Oakland Killing Fields

Oakland currently stands vulnerable with 100 homicides this year and counting. This has been a dramatic increase from last year’s low of 85 deaths. This is currently the highest Oakland has seen since 1995. From 1986 to 1995 the average was at 138 homicides a year. Much of the killings are over drugs and turf wars, mostly in the poor flatlands of East and West Oakland. 80 percent of these deaths are amongst the African-American community. Some action clearly needs to be taken by the community and the roots of the problems must be addressed.

Much of the hype over Oakland could be blamed on the media. Lately the death toll has taken the attention of the media nationwide. The concerned community has to ask, why is all the emphasis going to Oakland? Is the media sensationalizing crime? “Whenever you continuously project negative images of a community, people start to become the images the see on TV,

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Oakland is the prime target when other areas in California like Bayview/Hunters Point, East Palo Alto, and Compton are just as bad, if not, worse. So if we ditched those fears of the city and moved back in I’m certain once neglected areas would be revived. I also believe that the police issue is a small piece of the puzzle but the greatest results will not come from hording tax dollars into getting the police to do all the dirty work. Some saw losing this measure as a major detriment. Public services, jobs, and capital are all taken away to suburban outlets. Why, because it feeds the greedy multi-billion dollar prison industry (but that is another issue all together). Most of these murders are executions. The first initiative to counter the most recent killings proposed more police officers to patrol the high drug and crime areas. It will never be an instantaneous process but leaders of the hurting communities should take all the frustrations and channel it into progressive movements that educate. "I don't think anyone can pinpoint any particular cause," Mayor Brown said. The city really needs to look deeper into the root of the problems instead of taking the easy way out. Again, all this will just contribute to the demoralization of the urban communities like Oakland. 90 percent would end up going to the police department which had already been through a series of scandals and overtime debts. Violence is gradually becoming more of a growing threat like it was in the early 90’s.

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Approximate Word count = 1262
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

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