Posted on 02/12/2012 9:22:26 AM PST by SmithL
State of the City speeches tend to be long on optimism. No mayor stands up before a crowded council chamber and says that his city is going to the dogs -- even if it's the truth.
Yet Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's speech Wednesday took the glass is half-full approach to new levels. When it was over, I wondered if we lived in the same city.
"Oakland is on the rise," she proclaimed. "It's been a pretty good year, except for a few bumps."
Excuse me? A few bumps?
From August through December, three children -- ages 3, 23 months and 5 -- were shot and killed on the streets of Oakland. A sickening first in city history.
In one weekend, just a few days before your speech, Madame Mayor, five people were shot and killed and 15 were wounded. The bloodshed prompted Police Chief Howard Jordan to hold a news conference asking for the public's help in locating the individuals responsible for this latest shooting spree.
The public safety crisis -- and it is indeed a crisis -- ought to be priority No. 1. Yet Quan didn't get around to talking about the nonstop violence until near the end of her speech. She not only glossed over the surge in killings but asserted that the year ended "with a decline in violence data."
We, in fact, ended the year with 5-year-old Gabriel Martinez's shooting death in East Oakland near his family's taco truck.
He was the 110th and last person killed in 2011.
Five weeks into the new year, we already are at 14 homicides.
To suggest things have improved is delusional.
Quan touted her "100-block" initiative that she says will reduce street killings by targeting the most dangerous blocks in the city. "We are coordinating law enforcement, criminal justice agencies, community and nonprofit groups and other services in new and more effective ways."
That is campaign speak. It is not a crime-fighting strategy.
Specifically, how will this reduce violence? Even some police officers say they have no idea what Quan is talking about.
The city won't even publicly identify which blocks are included.
It's smoke and mirrors.
Meanwhile, people keep dying -- real people with loved ones left behind to carry on as best they can.
The other day I met a 16-year-old boy whose father had been shot and killed on 109th Avenue in October a few blocks from my home in East Oakland.
I learned of the shooting when it happened -- as I do most shootings -- from a police department email that popped up on my cellphone.
However, it was another thing to meet the son of the man who has his father's name tattooed on his forearm.
To see a statistic become flesh.
In the midst of this almost daily carnage, we've had to contend with the Occupy Oakland crazies and their drain on public resources. Oakland has already paid $5 million to deal with these rebels with no cause other than mindless destruction.
Quan did not mention Occupy once, though their presence was strongly felt during the State of the City where police were on heightened alert for any potential disturbance.
In late January, Occupy protesters broke into City Hall and vandalized the premises.
What started out as a national movement with a worthy cause -- protesting vast economic inequality -- has been hijacked in Oakland by individuals whose sole purpose is to provoke a violent confrontation with the police.
Quan missed an opportunity to state forcefully that Oakland will allow peaceful protests but will not tolerate vandalism and other violent acts and reassure her constituents that the entire city leadership has not been cowed by a group of thugs.
I realize that one of the mayor's job responsibilities is to be cheerleader-in-chief and sell the city's positives.
But that doesn't mean putting on blinders.
Liberalism:
Carrying adolescent values and behavior into adult life.
Yesterday, this day's madness did prepare.
Yesterday, this day's madness did prepare.
Jean Quan’s a disaster as a mayor, but I’m not sure how she’s supposed to stop people from murdering children.
Jean Quan’s a disaster as a mayor, but I’m not sure how she’s supposed to stop people from murdering children.
True, but pushing for after school programs as the answer to the cities murder and mayhem?
http://colinfrangos.com/blog/2010/10/oakland-political-mailers/
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