Rome (I Mean Oakland) is Burning
By Bryan R. Parker
Oakland—A City Adrift
It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I write this blog. Four Oakland Police Officers lie dead—Mark Dunakin, Ervin Romans, Daniel Sakai and John Hege. These officers, victims of a senseless, violent attack carried out by Lovell Mixon, an ex-convict who was at the time of the killings being sought on violations of his parole. Today, our city, Oakland, honors these officers at a memorial at the Oracle Area. It is right that we celebrate these fallen heroes, these men who bravely defended our city and each of us as citizens.
Despite, what I am sure will be touching tributes, these men can never be brought back. For their families, friends and fellow officers, there can never be true solace. When taken together with Oakland’s rising overall homicide rate, tragedies like the Oscar Grant shooting, and the poor state of our economy we can see Oakland in its true context—a city on fire, seemingly adrift without a clear solution in sight.
The Meaning and Solutions
What then, does all of this mean for our city? Our Mayor would say that it is up to us, the citizens of Oakland, to stem this tide of violence and correct the city’s economy. I saw him speak these words at a recent State of the City Address. The Mayor is partially right. That is, we as citizens must rise to the occasion and assist in forming solutions to these pressing problems. However, the fact that the citizens of Oakland must be held to a higher standard of action, at this time, does not abdicate our Mayor of his responsibilities. Just, as in ancient Rome, there was no excuse for Nero fiddling while his city burned around him, so too is there no excuse for our Mayor not taking more decisive action at this time of crisis. Mr. Dellums must stand tall at this time, and offer concrete solutions and not just rhetoric. Mr. Dellums was a warrior for more than 20+ years as a congressman for our area, bringing tens of millions of dollars to California, and leading countless programs that helped our community. He must recall that spirit now!
I believe that the current situation, if left unchecked, has a high potential for escalating into further violence, thereby further tearing our city apart. Mr. Dellums must start by leading the creation of more jobs in Oakland and attracting a greater number of businesses to our city. As we have witnessed from history, lack of jobs and money are often precursors to crime, and crime in general is often a precursor to more violent crime. Given this trend, Mr. Dellums must issue a zero policy on violent crime—regardless of who carries it out. In addition, he must work with the state and federal governments to enforce stricter gun control. While I am a believer and defender of 2nd Amendment Rights, there is no justifiable reason for an ordinary citizen, as did Mr. Mixon, to possess an AK 47 (military assault rifle). Further, Mr. Dellums must work with those same groups to repair our broken parole and penal systems. Implementing programs like gps tracking of parolees, and having better programs in prison that ready ex-prisoners for re-entry into society are obvious starters.
The citizens and the police force must assist our Mayor in this enormous undertaking. Citizens can work with the Mayor and the Police, like the 100 Black Men of the Bay Area, of which I am a board member, are doing to find peaceful, non-violent solutions. Citizens, who wish to protest, must do so in a non-violent way. In addition, we should not celebrate people like Mr. Mixon as martyrs, rather recognize and appropriately deal with them as criminals. Lastly, even during this time of understandable sadness, our police force must carry out their duties with compassion and dignity. Any thoughts of retribution will ring hollow in the community and only serve to further divide us.
Takeaways
We must be ever mindful of the lessons of the great Ghandi who urged us “to be the change we seek”. We must come together and seek solutions as a community. If we do not, and continue to give in to hatred, anger, mistrust and even retribution, our city will be torn apart. Limb by limb, the very fabric that underpins the fiber of our city, will be torn to shreds. If and when this happens, we risk anarchy, increased violence and further economic despair. If however, we rally together, support our Mayor as he implements concrete solutions, and do our parts to be agents of change, our city can climb out of this tragedy—better, stronger, wiser, and ready to move forward and capitalize on the great potential that is Oakland.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
You raise some interesting points and offer some great solutions, Brian; however, those solutions will only solve part of Oakland's problem. Lovell Mixon is a product of an ailing educational system, an absentee father, and poor parenting skills on his mother's part. If kids are dropping out of high school they are not going to qualify for most jobs let alone jobs that pay more than hustling on the street. The education in Oakland and Richmond should be the same as the education in Orinda and Danville. I fail to understand why this isn't a major issue for black leaders and politicans. In order for our black children to have a fighting chance the playing field must be leveled, and it starts with providing them with a quality education. Boys who share a similar background as Lovell Mixon need more strong, positive male role models to give them love, support, and guidance. So often the focus is on black girls, but we need to put just as much effort providing programs to address the needs of boys and young black men. Lastly, something has to be done about these trifling parents, threatening to kick the teacher's arse when their bad a%$ kids are told to go to the principal's office because they are disruptive in the classroom. This presents another problem: How do you reach out to these types of parents who do not value education and could careless about the teachers. You are so right, Dellums has a huge job on his hands. Great post!
Thanks for this. Very sad indeed. It reminds me of home, were young men feel they have nothing to lose by living a life of crime. This dude was in trouble already - more likely than not, he'd rather get the street (and prison) cred for killing officers than just taking the original punishment for breaking parole. There is soooo much resentment between the police and the community - I'm sure the wounds haven't healed from the senseless killing over the holidays. I hope there isn't an eye for an eye mentality building in OAK - or it will never end...
I agree with you that we ought to create real options for individuals.
I actually think the country, both rich and poor, black and white (+other) is in a crime crisis on all levels right now - people do not respect authority or the law in any meaningful way. What's going on in OAK is serious violent crime. But we have a system where politicians and celebrities break the law, (a la Blagojevich, Chris Brown, Madoff) and never serve a day and/or still have career options (or at least a book deal) available regardless. We know what happens to our folks when stuff goes down (even 'minor' offenses like drug dealing, etc) - they have no options except to return to a life of crime - because all other feasible options have been taken away. There is a huge incentive to be 1) the best criminal or 2) be the best prisoner if you get caught - which includes being protected and feared in the prison system (which is where senseless street cred crimes like killing police come in...)
But more disturbing is the signal it sends to people about law and democracy - when you set up a system where there are two sets of rules and outcomes for two distinct sets of people, the very fundamentals of democracy and fairness are called into question. Back when, separate systems for the aristocracy/ wealthy vs the people caused revolutions. I'm not sure if poeple are that passionate yet - but if it continues and the economy doesn't improve there will be serious backlash! I think we are dangerously close to anarchy, class war or something disruptive regarding this issue.
Interestingly enough, we saw Bill Bradley speak on this issue of gun control at the Bill Maher show Friday eve - he essentially said, although we (democrats) all want it, its not "important enough" - we need to worry about the economy, iraq and afganistan - then he went on to say, by the economy I mean "healthcare, education, etc etc etc etc etc"
Sadly, gun control seems to be pretty far down on the list :(
-J
Powerful and poignant "note". I would say that Oakland is truly hurting. Unfortunately, I lack faith in our mayor's leadership and he has yet to prove me wrong. Apparently, it was requested by one of the victim's families that Dellums not speak at the funeral.
Oakland deserves and desperately needs better.
I agree that Mayor Dellums needs to be a more aggressive agent for the city. His call for citizens to become more proactive to reduce crime is a throwback to the civil rights era when the (black) community collectively rallied for social change. Unfortunately, the unity has dissipated and individuals carry the majority of the burden. Dellums, alone, is the Mayor of Oakland. So, while most citizens are doing what they can do in their crime infested communities, Mayor Dellums is obligated to pioneer and implement ideas that will spur change in the city.
Post a Comment