North Oakland

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September 21, 2011 | 4:17 PM | By

One dead, two wounded in AM North Oakland shooting

Ali Winston

Police markers indicating shell cases at the scene of a Sept. 21, 2011 murder on 52nd Street in North Oakland

A 31-year-old man was shot dead and 24-year-old man is in stable condition today following a chaotic shooting in the 800 block of 52st Street this morning. Witnesses identified Remilio Myers, 30, as the slain man, claiming that he and the wounded man were targeted by four gunmen.

Oakland Police were notified of the shooting around 11:30 AM. According to witnesses, Myers was helping his elderly mother off her East Bay paratransit bus when a car pulled up and four men armed with handguns jumped out and began shooting. Witnesses say Myers sprinted into the parking lot of a yellow apartment building on the south side of 52nd street with two gunmen in hot pursuit, cornering him inside the building and shooting him an unspecified number of times.

At the same time two other shooters chased an unidentified man onto the porch of a blue house on the opposite sidewalk, shooting him an unspecified amount of times. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, murder, North Oakland, Oakland, Oakland Police Department
May 18, 2011 | 5:51 PM | By

Oakland City Council votes to continue injunctions, with limits

Ali Winston

Fruitvale injunction defendant Ruben Leal addresses the Oakland City Council on May 17, 2011

After six hours of heated, often rancorous debate over Oakland’s gang injunction strategy, the City Council moved to continue with the city’s controversial anti-crime strategy by one vote shortly after midnight Wednesday morning. Councilmembers Larry Reid, Ignacio De La Fuente, Libby Schaaf and Patricia Kernighan voted to continue funding the injunctions, with Nancy Nadel, Desley Brooks and Rebecca Kaplan in opposition. Councilmember Jane Brunner abstained from the vote.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman is expected to decide soon whether or not to approve Oakland’s second gang injunction, which targets 40 alleged Norteños in the Fruitvale.

Around 300 people packed the council chambers and gallery for the meeting, a reflection of the high politicized environment surrounding the. One hundred and fifty-seven people spoke on the issue (224 had initially signed up). Some supporters of the injunction made their voices heard, but the majority of those present opposed the injunction.

Police Chief Anthony Batts and OPD’s entire command staff were present at last night’s hearing — a sharp contrast to the chief’s no-show at a council hearing earlier this month.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Courts, Fruitvale, gang injunctoins, Nortenos, North Oakland, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department
March 1, 2011 | 11:44 AM | By

Gang injunctions roil Oakland politics

Puck Lo

Opponents of Oakland's gang injunction strategy outside Alameda County Superior Court in October 2010

The city of Oakland is currently defending a controversial effort to reduce gang violence. Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman is reviewing a proposed gang injunction by City Attorney John Russo that would restrict the movement and associations of 40 alleged Norteño gang members in the Fruitvale District. Russo and Police Chief Anthony Batts claim the injunction will reduce gang-related crime in the area.

But local activists say it’s targeting the wrong people, will lead to increased police harassment and only serve to displace crime. I sat down yesterday with our Executive Editor Ben Trefny to discuss the matter on last night’s Crosscurrents.

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Fruitvale, Gang Injunctions, Nortenos, North Oakland, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland Police Department
February 11, 2011 | 1:06 PM | By

Judge wants more data on North Oakland injunction

In a status conference yesterday on the North Side Oakland gang injunction, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman requested information demonstrating the effectiveness of the court order on gang activity in the area. Freedman is also overseeing the trial of the proposed injunction against 40 alleged Norteños in the Fruitvale area.

“I didn’t see any information the court can utilize to assess whether more good than harm is being achieved,” Freedman said of the status report presented to him by the Oakland City Attorney. According to the report, there have been no documented violations of the gang injunction. Although the judge admitted he wasn’t sure what metric would best demonstrate the effect of the injunction, he did suggest an analysis of crime trends and figures in the injunction era before and after the court order was approved.

David Lyon, a Ruiz & Sperow attorney contracted to litigate Oakland’s gang injunction, said that crime trends are “a complex, multi-headed beast.” The struggling economy and staffing problems at the Oakland Police Department, he said, are factors that might affect such statistics. A Bay Citizen report on crime in OPD’s Area 1 patrol sector, which includes North Oakland, found that shootings had doubled. OPD has pointed out that many of those shootings were in West Oakland, outside the “safety area” of the injunction.

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FILED UNDER: Courts, Gang Injunctions, North Oakland, Oakland
February 10, 2011 | 11:29 AM | By

Barry Krisberg on Oakland’s gang injunctions

Puck Lo

Opponents of Oakland's gang injunction strategy outside Alameda County Superior Court in October 2010

The battle over gang injunctions in Oakland is heating up in the early months of 2011. Last week, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman allowed attorneys from the Siegel & Yee law firm to represent 30 alleged gang members named in City Attorney John Russo’s injunction lawsuit against the Fruitvale Norteños. Russo’s office had challenged Siegel & Yee’s involvement because of a perceived conflict of interest. Firm principal Dan Siegel IS an unpaid adviser to Mayor Jean Quan, and City Council President Joan Brunner works for Siegel & Yee.

The Fruitvale injunction is currently scheduled for a hearing on February 16. Oakland’s only current gang injunction, against 15 alleged members of the North Side Oakland gang, will be reviewed during a case management conference this afternoon.

Since the North Oakland gang injunction was announced in early 2010, there has been a steady groundswell of opposition to gang injunctions in Oakland. With a review of the efficacy of the North Oakland injunction in front of the City Council on February 22, it appears that the anti-injunction movement has gained political currency in Oakland.

I sat down with Professor Barry Krisberg, the head of the Warren Policy Institute at UC-Berkeley’s Boalt Hall, to discuss the dynamics of the debate.

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Barry Krisberg, Fruitvale, Gang Injunctions, John Russo, North Oakland, Oakland, Oakland City Attorney
February 7, 2011 | 5:25 PM | By

Shots fired at Oakland Police Saturday night

Henderson Images

Hard on the heels of last week’s discussion of a rash of citizen-on-police shootings, two Oakland Police officers were shot at Saturday evening while responding to reports on gunfire in North Oakland.

Benny Ray Martin Jr, a 31-year-old parolee who was recently released from federal prison in Nevada, allegedly fired at two problem-solving officers around 6:30 PM in the 800 block of 59th Street. Although their patrol car was struck by a round, neither officer was injured in the shooting.

Police cordoned off the area and arrested Martin and Anthony Perry, 20, when the pair attempted to drive out of the neighborhood in a green Buick. Both men are being held in North County Jail in downtown Oakland for the attempted murder of a police officer, but the Alameda County District Attorney has yet to file charges.

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FILED UNDER: Police, assaults on police, North Oakland, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Officer-involved shootings
October 15, 2010 | 11:04 AM | By

North Oakland injunction left intact; may be lifted in a year’s time

Puck Lo

North Oakland resident Margaret White speaks at Thursday's protest in front of the Alameda County Courthouse

A gang injunction against 15 alleged members of the North Side Oakland gang was upheld at a status conference yesterday in front of Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman. A vocal demonstration of about 80 people before the hearing and an amicus brief filed by the Stop the Injunction Coalition detailing the injunction’s impact on North Oakland residents did not convince Freedman that there has been any evidence of “untoward intrusion into the lives of citizens.”

Attorneys representing City Attorney John Russo’s office maintained that the injunction is working to date because the fifteen named individuals have been keeping a low profile and have not violated the injunction. Oakland officials have changed their position on whether the injunction is working a number of times. In response to a spike in North Oakland crime this summer, the City Attorney claimed it was too early to determine whether the injunction was working. At Wednesday’s announcement of a proposed gang injunction against the Nortenos, Police Chief Anthony Batts asserted the North Oakland injunction has been effective in controlling criminal activity. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community, Courts, Gang injunction, John Russo, Judge Robert Freedman, North Oakland, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland City Attorney, Oakland Police Department
October 13, 2010 | 5:03 PM | By

The Bay Area’s gang injunctions explained

Oakland City Attorney's Office

Oakland's latest gang injunction covers part of the Fruitvale district.

Today, Oakland City Attorney John Russo announced he’ll file a new gang injunction targeting the Norteño Street gang in the Fruitvale neighborhood.

OAKLAND CITY ATTORNEY JOHN RUSSO: The Norteños have been one of the most destructive vicious and sociopathic gangs in Oakland, not just for years, but literally for generations.

Gang injunctions are increasingly being used to combat crime. Many law enforcement officials support their use, like Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts:

OAKLAND POLICE CHIEF ANTHONY BATTS: The purpose of an injunction is to put on notice the gang members or people in the community who are causing so much harm and to allow good people who live in those neighborhoods to come back and reclaim their civil rights and liberties and go out in public in a safe manner.

The gang injunction is a civil lawsuit introduced in California in the mid-1980s that restricts the activities of alleged gang members in certain neighborhoods. In the past three decades, their use has spread across California, including the Bay Area.

On September 30, a judge approved San Francisco’s fourth injunction, targeting two gangs in the Visitacion Valley neighborhood. And tomorrow, an Alameda Superior Court judge will review the implementation of Oakland’s first gang injunction, five months after it was approved.

KALW’s Ali Winston has been reporting on gang injunctions in Oakland and San Francisco for the past few months. He explains the history of gang injunctions in California and the Bay Area, and how they are being used today.

Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community, Courts, Police, Dennis Herrera, District 10, East Oakland, Fruitvale, Gang Injunctions, John Russo, Malia Cohen, Mikail Ali, Mission District, Nortenos, North Oakland, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland Police, San Francisco, San Francisco Police, Visitacion Valley, Western Addition