Oakland’s $80 million shortfall tempts city council to employ hired guns

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In an effort to mitigate crime and cut costs Oakland City Council has decided to hire a private armed security force to patrol troublesome neighborhoods. City Council member Ignacio De La Fuente is a leading advocate for this increasingly popular solution. Despite the initial savings a private law enforcement agency presents to the debt laden city this solution is not without fault.

International Services Inc. was Oakland's primary candidate. However, their questionable background forced the city to end all negotiations. The following is an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal.

Ousama Karawia, founder of the Torrance, Calif., company, and two of its vice presidents were accused last week by the Los Angeles District Attorney's office of defrauding the state of California out of more than $9 million in workers compensation. The suspects were arrested last week after a three month investigation, said Jane Robinson, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office.

Undeterred by the ISI's public record the City Council continues to explore alternative private guard solutions. De La Fuente said, "There is still a very serious need for security in some of our more crime-plagued areas."

Oakland is en route to join numerous other cities that are tempted to use public money to pay private guards to perform public services. According to The Washington Post "The more than 1 million contract security officers, and an equal number of guards estimated to work directly for U.S. corporations, dwarf the nearly 700,000 sworn law enforcement officers in the United States."

Just as the military in Iraq was supplemented by Blackwater, and other private military firms, so US City Councils are supplementing domestic law enforcement with private security agencies. Some say this is a recent development. History would disagree. Private law enforcement solutions are a return to the Old West. It's 1881 and Sherrif Pat Garret has just deputized Wyatt Earp to catch Billy the Kid and his gang of Rustlers. The problem with this approach to crime of course is that Wyatt Earp is himself an ex-con.

Unlike rookie US soldiers Blackwater agents often have marred pasts unbeknownst to superior officers. They are not subjected to the background checks that a soldier endures. Your local police also endure an extensive background investigation prior to beginning their career as an officer. Yet George Holland Sr., lead attorney for the Oakland chapter of the NAACP might argue that even the police vetting process is not dynamic enough. He said, "Oakland, unfortunately, has had a history of treating the African-American community unfairly. The community has a great distrust for police officers because they feel they can't be punished."

If the city introduces another law enforcement entity with more lenient background requirements, less training, an equal or greater amount of bias, and fewer legal accountability tools than the OPD—the already broken relationship between citizen and law will be further exacerbated.

The violence in Oakland has been steadily declining since the fourth quarter of 2008. If the city, citizens and politicians alike, wishes to further diminish crime in this grand old city we must take a creative, cutting edge approach. Hired guns didn't work in medieval warfare and they won't work in the age of information either. Dr. Christine Gardiner of the Department of Criminology, Law and Society at University of California, Irvine would certainly agree.

"There are so many factors that affect both the economy and crime, that you can't get a causal link," Gardiner said. "It's a lot more complex than that. Crime rate is not a function of one particular thing, and the number of police per resident or population is not really related to the incidence of crime – there are neighborhood, area factors that go into it."

4 Police murdered in Oakland: Solutions to the violence

The problem of violence is a dynamic problem and therefore the solution must also be dynamic. Earlier today on KPFA's The Morning Show former Oakland City Councilman Wilson Riles spoke with Aimee Allison about the implications of the incident that took five lives, four policemen, last weekend. I offer condolences to the friends and family of all the slain. As unkind as it may sound however, we've seen this before and we will see it again if we do not respond accordingly.

In order to respond we must know what the problem is. The problem is not violence. Violence is a symptom of a more fundamental causality. The fundamental cause is hopelessness. If you speak to any number of youngsters who have or are currently involving themselves in criminal activity they know they will likely get shot or go to prison by the time they're twenty-five. The question is why would anyone continue a career path that they know will kill them or get them incarcerated?

The Morfa Pit at Taibach, Port Talbot, Glamorgan Wales, was well known to be a particularly gassy coal mine. In 1863, 30 were killed in an explosion and 38 more men in 1870. Given the obvious dangers and well known fatalities, why did families all over the world allow their husbands and sons to work in coal mines during this time? Coal mining was a familiar option, money was good, and there was plenty of demand. So in the early hours of Tuesday, March 10, 1890, when about 250 men were working underground, 87 died because of another explosion. Most of the balance of men returned to work at the next possible opportunity.

Therefore, the fundamental cause is spiritual as hope is faith based. However, hope of what? Faith or hope in sociological progress, happiness, freedom, peace of mind. Most of these objects again are faith based. God must be a part of the solution. But let's look at 'hope in sociological progress.' I had a white male acquaintance years ago who often said, "I'm going to med school." After being repeatedly teased for performing poorly in his AP English class he had a turning point. He started smoking marijuana which led to poor performance across his other high school classes; bright guy too. Long story short the cops pull him over after high-school graduation and discovers x number of ounces of coke. His life could have been completely over right then. However, the cop takes this kid to his dad who is well respected in this particular vanilla suburb and he gets reprimanded by his father. His father gets him cleaned up, twists a neighbors arm (who works at a State University), enrolls him into a university, he graduates, goes to med school, and so far my acquaintance appears to be living happily ever after.

The moral is as long as a man has a tangible vision he is less likely to choose a perishing route. But as soon as those options, resources, or dreams are taken out of his sight he is in danger of perishing. And so there were five homicides Saturday night. How many more until we learn our lesson. We must sacrifice as a community in order to be safe and to grow as a community.

Today in the barber shop a young black male barber told me that he's, "tired of armchair" talking heads that "have all these ideas for people who they don't live around." He said, "Don't hand me a flier to something that aint talking about nothing." He mentioned that community activists need to show, "consistency." It was a passionate speech condemning the church's and financially successful—career blacks who have moved so far from the ghetto that they are unable to reach back to give a hand-up to the ensuing generations. Here are my suggestions.

In time past Oakland had a host of extracurricular activities.

• Music lessons
  
• Sports programs directly and indirectly connected with formal educational institutions
  
• Mechanics classes
  
• Carpentry
  

Bring these back and add to them

• Office suite classes
  
• Administrative training
  
• VOIP training
  
• Wireless field technician
  
• SWEEP tester
  

How?

Political and educational systems pose a challenge. I suggest we partially ignore them. Use the churches, temples, and mosques as classrooms after traditional school hours. Use homes of welfare, Section 8, and SSN recipients who have time to host vocational classes as classrooms also. Those with the above or other vocational skills must be willing to give two hours a week to children between the 3^rd and 12^th grades. To be clear teachers will not be paid initially. This is about sacrifice and community.

Those who have money to give may give for the purpose of (or in the form of) equipment, textbooks, computers, etc. Churches are non-profits so that's a tax write off.

Those who work in higher learning institutions must share their knowledge and documentation of the process for college entry.

The above laborious vectors can be taught at a low cost and enable graduating students to earn a decent wage. The reason few of the above programs still exist is economical. That doesn't mean the money doesn't exist. But the financial will to support the above programs in low income communities does not exist in local government. We must financially support ourselves.

Sexually Exploited Minors Awareness Week

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The Youth Uprising center, in conjunction with Program Coordinator Zandra Washington of the ICPC, played host to another stellar community engagement yesterday. The difficult subject of teen prostitution was forced to the fore of the Alameda County community. The town hall meeting included a panel discussion which took place in East Oakland where over one hundred reporters, activists, council members, mayoral reps., and concerned citizens showed their support, voiced solutions, proposed next steps, and networked.

East Oakland, a community already riddled with gun violence, discovered that it has yet another sociological challenge: namely-- teenage prostitution.

The meeting opened with a poem from "Sunny", a female teenage resident who has a personal interest in the sexual exploitation of minors. Sunny's moving poem shared the experience of her grandmother whose mother died when she was only 13. Sunny's grandmother was approached by her landlord who assured her that she would be taken care of so long as the thirteen year old provided him with "favors".

Sunny was moved to tears when she tearfully told the crowd that an audience member resembled her grandmother. The passion of the day mushroomed from that moment.

Pacifica Radio's KPFA sponsored this monumental event while Hard Knock radio's co-founder, Weyland Southan facilitated a panel discussion. The panel included teen trainer Nola Brantly, nationally renown rapper T-Kash, Youth Justice Initiative rep. July Posadas Guzman, and OPD Special Justice Unit officer Holly Joshi. The panel later included journalist Kamika Dunlap and two other minors.

Nola is an effervescent personality whose energy filled the room all afternoon. She proved she was valuable beyond personality by consistently rattling off related statistics. However, as with most of the panelists she touched the audience using a parable.

Nola told the story of a teenage girl who was sexually exploited by a mentally challenged man. That man was a police officer. The audience reacted with shock when Nola declared that the teenager illustrated in the story was her.

At times boys in their teen years are beguiled by older men to coerce girls into accepting a life of exploitation. T-Kash pleased the audience's humanity by admitting to being a former pimp. He explained the confusion between his original understanding of manhood and the true meaning of being a man. He, like many young men, considered the act of dominating women a type of rite of passage.

The characteristic of disrespect for humankind is as evident in pimps as it is in murderers. Hence, it is logical to conclude that the ugliest of problems within our community are foundational, individualistic, they are character flaws. Environment, people, and religions dictate ones character. We must identify the shortcomings in these areas and resolve them.

At least two environmental shortcomings were identified in the town hall meeting. Economics drives prostitution. Young girls, typically runaways, have a need for fast money due to their unstable environments. You would suspect that they have minimal skills by virtue of their young age. Like stripping to a college student, prostitution is a means to an end for homeless high-school students/dropouts.

Johns or pimps are often short on funds as well. Pimps tend to be men or women who were abused as children. You can already see the potentiality of a vicious cycle. It is imperative to rescue these children while they are still young. Victims tend to become offenders.

Another environmental shortcoming was exposed. One of the victims of sexual exploitation described having a pimp as, "basically like having a daddy." I pity the the child whose definition of a father is analogous to a pimp. A pimp is not even a man. Fathers are supermen. Nevertheless, an education of manhood must take place within our community. It will benefit young boys and girls.

Kamika Dunlap was kind enough to remind us that media has room for improvement. When I asked her about the challenges she faced with respect to reporting stories on exploited minors, she answered, "it was difficult". Artists, journalists, and poets must remind us of our shortcomings if we are ever to resolve them.

July Posadas Guzman is a woman who appears to long for the healing these victimized youth. She offered thoughtful comments all afternoon. She also offered a challenge to the men in the audience. She requested that successful fathers document and share their guide to raising men. This suggestion is crucial. Currently, corporate American men believe it's manly to work 14+ hours a day behind a desk. But notice how many homes that "manly" schedule divides. Notice how expensive it is. For an average employee making $20/hr, the projected cost of that employee divorcing is over $8,000.

Boys must understand the true definition of manhood. Traveling away from home, working 14 hours a day behind a desk, or being a pimp are by no means manly functions. I encourage the successful fathers reading this blog to meet July Guzman's challenge. Publish your guides to raising men.

Perhaps the most wrenching diatribe of the day came from the lips of OPD Special Justice Unit officer Holly Joshi. The room, full of Oakland citizens disturbed about the Department's long history of complicity in drug trafficking, use of excessive force, and murder caromed complaints and pop shots in her direction repetitively. After being martyred in the name of the Oakland Police for the bulk of the day's discourse, officer Joshi fought back.


"You can blame OPD all you want... I'm from Oakland. I grew up here. I understand the problems that you have with the Department. They have done things historically that were wrong. But what we need to focus on is how to resolve our community's problem's NOW.

My first case-- I was thrown into the fire-- My first case dealt with a 14 year old girl. Her pimp gave her Gonorrhea, Syphilis, he cut her on both breasts. She can never get all of her life back. These are the kinds of predators we deal with and he needed to be placed behind bars.

OPD is not a social service. We don't deal with cleaning people up. We capture suspects and rescue victims. Hopefully, the suspects will get rehabbed in prison. But right now we need to get these guys off of the street and behind bars."

Her voice was shaking throughout this heart-filled monologue. Upon completion, officer Joshi took a finishing deep breath sat back in her seat away from the mic and received an ovation from the skeptical crowd.

The event was necessary. My sense is that much good will come of it. Many eyes were open to this glaring disgusting problem. The rare mingling that took place between the community and the organizations that work daily with victims and perpetrators will likely lead to long term solutions.

Promise was already visible. Black men are often criticized for being absent from the home. Antithetically, there were a number of black men in the audience who voiced their concerns and proposed solutions. There were young boys who performed an original language art work detesting pimps and prostitution. Young girls who were once exploited delivered empowering messages of hope to those who were perhaps starting down the wrong path. Leadership was oozing out of the room.

Strength and honor to Oakland citizens.