Oakland Officials Claim Latest Crime Fighting Efforts Have Yielded Results
Oakland leaders point to a $250,000 investment in Black Cultural Zone, a nonprofit group with “35 ‘safety ambassadors’ to bolster foot traffic on sidewalks and offer resources to those in need.”
Oakland city leaders bragged that their latest crime-fighting efforts have led to a decline in crime in the Hegenberger corridor near the airport.
The corridor has lost many shops due to crime. The residents don’t feel safe.
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Oakland leaders point to a $250,000 investment in Black Cultural Zone, a nonprofit group with “35 ‘safety ambassadors’ to bolster foot traffic on sidewalks and offer resources to those in need”:
“We are watching the numbers trend in the direction that we demanded and deserved — and we know there’s still so much to do,” said Councilmember Treva Reid, whose district includes the Hegenberger corridor, at Monday’s conference.
Reid and others reserved special praise for Black Cultural Zone, the nonprofit that staffs nearly three dozen community ambassadors to boost the general feeling of safety among East Oakland residents and businesses.
The ambassadors, hired mostly from the neighborhood, are paid $25 an hour to roam the sidewalks and spot people who might need help. Similar to MACRO, the city’s non-emergency response unit, the safety ambassadors do not actually intervene in crimes.
Greg Hodge, a longtime community leader who heads the nonprofit, said the added bustle on the sidewalks may sometimes be enough to ward off robberies.
“The implicit thing that’s happening is when there’s more people and more eyes out on the street, the less likely you’re going to have incidences of robberies,” Hodge, a former mayoral candidate, said in an interview.
Gov. Gavin Newsom even sent more officers and attorneys to help deal with the crime. Leaders claim those efforts have helped, too:
Meanwhile, an ongoing expansion into Oakland by the California Highway Patrol, which since last month has made 168 arrests throughout the city, has involved some focused enforcement on Hegenberger Road. More security cameras have been installed in the area, including at the airport.
The neighborhood is a “key gateway” into Oakland and a “vital element to our city’s economic engine,” in part because of its proximity to the Coliseum complex, [Mayor Sheng] Thao said Monday at a news conference.
“For far too long, this corridor has been ignored,” Thao said. “And I think that is a huge mistake.”
“If we take care of this corridor,” she continued, “we will see Oakland thriving a lot more than what we have seen in the past.”
Thao boasted about lower crime rates earlier this month, but her statistics did not include robberies and home invasions.
Burglaries dropped 47% through March 10 compared to the same time in 2023, and gunfire reports went down 17%. However, robberies went up by 32%.
Burglaries and robberies are not the same crime: “Although robbery and burglary may seem the same, they’re actually different crimes. The most important thing to remember is that burglary involves entering a home or another building illegally, whether or not something is stolen, while robbery involves taking property from a person through threats or fear of harm.”
In East Oakland, which houses the Hegenberger corridor, burglaries decreased by 70%, gunfire declined by 18%, and robberies increased by 36%.
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Comments
I sure hope so! One Detroit was enough. Now we have 15
I hear St Lou is nice
East St. Louis more so.
Oakland.
Black Cultural Zone.
Safety Ambassadors.
How’s that defund the police working out for you CA?
lol
Notice that the law enforcement end of this fairy story stars the Highway Patrol, not the defunded city police or sheriff dept.
Also that this ‘non-profit’ is paying ‘safety ambassadors’ $25 per hour to do what the average citizen in any decent community would do for free.
A 32% rise in robbery rates is certainly a result, but not one to brag about.
“this ‘non-profit’ is paying ‘safety ambassadors’ $25 per hour to do what the average citizen in any decent community would do for free.”
But without the Shiny Badge of Approval, would almost certainly be arrested for doing it.
$25 per hour to do what the average citizen in any decent community would do for free.
that’s what I do every day every where. But MY state has deigned to issue to me my Mother May I Carry a Gun card (should not be required, but for now….) The counties surrounding Oakland will not, last I knew. And California did, or tried to, declare such areas as “sensitive areas”, and Certified Defenseless Victim Zones. I won’t enter any of those.
Black Cultural Zone. Notice no other ethnic groups need such a thing. And, of course, a white one would be raaaayyy-cyst.
I’d like to see the sales increase that came with the reduction in crime.
I have all ideas that I am deemed racist if I don’t go give the “security” a shot of dopamine.
much of crime is never reported
maybe 50% in black areas
snitches get stitches is alive and well in black ghettos
How long before these “ambassadors” degenerate into grifters that can be paid to look elsewhere?
I’m sure gangs would pay more than $25 per hour and threaten violence (since these ambassadors are most likely unarmed). They aren’t to intervene in active crimes anyway.
snitches get stitches is alive and well in black ghettos
more likely in that “zone” the accurate statement would be
“snitches get niches”.. six by three holes in the ground into which they are planted.
Black culture zone? Surely this should exist only in a BSL-4 biohazard laboratory.
That’s just a nick name. The official name is “da hood”.
That’s totally racist- love it.
In my little village of New Marlborough MA, there is virtually no crime
guess why ?
and no, it’s not that there is nothing to steal
half the homes here are owned by NYC weekenders
there’s always a downside
I’ll bet anything it’s because there are hardly any blacks. Crime starts when blacks exceed 3 percent of population.
There is crime everywhere, even in predominantly white areas. When I was a criminal prosecutor almost all the crimes were committed by white people, from methamphetamine cases, other drugs, domestic assaults, bar fights, driving while intoxicated, theft, embezzlement. Nearly all were white people. So when you state that “crime starts when blacks exceed 3 percent of population,” then you, sir, really are a g_d damn racist.
Doesn’t it depend on where one is living? Or the economic level of the population?
Fani has entered the chat
“When I was a criminal prosecutor almost all the crimes were committed by white people”
So… Narnia, or Oz?
Ooohhh, you said it out loud. You pointed out the elephant in the room.
there is supposed to be 1/3 of a black person somewhere in the town but haven’t been able to locate it
there was kinda a murder here 10 years ago when 2 brothers got into an argument over a weedwhacker
but they carried the argument over to their dad’s house which was a mile south in CT
the police mostly report down trees and power lines, animals on the loose and scammer phone calls
Hire some good bloodhounds and ferret him out before it’s too late.
The “Oakland Officials” are part of the problem. I would have to see a lot more evidence to accept that they also will be a productive part of the solution.
20 years ago Oakland wasn’t that great. My dad grew up there in the 30s and 40s. By the 70s it was not so good and stayed that way.
The so-called ‘decline in time’ is because they stopped reporting crime because police either didn’t bother to show up, or simply showed up, wrote a report, and left.
CRIME – come on, give us a 5 minute edit button.
Ahh, we all do it, then feel like idiots for not being able to self edit better. We got your point.
Do these “Safety Officers” hand out gift bags to the criminal element with Get Out Of Jail cards and a host of other “freebies”?
This may look good now but will backfire in spades in short order…the Liberal do-gooder mentality never gains much traction because- as Rush said, it’s symbolism over substance. It’s rewarding bad behavior with a feather duster instead of a hammer…same as giving your unruly kid candy to calm him down instead of a quick swat on the behind, eventually you’ll need ever-increasing pieces because it’s EBT style welfare…doesn’t work.
The Liberal do-gooder does not care much about who them are helping. They care about the good feelings they get for helping. If the problem is solved, there’s no more good feelings to be had for helping with the problem.
If poverty were eliminated, liberal do-gooder celebrities couldn’t get free press and accolades for doing so much to help eliminate poverty.
they especially get good feelings when those thin flexible green thingies are put into their pockets each week just for showing up.
What is Oakland’s official definition of Black Cultural Zone?
Oakland is only 1/3 white nowadays. As a minority demographic shouldn’t there be a White Cultural Zone? Shouldn’t a white non-profit org be entitled to their fair share of funding for Safety Ambassadors?
They basically stole this from Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol.
Also, I wonder how many of these “ambassadors” are walking around patrolling well after dark.
But shoot $25/hr just to take a walk around the neighborhood and make phone calls? Seems like a good gig for the unemployed grifters.
“…when there’s more people and more eyes out on the street, the less likely you’re going to have incidences of robberies,”
So, they’re saying that Curtis Sliwa was right all along?
Absolutely. That’s why they all voted for Eric Adams.
How long until everyone else not employed wants their $25.00 per hour to “walk around?” Why work at any low level job when doing nothing (walking around) pays so well?
How much you wanna bet the postal carriers don’t walk the streets there anymore because of crime. It’s not eyeballs…. it’s the right color eyeballs that look the other way for their friends.
So is the Black Cultural Zone in east oakland (gangland) or west oakland (gangland) or downtown (gangland) ?
It was noted earlier that the Safety Ambassadors may turn to extortion. There is also another possibility. What if one of the many gang groups that make up a significant proportion of the population of Oakland either takes on another group and Safety Ambassadors get caught in the crossfire or the Safety Ambassadors are deliberate targets? Are they going to “defund the Safety Ambassadors”?
Subotai Bahadur
Why should we believe “official” statistics – particularly from politicians running a deep blue hellhole like Oakland? Remember the Super Duper Official (TM) reports that the Wuflu originated in a Chinese market, and that the virus killed a gazillion people or so in the US?
Quick calculation
35 guys @$25.00 @40 hours per week =$35,000.00 a week. (plus benefits)
I may be wrong, but, too lazy too double-check my math.
Your maths are spot on. I had run the same calcs in my own noggin. MY thought was this: how much per week does it cost, all in, to maintain a convicted criminal in the GreyBar Hotel? hose guys in the lockup are NOT committing any new crimes, are they? Thus they are dealt with effectively.
I seem to recall a figure of around $40K per year to keep a guy behind bars. Thus for every ten days of the salaries of these gluttons ten criminals could be safely off he streets and out of action for a year.
Check my maths, but even if I am wrong I am close….