Posted on 04/04/2008 8:09:44 AM PDT by SmithL
Oakland's hills are but a few miles from the flatlands of West Oakland, but the landscaped front yards up the hill and the unforgiving streets of the flatlands are culturally a world away from each other.
When residents of Montclair hear gunfire, it's usually a distant popping sound, hardly distinguishable from a car backfiring, but no one in West Oakland would mistake it because warring groups there have turned the community into a combat zone.
Whenever war has erupted on the streets, no one in the community feels safe. And everyone is traumatized one way or another.
The latest violence, stemming from just such a running dispute, has claimed the lives of four people this year - including a man caught in the cross fire - and the gunfire is escalating.
On Monday night alone, four people were shot in a three-hour volley of retaliatory strikes between rival groups from the housing projects in the Lower Bottom neighborhood and members of a long-standing drug gang called Ghost Town.
Kevin McKinsey, 29, of Stockton, an unintended target, was shot in the head as he stood outside a house in the 3000 block of West Street. McKinsey had come to Oakland for Easter week to visit with family, including his three children.
In addition to the four homicides, there have been several shootings that have resulted in injuries to nearly a dozen victims, authorities said.
Shootings in that part of Oakland have become so brazen that some Baby Boom-era street hustlers have complained to Oakland police officers about an increased level of violence from emboldened youngsters.
One of them told police that he was terrified.
"He was saying the (street) game is all twisted and these youngsters aren't playing by the rules, and he was more concerned for his life now than...
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Just another day in Red Ron Dellums’ Oaktown.
All you have to do is get the Oakland City council to issue a ban on gun play from 6:01 pm tonight until 10:01 am Sunday like the asshats on the L.A. City Council have done.
During that time, gang bangers can reflect on violence and discuss their differences. Maybe get a little kumbaya going?.....
What does this article have to do with the Oakland Hills? What is the purpose of the first three paragraphs of this article, other than the usual class and race baiting?
Do they need more criminals in the Hills? Do we need a criminal busing program?
The madness in the ghetto has very little to do with Dellums.It was going on fast and furious under Brown,Harris and Lionel Wilson.
I have been here since 1979.It was actually way WORSE in the Eighties.
Somewhere, there is federal district judge contemplating the "innate fairness" of such a move.
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