Oakland Mayor Strategizes After Rash Of Shootings
OAKLAND (KCBS) - Oakland has been beset with violence in 2011. Most recently, in mid-March, there were six shootings over a three-day period. At least two of the six people died as a result of their injuries. Additionally, several of the victims were hospitalized for treatment of their injuries.
KCBS' Margie Shafer Reports:
"It's not a clear pattern," Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said of the violent start to the new year. "Not necessarily a particular gang even. It's something that I'm very concerned about."
Quan vowed to address what she acknowledged was an alarming spike in criminal behavior.
"Violence is way up right now and so it's almost double the rate we were at last year," she said. "We'd come way down."
Quan has begun collaborating with the Oakland Police Department and, most notably, Chief Anthony Batts, as well as the Oakland Unified School District to identify ways to stem the violence.
She stressed the need to partner with local school officials, given recent and perhaps not entirely surprising research by OUSD, which found that students were most at risk during their weekends.
"They had done a study and it showed that of the school-aged children who have been murdered in the City of Oakland, most of those murders happened on a Friday or Saturday night," recounted Quan.
She hoped the study would help encourage the community to develop more safe havens for Oakland's young residents - for instance, keeping public libraries, recreation centers and school gyms open well into the evening.
"We're hoping that at least gets innocent bystanders off the streets," she theorized.
She also affirmed her commitment to creating a "call-in" program, whereby authorities reached out to criminals on probation to remind them that they were still on law enforcement's radar screen.
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