WHAT HAPPENED AT CARIJAMA

How serious were the troubles that broke out at the very end of the Carijama annual festival at Mosswood Park on Memorial Day?

How much of it was connected to the Carijama festival itself, and how much are the Carijama organizers responsible?

And, finally, what should be the City of Oakland’s response?

Reading two separate accounts in last week’s Oakland Tribune, both based in part upon reports from Oakland Police Department officials, you come up with two contradictory conclusions.

Both Tribune accounts agreed that the troubles began at the tail end of the festival, and not even on the Mosswood Park grounds, with people who had not been at the festival itself most of the day. On Wednesday, the Tribune reported that according to police, the trouble started "when people began jumping on cars, smashing hoods and breaking windows." Oakland Police Lt. David Kozicki said that the festival organizers would be charged for the extra officers used to control the disturbance, and that OPD might even ask the City to cancel Carijama completely.

But a day later, Tribune columnist Brenda Payton wrote that the trouble started with "rowdies…jumping on cars and fighting in the streets." What happened to the smashing hoods and breaking windows of the article the day before? Did Payton simply neglect to write about the worst reported aspects of the disturbance? Or, on the other hand, did the first Tribune reporter get it wrong. Or did the first police spokesman give out the wrong facts? It would be nice to know.

Payton also quoted Chief Richard Word as stating that OPD would not ask either for cancellation of Carijama, or for Carijama organizers to come up with more money for security. "[Word] said the promoters seemed to have done everything the department asked of them," Payton wrote.

That’s appreciated. But the more important question is, did the police do everything that was asked of them?

A year ago, talking about security at the 2001 Carijama festival, I wrote in this column: "…[A] word has to be said for the attitude and activity of the Oakland Police officers who patrolled Carijama. The ones I saw acted like they were happy to be there, and seemed to genuinely like the crowd around them. They walked around quietly in pairs, smiling, chatting with people, not trying to push their authority. Sometimes I think most Oakland cops don’t realize that they cause more tension and problems for themselves, just because of the attitude they project. These ones did a good job."

Can’t say that about how OPD handled this year’s Carijama. In four hours of walking around, before the troubles started, I didn’t see a single police officer on the park grounds during the festival.

However that doesn’t mean we ought to automatically call for an increased police presence at Oakland festivals. We need to think this one out.

Besides having police, theres a need to have people at these festivals who have greater experience interacting with—not merely arresting—Oakland youth. Folks who can intervene and prevent trouble before it begins. There are some school district security folks are excellent at that, as well as some sports coaches and youth program workers. There’s also the Nation Of Islam, who, I’ve heard, have often worked these types of security activities. And what about people like the East Bay Dragons motorcycle club? The Dragons hold a neighborhood block party every year just off of International, around 93rd or so, in one of the roughest neighborhoods in the city. Children, especially, are welcome, and I’ve never heard of any problems. I’m not advocating that we hire any of these folks right-off. I just think it’s worth exploring, instead of making the same mistakes over and over.

A violent confrontation between youth and Oakland police took place outside of the 1994 Festival At The Lake, just as the festival was closing for the evening. We have never officially investigated the cause of that confrontation. Whose fault it was, we don’t officially know. But as a direct result of the events of that afternoon, we lost the crown jewel of Oakland’s annual festivals.

It would be a damned shame if we let that happen to Carijama, which is a treasure.