it has been busy all the time, or when you get through, the voicemail box is full and unable to record your report.
We have a suggestion: Establish an OPD website that can take and post reports real-time, just like the comments on a blog. To filter out diversionary messages, there should be a procedure before July 4 for residents to register and establish their name and address with means of verification. Only registered residents should be allowed to post reports.
Such a website would eliminate the bottlenecks that undermine the hotline phone system. It should also be easier for Lt. Chris Mufarreh, who is responsible for the July 4 anti-fireworks operation, to have the reports collated and mapped.
ORPN offers this small suggestion, but it is hardly a basic solution. We need that first councilmember who keeps the need for 1,100 officers at top priority. We need that first councilmember who denounces the culture of disrespect that dominates Oakland streets, who champions action to put an end to it. Anything less is participation in the destruction of a city, something we are witnessing before our eyes.
– June 26, 2007
Readers' Comments
Is it genetic that City Hall can't just tell the truth? The fireworks were canceled because of the chaos in the neighborhoods on July 4 that OPD is unable to contain because we don't have enough police officers.
If they were honestly worried about fire, they would be dealing with fireworks in the neighborhoods near dry creek beds and with overgrown dry foliage on people's property. It is really more insulting to say that Jack London Square and the Port can't burn down from fireworks, but it's okay for my neighborhood to burn up (like the fire set among the trees in Sausal Creek by a bottle rocket in 2002, one block from my house), not to mention all the houses that have burned down over the years from fireworks all over Oakland.
Is it any wonder that the public has no confidence in government? Sheesh, what are we, stupid?
Either way I guess the City is in deep doo. They have to choose between admitting they don't have enough cops (after insisting that 803 is enough and supporting the profoundly flawed Measure Y) or that they'd rather see the neighborhoods burn up but not commerce.
Jeez, no wonder the population in Oakland is dropping. Once Biff and Muffy get knocked in the head on their way to Starbucks to get their soy mocha latte with a double shot, the mass exodus out of this town will start in earnest.
– Margurite
Last week the trampoline in my backyard was set on fire with firecrackers, likely by the neighborhood kids who have already kicked in my fence in three different places so they can jump on the trampoline (usually accompanied by some other vandalism like breaking off tree branches, trashing my pathway lights, and throwing fruit at the house).
I just happened to glance out the window while the trampoline was on fire. Thankfully the ground was bare underneath it, as chunks of flaming nylon were dropping to the ground. Had I not been home, it could easily have set the whole neighborhood on fire. Although the Fire Department dispatcher seemed amused when I announced, "Hi, my trampoline is on fire," a fire truck did arrive within five minutes.
Every Fourth of July when other people go out to events and public fireworks displays, I stay home to guard my house from the neighborhood idiots/criminals and their illegal fireworks. In my neighborhood (Fruitvale), fireworks start on Cinco de Mayo and continue through Labor Day (although the Fourth is certainly a peak time). Every year the City announces they are going to step up enforcement, and yet every year it gets worse.
As an example of how councilmembers chirp in the face of thuggery, councilmember Quan writes in her June 30, 2007 newsletter, "Due to the construction and safety hazards in the area where the fireworks are usually held, there will be no fireworks display at Jack London Square this year." Her "Due to" is false. To cover her evasion, Quan writes elsewhere in the newsletter, "This year without the Jack London event which requires about a hundred extra police officers, more patrols will be in the neighborhoods." Actually, the department is imposing mandatory overtime to get those 100 officers. The culture of disruption and disrespect rules Oakland and compelled the cancellation, but councilmembers try to finesse their way from disaster to disaster.
– Editor, ORPN website
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