Oakland City Attorney
Two Oakland Councilmembers are calling for a curfew and more gang injunctions to fight crime
Oakland’s violent summer has reignited debate over controversial gang injunction measures.
An email was sent out earlier today by Councilmembers Larry Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente decrying Oakland’s 75 murders to date and asking residents to support their push for a citywide curfew, the continuation of the Fruitvale injunction against 40 alleged Norteños and new gang injunctions in East and West Oakland.
Reid and De La Fuente’s email, posted after the jump, echoes comments made by Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts in a press conference following the arrest of the alleged killer of Carlos Fernandez Nava. Neither Reid nor De La Fuente returned calls for comment.
Here is an excerpt from the email, which takes issue with fellow councilmembers’ decisions to oppose further gang injunctions:
For many years, some of us elected officials in this City have pushed for enforcement measures that others have opposed, and as a result we have not received the necessary support to enforce or implement some of the crime fighting tools that are available to law enforcement. Whether a curfew or a gang injunction, the argument against such tools is always the same, “It’s a violation of their civil liberties and/or its racial profiling.” Oaklanders came out in record numbers to speak out against the gang injunction, we ask those individuals today, “What about the civil liberties of this little boy who was caught in the crossfire between rival gangs? Who is going to speak up for his civil liberties and those of his family? Who is speaking up for the civil liberties of the young African American and Latino males that are being killed on our streets each year?”
