The unexpected resignation of former Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts came in the wake of the Oakland City Council’s rejection of the most recent proposals to implement new measures on Oct. 4, leaving behind an uncertain future for the Oakland Police.
These proposals, if passed, would have supported measures that expanded police powers in order by establishing youth curfews, an anti-loitering ordinance, and gang injunctions in west and east Oakland to make the city safe.
Two gang injunctions were already implemented in 2010 against 15 alleged members of the North Side Oakland gang and 42 alleged Norteño gang members, restricting their activities in north and east Oakland, respectively.
Although crime was decreasing for the last few years, with 2010 being the least violent year in terms of homicides since 2005, crime has increased in 2011 and there have been more than 90 homicides in Oakland this year so far.
The new proposals were rejected after protesters swarmed the city hall meeting and demonstrated outside in Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, now the scene of a makeshift tent city inhabited by participants in the unrelated Occupy Oakland protests.
City Council President Larry Reid said that residents were going against their own interests by opposing the new crime fighting plans.
“If folks don’t want to look at options to make this city a safe place, then ultimately we suffer the consequences,” he said.
Protesters at that meeting, many of whom were part of a group called Stop the Injunctions Coalition, said there is not sufficient proof that the gang injunctions already in place are working.
Sagnicthe Salazar, a spokesperson for the group, said they wanted to remind the city council of their March 4 vote to suspend implementation of further gang injunctions until an independent review of the north Oakland injunction could be completed.
“They’re trying to turn the independent review into a simple report from OPD, and we already know what OPD always does, which is make their department look good so that they’re able to get more funds,” said Salazar.
Instead of gang injunctions, she said, the city should be looking at alternative solutions “like more resources for the community, like more funds into the education system, like more jobs…as a way of stopping the violence as opposed to implementing repressive measures.”
The protests were also promoted by the website Bay of Rage, a self-proclaimed “anti-capitalist initiative based in the Bay Area.”
As of yet, the Oakland City Council has made no further progress on this issue.