City of Oakland News: Oakland Gang Injunction And John Russo

The hot news topic in the City of Oakland is the Oakland Gang Injunction and its impact on two Oakland Neighborhoods, North Oakland and Fruitvale.

This video blogger created this follow-up to the original video by Michael Siegel that attacks Russo for being too interested in politics, and says the Gang Injunction is racist.

Here's the interview (click here) and the video itself:

John Russo On Oakland Gang Injunction and Gangs in Oakland

This video blogger talked with Oakland City Attorney John Russo about his response to a video featuring Michael Siegel of the Oakland civil rights law firm Siegel and Lee, and the focus of a blog entry of last week. One that got under the skin of Russo and his assistant Alex Katz.

Within two days, John and Alex called to ask for this blogger to come and conduct a video interview to get their side of the Oakland Gang Injunction issue. The result is the 20 minute video.

In 2010 Oakland became the third city in the San Francisco Bay Area to implement injunctions against a specific set of street gangs, the North Oakland Crime Organization and another called The , which, according to Russo, is a terribly violent gang.

What Is A Gang Injunction?

To start, we got out of the way just what a gang injunction is. "A gang injunction is a civil court order that the city pursues against a uh, known criminal enterprise," Russo said. "It's defined, the term "gang" is used - a street gang is the state law. It's a law that was passed in the 1980s by the California Legislature." Russo - who's level of understanding of the details of the history of the gang injunction "tool" shows how involved he's been in the issue - explains that the law was upheld as constitutional by the California Supreme Court in 1997. "It is a civil order in the manner of a restraining order," he says, "It allows a city attorney or a district attorney to bring an injunction against a group of individuals who have conspired to commit crimes or otherwise terrorize innocent people in a community." (Photo by CBS Channel 5, San Francisco.)

Russo says Oakland has had two such injunctions, one approved by the Alameda Superior Court in June after being created in February and is called The North Side Oakland Injunction.

The second injunction request filed in October impacts Oakland's Fruitvale neighborhood and involves a gang called The Nortenos.

Oakland's Better Injunction

Russo asserts that Oakland's injunctions are formed with a concern for due process and civil rights, a bit of a slap at the injunctions of other cities. "The others are constitutional. A city can go to a court and say 'We're going to prove this gang exists,' and leave it to the police to determine on the street, who's part of the gang. By contrast, Oakland uses the court system and what Russo says is "clear and convincing evidence" to say that a person's part of a gang. That, at least is supposed to, eliminate the possibility of racial profiling or at least reduce the chance of such habits working in this case.

In Oakland's system, the objective is to prove that the individual is part of the criminal organization. John says that in many cases the persons of interest self identify via Facebook, YouTube, and other ways.

Are Federal Dollars The Objective?

Michael Siegel contends that the gang injunction is a way to sweep more people of color up into the police prison system and gain Federal dollars in the process. Russo says that the idea that's true springs from Siegel's head. Russo says they don't get Federal or State dollars from using the gang injunctions. Russo blasts both Michael and his dad Dan Siegel for deliberately mis-reporting what the law says.

An Open Door To The Riders Case?

Russo says that the gang injunction is not an open door for another "Riders" case. In that unfortunate year 2000 episode in Oakland's history, four officers - Frank Vazquez, Clarence Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matt Hornung - were accused of beating gang and crime suspects in West Oakland, and planting evidence on them.

Called "The Riders," their actions were revealed by a whistle-blower Oakland Police Officer, Keith Batt,  (who is that no more) and resulted in a $10.5 million payout by the City of Oakland to West Oaklanders who were terrorized by the cops, and a Federal consent decree governing the Police Department that was to remain to 2010.

Again, Russo says that because Oakland's Gang Injunction System calls for in-court identification of suspects using judge, jury, and law, it takes the issue of determining who's part of a gang our of the hands of the Oakland Police on the street.

Injunctions Working?

Russo says the Oakland injunction's will be successful because they're focused on the individual. But the basic point is it's too early to tell if the injunctions are totally successul or not. It's in the process of being applied and is new. Russo says "It's not a be all end all. It's a tool." He says it comes up via the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Councils which are neighborhood watch groups like the one for Lake Merritt's Adams Point we call 14x. That group uses a Yahoo Group to share crime information with the Oakland Police representative for that area.

Gang Injunctions Racist?

On the idea that the Oakland Gang Injunction is racist, focusing on black and brown in poor Oakland neighborhoods, Russo gets pissed. "It's racist," he charges," to allow innocent people to be terrorized," by criminals in the areas that happen to be black and brown, and do nothing about it for fear of being called racist for taking action.

But Russo saves his greatest venom for the Siegels Dan and Michael and their law firm Siegel and Lee, who he says are going to Oakland Schools with bullhorns and openly lying to teenagers about the Oakland Gang Injunction saying that it's directed at them. "There's no one under 18 on the injunction list, and there never will be anyone under 18 on the injunction list," Russo blasts.

A Better Way

To this blogger, the real problem is that Oakland lacks a systems approach to deal with this problem. A crime is more than a police issue, it's an economic development and housing issue too. We should know if the people involved had jobs and if not, why not. Then work to get them employed. Instead, all we do is lock people up. It's massively stupid and only temporarily effective at best. The Oakland Gang Injunction is but one tool, the problem is the City of Oakland doesn't know how to use the other tools at its disposal, like Redevelopment, together with it. And by Redevelopment, I do not mean population removal, but population resource improvement.

Stay tuned.

Florida School Board Shooting: Clay Duke Opens Fire During Meeting

On Tuesday December 14th Clay Duke, entered a Bay District school board meeting and took members of the school board hostage, at gunpoint. Before brandishing his gun, 56 year old Clay Duke, wrote the letter "V" with a circle around it in red, on the wall. The same symbol used in the graphic novel and movie, V for Vendetta. He blamed the school board members for the loss of his wife's job and then pulled out a gun and ordered the women to leave the room.

Board member Ginger Littleton, who had left the room when instructed, returned and attempted to sneak up behind Clay Duke and knock the gun from his hand with her purse.  Clay Duke hit her with his pistol and then let her leave the room again. Nadine Yanis, a reporter for a local news station in Panama City said that, "If he wanted to kill her at that moment he could have, and he didn't."

Clay Duke then went on a rant for several minutes, complaining about the loss of his wife's job and a sales tax increase, as Superintendent Bill Husfelt attempted to calm him down. "I'm going to die tonight," said Clay Duke several times throughout his rant and repeated it once more just before firing his gun at the Superintendent. Clay Duke fired several more shots at the members of the board, saying "I'm gonna kill..... don't you understand." Fortunately, all of Clay Duke's shots missed and after firing four rounds he was shot in the leg by Mike Jones, a district security officer and former police detective. Clay Duke then turned his gun on himself.



None of the members of the school board were injured during the shooting.

John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my comic strip and other writings at www.theforceofnature.net

Bellagio Robbery: Armed Gunmen Robs Las Vegas Casino

An armed man entered the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas today and walked off with 1.5 million dollars worth of chips.  Despite Las Vegas casino's being renowned for their security, the robbery that took place on Tuesday, December 14th, was relatively simple.  The armed gunman rode up on his motorcycle and parked it at the entrance to the casino.  He then walked into the casino, approached a craps table and revealed his gun demanding the chips.  He then walked out of the casino and rode of on his motorcycle.  The gunmen kept his helmet on the entire time and so can't be identified.



The robbery may not be the gunman's first, a similar robbery occurred on December 9th at the Suncoast casino. In that incident the gunman only got away with 20,000 dollars.

John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my comic strip at www.theforceofnature.net

Aumsville, Oregon: Unlikely Tornado

Aumsville, Oregon, was the victim of an unlikely tornado today.  The tornado touched down at around noon on Tuesday, December 14th, leaving part of the town demolished.  Jim Kusz, the public information office for the North Lincoln Fire and Rescue reported that, "Nobody was injured.  Nobody was staying in the second floor rooms."  Citizens are being advised to avoid the areas where damage has occurred due to dangers from fallen power lines and crumbling buildings.  The Red Cross has responded and will most likely establish a shelter for displaced citizens of the town.  A suitable location must be found first though, fortunately only a region of the town was damaged by the twister.

John Bobst aka The Force of Nature

Check out my daily comic at www.theforceofnature.net

Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson Split

Stop the presses: some extremely important information needs to be reported (sorry for still being in a cynical blogger mood, college student + finals = lots of sarcasm and bias). There has been another celebrity break-up. This one is a little bit more important than Zac and Vanessa, because both of these celebrities are hot commodities, and they were married.

Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson are said to have split up. The two were married late 2008, and apparently someone told People Magazine that the two have been separated for six months. Awesome, they are both back on the market.

The two were always quiet about their married life, maybe that was for the better. It's always sad when the loud boisterous couples who show off their love and talk about each other 24/7 end up splitting - because then they are constantly reminded of all those sweetsy cutesy things that end up being reposted and shown on television. So, it's probably good to keep a low profile.

Another news source talking about this is The Sydney Morning Herald - in Australia. (Oh, it is morning over there!) Australia news sources are already reporting about this! C'mon America - get with it. When the two news sources reporting this include People Magazine and an Australian publication there is a problem. What could be more important for CNN to report about than this ending relationship?! Okay, the sarcasm ends here - in fear that someone might actual believe these statements.

Back to work for the college student - last touches on an feature article.

Mayor Timothy Davlin Found Dead

The mayor of Springfield, Illinois, Timothy Davlin, was found dead in his home.

NPR reports that the details of his death are still being investigated and that Police Chief Robert Williams says that the situation is very dynamic and still evolving.

However, Fox News has decided to already report and say that Davlin committed suicide. Way to show respect for the dead. The lack of respect also is shown to the family, because other news sources have not released such information, but Fox News is willing to put in a headline that this was a suicide. It is reported that according to the State-Journal Register that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, but all the details are not currently released to the public. Fox also makes sure that everyone reading the article knows that this man, Davlin, was a Democrat.

There are a lot more controversial things that can be said about Davlin including that he missed his court appearance and the charges that he faced - but instead this will just inform that he has been found dead in his home and hopefully it can all be figured out.