Oakland City Council

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October 5, 2011 | 12:54 PM | By

Oakland Council sends curfews, gang injunctions back to committee

Ali Winston

Fruitvale residents turn out at Oakland City Hall in support of a youth curfew, more gang injunctions and anti-loitering measures on October 4th, 2011

In front of yet another impassioned capacity crowd at Oakland City Hall, Mayor Jean Quan broke a 4-4 deadlock in the City Council to send proposals for expanded gang injunctions, a youth curfew, and an anti-loitering ordinance back to committee for further research and analysis. The decision, which came around 11:30 PM, illustrated deep divisions on the council and among the community about how to confront Oakland’s entrenched crime problem, as well as Mayor Quan’s conviction that her prevention and intervention-based approach to violence will yield results.

Quan cast the tie-breaking vote to side with Desley Brooks, Nancy Nadel, Jane Brunner and Rebecca Kaplan in sending the anti-crime package back to the Public Safety committee for further review. Larry Reid, Ignacio De La Fuente, Patricia Kernighan and Libby Schaaf were in favor of voting on the proposals on the spot.

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FILED UNDER: Police, anti-loitering, Gang Injunctions, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department, youth curfews
September 27, 2011 | 8:33 PM | By

Oakland Council to take up controversial public safety issues Tuesday

Puck Lo

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

A pile of anti-crime measures are on the October 4 agenda for the Oakland City Council, including a proposal to pursue gang injunctions in East and West Oakland, day and night-time citywide curfew curfews for youth under 18, and an anti-loitering ordinance targeting open-air drug markets.

The three separate resolutions were forwarded to the full City Council by the Rules Committee last week, and are supported by Councilmembers Larry Reid (District 7) and Ignacio De La Fuente (District 5). Reid and De La Fuente announced their intention to pursue further injunctions and a curfew after the August 8 murder of 3-year-old Carlos Nava in an East Oakland drive-by shooting.

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FILED UNDER: Police, anti-loitering, curfew, Gang Injunctions, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department
September 14, 2011 | 5:18 PM | By

Oaklanders press for jobs at Public Safety Committee hearing

Ali Winston

Len Turner of Turner Construction at the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee on September 13th, 2011.

As Oakland’s violent summer stretches into Fall, much of the focus of politicians and media have been on halting the Oakland Police Department’s loss of personnel and pressing for controversial crime-fighting measures such as youth curfews and gang injunctions.

However, the dozens of Oaklanders who attended last night’s session of the Public Safety Committee spoke with one voice about what is needed to reduce the city’s spiking crime rate: jobs.

Residents bearing multicolored signs pleading for work opportunities crowded into the Mark Dunakin Memorial Hearing Room on the first floor of City Hall for the Public Safety Committee’s first session in nine weeks. Before Committee Chair Pat Kernighan could convene the meeting, Vice Mayor Desley Brooks stepped up to the podium and said, “we need jobs,” touching off cheers and chants from the audience.

Brooks’ ringleader act didn’t sit well with Kernighan, who shouted down her colleague. “You are totally out of order,” Kernighan yelled. “This is totally unprofessional.”

Brooks and her supporters, who included clergy, contractors and food truck operators, spoke to the Public Safety Committee about the impact crime is having on their lives and communities.

Much of the crowd told the committee that the souring economy is driving high crime rates, and Oakland’s 15.9 percent unemployment rate affected those in poor and rich neighborhoods alike. “I live in the hills in a very nice neighborhood, but I sleep with my gun now,” said Lance Turner of Turner Construction. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Politics, Desley Brooks, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Patricia Kernaghan, Public Safety Committee
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.

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FILED UNDER: Courts, Fruitvale, gang injunctoins, Nortenos, North Oakland, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department
May 4, 2011 | 1:38 PM | By

Russo resigns, Oakland City Council to vote on gang injunction strategy

Ali Winston

Gang injunction opponents and Fruitvale merchants make their views known at an Oakland City Council meeting on May 3, 2011.

More than a year since Oakland filed its first gang injunction in Alameda County Superior Court, the City Council is poised to take action on outgoing City Attorney John Russo’s controversial anti-crime strategy that has polarized parts of the city and exacerbated police-community tensions.

Representatives from the Oakland Police Department and City Attorney’s office were conspicuously absent from last night’s meeting. In a joint letter to the council, Russo and Police Chief Anthony Batts said their staff was tied up with preparations for closing arguments Friday for the city’s second gang injunction against 40 alleged Norteños in the Fruitvale neighborhood.

Vice Mayor Desley Brooks, whose District 6 may be the target of a third gang injunction, was livid at the absence of OPD and City Attorney personnel and the lack of information provided to the council on the subject.

“It is incumbent on staff to be here, that’s what the charter says. It’s inappropriate,” Brooks said. “The City Attorney never received authorization to enter into this litigation.”

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Anthony Batts, Gang Injunctions, John Russo, Oakland, Oakland City Attorney, Oakland City Council
May 3, 2011 | 3:07 PM | By

Gang injunction report to go before full Oakland Council tonight

Puck Lo

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

As court proceedings on the Fruitvale gang injunction come to a close on Friday, the Oakland City Council will debate gang injunctions as a whole during tonight’s hearing. A In February, injunction opponents and supporters filled the council chambers to the rafters during a three-hour Public Safety Committee hearing on the injunctions.

Tonight, the council will review the same informational report on gang injunctions that was presented to the Public Safety Committee several weeks earlier.

The committee deadlocked over whether to approve or criticize City Attorney John Russo’s anti-gang strategy, with Nancy Nadel and Rebecca Kaplan expressing reservations about the tactic. Patricia Kernighan and Larry Reid did not waver in their support of the North Oakland and Fruitvale gang injunctions.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Gang Injunctions, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department
February 23, 2011 | 1:33 PM | By

Oakland injunctions get council hearing, legislators pass on action

rezlab

Oakland’s controversial gang injunctions got a long-awaiting airing at last night’s session of the City Council’s Public Safety Committee. After three and a half hours of presentations by city officials, followed by comments from a room packed to the rafted with both supporters and opponents, the councilmembers deadlocked on whether — and how — to take action.

The question of what exactly City Council thinks of gang injunctions came to light during recent hearings before  Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman about a proposed  injunction against 40 alleged Norteños in Fruitvale. Judge Freedman said he would only consider the legal issues immediately at hand, and that he expects elected officials to set Oakland’s public safety policy (The Norteño case will resume at 2 PM today at the Rene C. Davidson Courthouse at 1225 Fallon Street, Department 1).

The question of just what that policy should be dominated last night’s hearing. Expressing concern that her constituents in West Oakland mIGHT be the target of future injunctions, District 3 Councilmember Nancy Nadel lambasted the North Side Oakland and Fruitvale injunctions as “divisive crap” and a drain on limited city resources. Expressing concern that her constituents in West Oakland might be the target of future injunctions, Nadel said Oakland has more pressing worries than gangs.

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Fruitvale, Gang Injunctions, North Side Oakland, Oakland, Oakland City Council, Oakland Police Department, Public Safety Committee
January 12, 2011 | 5:40 PM | By

Activists urge Oakland City Council to deauthorize gang injuctions

Oakland City Attorney

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

The battle over Oakland proposed injunction against the Norteno gang in the Fruitvale neighborhood is now being waged both in the courtroom of Alameda County Judge Robert Freedman and in the chambers of the Oakland City Council.

More than sixty people opposed to the Norteno injunction turned up to last night’s meeting of the Council’s Public Safety Committee to ask that the city de-authorize City Attorney John Russo’s gang injunction strategy: dozens of injunction opponents also turned out to the December 15th session of the Public Safety Committee. Tuesday’s hearing had to be moved to the main council chambers in order to accommodate the crowd.

The anti-injunction crowd did succeed in compelling the Public Safety Committee to agree to commission a report from the City Attorney and the Oakland Police Department outlining the costs and efficacy of the North Side Oakland injunction, which has been in place since Spring of 2010. The City Council has never taken public action on Oakland’s gang injunctions.

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FILED UNDER: Politics, Gang Injunctions, Nortenos, Oakland, Oakland City Council