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Oakland – Most Violent Large City in California
According to FBI tabulations of crime reports for 2010, Oakland is the most violent California city with more than 100,000 residents.
Violent crimes include murders, forcible rapes, robberies, and aggravated assaults. The category excludes break-ins to your home or your car. The FBI compiles an annual tally from Uniform Crime Reports submitted by local law enforcement agencies.
Oakland is the number one major city in California for violent crimes.
Oakland has more than twice as much violent crime than nearly all the other cities (twice more crime than 59 of 65 cities).
People in Oakland are shot, killed, robbed and beaten twice as much as people in San Francisco; almost three times more than people in Los Angeles; and nearly four times more than people in San Diego.
Yet Oakland has a poverty rate less than Los Angeles and comparable with other, safer cities.
Oakland and Alameda County also spend millions of dollars on violence prevention and other social programs. For more than a decade, officials like current Oakland mayor Jean Quan have preached that we need "a combination of social programs and police services." Politicians like Quan have created a whole industry of programs, arguing "that police enforcement alone doesn't solve the problem; that it takes a comprehensive approach and collaboration among counties, schools, state and federal governments and the community to make a change."
The amelioration philosophy has put Oakland at the top of the violent crimes list. Oakland is horrifying testimony to the fact that social programs have failed. Meanwhile, Oakland City Hall has relentlessly reduced police staffing. Oakland has less than half a police department compared with most major cities. Half as many police, twice the crime, no meaningful gap in poverty rate, and a horde of parasitic social programs – Oakland needs a mayor ready to break with the failed orthodoxy, a mayor determined to make Oakland safe for residents and businesses.
– Sept. 26, 2011
Table data is from the FBI compilation of uniform crime reports for 2010.
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