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I live at The Grand, which is close to Broadway and Grand. In the last 6 months, I have heard one purse snatched and one assault and carjacking. Both happened i

I live at The Grand, which is close to Broadway and Grand. In the last 6 months, I have heard one purse snatched and one assault and carjacking. Both happened in broad daylight, in heavily trafficked areas with people around. I was unable to assist OPD with the former case, but for the latter I ran down to give a statement. OPD never caught them last I heard, the car hasn't been recovered, and an elderly couple was very shaken. I get the feeling that some elements inside OPD are trying to help the public, while others are cops for the power trip (see the Riders case of the early 2000's). OPD is absolutely stretched thin, but they are that way because Oakland is a big city and the command structure has previously had major run-ins with the DoJ (see Riders again) and therefore is very very careful about putting officers on the street. More so, they keep having issues with the DoJ (See Occupy Oakland, Scott Olsen), going so far as to the DoJ throwing down a threat of having the force taken over and reorganized, what would be a first for any organization in the US. We can't even keep a police chief for more then a few months, or days for that matter. Howard Jordan was around from 2011 until earlier this year. A day or two before another DoJ ruling/meeting, he suddenly retired due to a "medical condition", which he still hasn't disclosed. His replacement, Anthony Toribio, only lasted 2 days. Days. Not months. Days. The current interim chief, Sean Whent is still around, but we will see how much longer. We only have 637 officers as of last check. 637 for a town of 400,000 people. Oakland has a broken government, including OPD and other services. It caused all of it's own problems, mostly due to OPD. Oakland won't get better until crime gets better or people start caring more about Oakland. I love my city, but I can't do much to help, other than helping the community (see OaklandWiki.org). Maybe this is rambling, but whatever, it's out there. Oakland needs help, robbery and crime in general isn't going to drop until someone starts to care. Edited to add more details and color.

yapcguy 13y ago
> Oakland needs help, robbery and crime in general isn't going to drop until someone starts to care. This. Why have moderators changed the headline? Oakland is #1 for robberies in the country. People need to know this. To accept it for what it is. Sweeping the discussion away with a politically correct headline is part of the problem.
- potatolicious 13y ago
  It's standard HN policy (and elsewhere, I might add) to only use the actual headlines of linked articles. This prevents editorializing in the headline and undue steering of the ensuing conversation. The edited/new headline is the same as what's actually on the linked article. If you believe this headline is overly politically correct, take it up with the SF Chronicle. I sympathize somewhat, but keep in mind that these rules are common throughout online communities, and only exist because submission headlines became massive soapboxes.
  - yapcguy 13y ago
    Sometimes they don't use the actual headlines and come up with their own so the policy is not consistent. This story was on the front page and heading to the top, but now it's sinking fast. Well done moderators.
- marknutter 13y ago
  I've been noticing headlines change on HN more and more lately. It's very disorienting and kind of shakes my confidence in the content.
YuriNiyazov 13y ago
I live in Berkeley. My girlfriend and I were robbed in Oakland at gunpoint in June. We reported everything to the OPD. My iPad was sending out information about its location for weeks. I forwarded that information to the OPD. The detective assigned to my case never called me back. We don't go to Oakland anymore unless it's passing through via BART, nice restaurants and other culture be damned. The amount of enjoyment I get from seeing your cool new funky band and trying your cool new food is dwarfed by the amount of shit feelings I get when dealing with having guns pointed at me and an unresponsive police department.
- dkl 13y ago
  I used to live in Berkeley, and two people were robbed at gun point in my neighborhood. Shit like this happens everywhere. I don't think Berkeley is that much safer than Oakland. Just my opinion.
  - YuriNiyazov 13y ago
    Shit happens everywhere. The BPD, unlike the OPD, is excellent at follow up. That's what makes all the difference, and makes one place safer than another.
    - dkl 13y ago
      I don't agree with that. I had two home burglaries. Never any followup from them on that. Again, sample size is everything.
- allochthon 13y ago
  This article gave me a necessary adrenaline rush. I live in Oakland and was mugged a year or so by a group of young kids walking through my neighborhood. They stole my phone and made a bunch of phone calls. I traced the phone calls back to individuals who no doubt knew the perpetrators and compiled a spreadsheet that I sent to the Oakland Police Department. They never called me back. In the small apartment complex where I live, at least three other people were mugged at some point.
dkl 13y ago
I'm right across the street (the office building next to Lukas). I walk to work and back every day. Been doing this for 10+ years. Never had a problem. I remember a couple of years ago the guy that came to the Bay Area for the google interview and stopped in to see someone in Oakland the night before and was shot dead. Or, the old man that was killed by someone on the street hitting him so hard. Or, the kid that was paralyzed while getting a music lesson because some shot off a gun during a robbery. In the past, the crime in the bad areas of Oakland didn't bleed out to the nicer areas. I predicted this after the 2008 crash. I knew once the economy crashed, it wouldn't take long for the very large numbers of uneducated, jobless, young men in the bad parts of Oakland to realize their meal ticket was walking around in the nicer areas of town. Piedmont, surrounded on all sides by Oakland, has been hit by an increase in robberies, many of which are home invasion style. I was talking with a friend the other day who knows a lawyer that is defending some of the people in the gang (Easy Money Team... what a name, but it gives you insight into their thinking). They're all 14-20ish, with parents about 14 yrs or so older than them. There is a lack of opportunity, but the black community needs to address some of their problems, at least one of which is cultural: it is uncool for kids to succeed through academics, it is very cool for kids to succeed via sports or rap music or dancing. Until it is cool to do well in school, and that starts with the parents, this problem will only get worse. For those that want to label me a racist: there are studies that back up what I said. There was a prominent researcher that died recently, but not before writing a scathing article about this problem. There was an article about him and his research in the East Bay Express. I forget his name. It was eye opening.
- colemanfoley 13y ago
  The article is "Rich, Black, Flunking" by John Ogbu, a Nigerian American. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rich-black-flunking/Content?oid=1070459 http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rich-black-flunking/Co...
  - yapcguy 13y ago
    Hat tip. A good read.
  - 13y ago
mathattack 13y ago
It seems like crime follows income disparity. When you have a lot of wealth connected to a lot of poverty, and not many people keeping them apart, you have crime. It surprises me that Oakland is even worse than Detroit - perhaps because Detroit doesn't have the wealth? I believe this bus fight video was also in Oakland. http://youtu.be/tYTO4P80q9k http://youtu.be/tYTO4P80q9k

yapcguy 13y ago

> Oakland needs help, robbery and crime in general isn't going to drop until someone starts to care. This. Why have moderators changed the headline? Oakland is #1 for robberies in the country. People need to know this. To accept it for what it is. Sweeping the discussion away with a politically correct headline is part of the problem.

potatolicious 13y ago
It's standard HN policy (and elsewhere, I might add) to only use the actual headlines of linked articles. This prevents editorializing in the headline and undue steering of the ensuing conversation. The edited/new headline is the same as what's actually on the linked article. If you believe this headline is overly politically correct, take it up with the SF Chronicle. I sympathize somewhat, but keep in mind that these rules are common throughout online communities, and only exist because submission headlines became massive soapboxes.
- yapcguy 13y ago
  Sometimes they don't use the actual headlines and come up with their own so the policy is not consistent. This story was on the front page and heading to the top, but now it's sinking fast. Well done moderators.
marknutter 13y ago
I've been noticing headlines change on HN more and more lately. It's very disorienting and kind of shakes my confidence in the content.

YuriNiyazov 13y ago

I live in Berkeley. My girlfriend and I were robbed in Oakland at gunpoint in June. We reported everything to the OPD. My iPad was sending out information about its location for weeks. I forwarded that information to the OPD. The detective assigned to my case never called me back. We don't go to Oakland anymore unless it's passing through via BART, nice restaurants and other culture be damned. The amount of enjoyment I get from seeing your cool new funky band and trying your cool new food is dwarfed by the amount of shit feelings I get when dealing with having guns pointed at me and an unresponsive police department.

dkl 13y ago
I used to live in Berkeley, and two people were robbed at gun point in my neighborhood. Shit like this happens everywhere. I don't think Berkeley is that much safer than Oakland. Just my opinion.
- YuriNiyazov 13y ago
  Shit happens everywhere. The BPD, unlike the OPD, is excellent at follow up. That's what makes all the difference, and makes one place safer than another.
  - dkl 13y ago
    I don't agree with that. I had two home burglaries. Never any followup from them on that. Again, sample size is everything.
allochthon 13y ago
This article gave me a necessary adrenaline rush. I live in Oakland and was mugged a year or so by a group of young kids walking through my neighborhood. They stole my phone and made a bunch of phone calls. I traced the phone calls back to individuals who no doubt knew the perpetrators and compiled a spreadsheet that I sent to the Oakland Police Department. They never called me back. In the small apartment complex where I live, at least three other people were mugged at some point.

dkl 13y ago

I'm right across the street (the office building next to Lukas). I walk to work and back every day. Been doing this for 10+ years. Never had a problem. I remember a couple of years ago the guy that came to the Bay Area for the google interview and stopped in to see someone in Oakland the night before and was shot dead. Or, the old man that was killed by someone on the street hitting him so hard. Or, the kid that was paralyzed while getting a music lesson because some shot off a gun during a robbery. In the past, the crime in the bad areas of Oakland didn't bleed out to the nicer areas. I predicted this after the 2008 crash. I knew once the economy crashed, it wouldn't take long for the very large numbers of uneducated, jobless, young men in the bad parts of Oakland to realize their meal ticket was walking around in the nicer areas of town. Piedmont, surrounded on all sides by Oakland, has been hit by an increase in robberies, many of which are home invasion style. I was talking with a friend the other day who knows a lawyer that is defending some of the people in the gang (Easy Money Team... what a name, but it gives you insight into their thinking). They're all 14-20ish, with parents about 14 yrs or so older than them. There is a lack of opportunity, but the black community needs to address some of their problems, at least one of which is cultural: it is uncool for kids to succeed through academics, it is very cool for kids to succeed via sports or rap music or dancing. Until it is cool to do well in school, and that starts with the parents, this problem will only get worse. For those that want to label me a racist: there are studies that back up what I said. There was a prominent researcher that died recently, but not before writing a scathing article about this problem. There was an article about him and his research in the East Bay Express. I forget his name. It was eye opening.

colemanfoley 13y ago
The article is "Rich, Black, Flunking" by John Ogbu, a Nigerian American. http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rich-black-flunking/Content?oid=1070459 http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/rich-black-flunking/Co...
- yapcguy 13y ago
  Hat tip. A good read.
- 13y ago

mathattack 13y ago

It seems like crime follows income disparity. When you have a lot of wealth connected to a lot of poverty, and not many people keeping them apart, you have crime. It surprises me that Oakland is even worse than Detroit - perhaps because Detroit doesn't have the wealth? I believe this bus fight video was also in Oakland. http://youtu.be/tYTO4P80q9k http://youtu.be/tYTO4P80q9k