This came out last week, but people should check out this sobering article on Truthdig by James Harris, The Invisible City: Entering Oakland:
Murder has an all too familiar pattern in Oakland. The years 1992 to 1995 were the most deadly in city history, with as many as 175 killings in ’92 alone (compared with 148 in 2006). Crack cocaine was the plague responsible then, but now it’s anybody’s guess. Local news outlets have speculated that the violence can be attributed to drug wars or money exchanges gone wrong. Others say the crimes are due to rising gang violence between blacks and Mexican-Americans. I’ve spoke to many police officers, city officials and residents, but there seems to be no definitive answer as to why people are dying with such frequency in Oakland.
It’s not just Oakland that struggles with homicide. In fact, urban homicide in the United States should qualify as a national emergency. The eight most deadly and dangerous cities (according to 2006 research by Morgan Quinto Press) all are predominantly African-American. In each of these, blacks are more likely to be arrested than members of any other racial group, and blacks occupy most of the impoverished territory. St. Louis, Detroit, Flint (Mich.), Compton (Calif.), Camden (N.J.), Cleveland, Birmingham and Oakland all counted at least 148 homicides in 2006. The frequency of death by murder in St. Louis County is one slaying every 1.5 days—in 2006 220 were killed.
As someone who has lived in Oakland for that last three and a half years, this article was a gut-check of a read. I have lots of thoughts, but I don't know if I much more to say at the moment. Of course I've read about the killings. I've shaken my head reading the paper or watching the news. I've followed what groups such as the Ella Baker Center have been doing to try to end this. But that's about it. Thankfully, it hasn't directly impacted me or those I'm close to. But it has impacted thousands in this city - a demographically-specific thousands, a historically disenfranchised thousands, an actively ignored or actively repressed thousands - and that is a true tragedy that demands attention and action.
148 killings in just one state?
We have less murder then that here in Australia, country wide!
:(
Posted by: Pope Felix Faustus Nothus | March 24, 2007 at 12:39 PM
No, not in one state - in just one city. It is appalling.
Posted by: scott | March 24, 2007 at 05:43 PM