A Bay Area Journalist's First-Hand Account Of How Mayor Jerry Brown Screwed Over Oakland On His Way To Sacramento

 

THE PUBLIC SAFETY RECORD OF OAKLAND MAYOR JERRY BROWN

"Seven Murders In A Single Weekend"

"During the late mayoral campaign, Jerry Brown made a great issue of stating how much the crime rate had come down since he became mayor of Oakland. During the various debates I waited…patiently…for someone to ask the most obvious question: what, exactly and specifically, had the Mayor and his staff done to bring the crime rate down? I never heard the question asked, and so I never heard it answered. This is also the type of question that big-city news media generally ask of city officials. But Jerry Brown doesn’t hold press conferences, and the Bay Area media doesn’t seem to care enough to force him to do so, and so we’re left without details on the Mayor’s anti-crime policies. In the absence of facts, we can only conclude that the downturn in Oakland crime over the past several years was merely blind luck. Last weekend, our luck ran out.

"Seven murders in a single weekend.

...

"Everything has consequences, even neglect. And during the four years of the Brown Administration, we have followed a policy that has pretty much neglected the lesser-income neighborhoods and peoples of this city. Some of us thought it was cute and clever. Some of us didn’t care. Some of us thought that if nobody said anything about it, we could get by. We didn’t."

From the "Seven Murders In A Single Weekend"column
May 15, 2002

 

   

PUBLIC SAFETY

DUTIES
Mayor Jerry Brown And His Aides Are Silent On A Plan To Deal With Oakland's Epidemic Of Murders
November 31, 2001

SEVEN MURDERS IN A SINGLE WEEKEND
The Brown Administration's Neglect Of Setting Up A Plan For Oakland Public Safety Finally Catches Up
May 15, 2002

HOW VERY JERRY
Brown's Plans To Address Oakland's Rising Murder Rate
August 7, 2002

A FINGER IN THE WIND
Brown's Plans To Address Oakland's Rising Murder Rate, Part II
August 14, 2002

JERRY BROWN'S NO CAPED CRUSADER
The Mayor's Oakland Public Safety Credentials As He Considers A Run For California Attorney General
May 30, 2003

THE IMPACT OF OPERATION IMPACT
The Brown Administration's Answer To Oakland's Soaring Murder Rate Is To Give Out Massive Amounts Of Traffic Tickets
February 13, 2004

HOMICIDES DROPPING?
The Brown Administration Puts A Positive Spin On A One-Year Drop In Oakland's Murder Rate, Ignoring The Slight Long-Term Trend In The Opposite Direction During The Jerry Brown Years
December 31 , 2004

ANOTHER OAKLAND EXPERIMENT
Jerry Brown Wants To Expand Oakland's 10 PM Parolee Curfew Statewide Despite Constitutional Concerns, And Even Before He Knows If The Oakland Experiment Actually Works
February 4, 2005

MR. HENDERSON SWINGS, MR. BROWN DUCKS
Jerry Brown Tries Running The Oakland Police Department For A While, But Appoints An Interim Chief To Face A Federal Judge's Wrath
February 18, 2005

THE DARK FIGURES OF THE NIGHT
Mayor Brown Wants To Through A Controversial Proposal To Arrest "Sideshow" Spectators Without Proper Public Discussion
June 3, 2005

GETTING THE MAYOR'S ATTENTION
Political Considerations After A Los Angeles Times Article May Have Sparked Jerry Brown's "Arrest The Sideshow Spectators" Legislation
June 22, 2005

THE POLITICS OF POLICE PATROLS
Under The Brown Administration, Law Enforcement Handled Distinctly Differently In Different Oakland Neighborhoods
January 6, 2006

A VIOLENCE DIALOGUE
With Jerry Brown Fudging The Facts In Order To Burnish His Attorney General Law And Order Credentials, Oakland Needs An Honest Public Discussion Of One Of Its Most Pressing Problems
January 13, 2006

A VIOLENCE DIALOGUE, AGAIN
Oakland's Mayoral Candidates Need To Initiate A Public Discussion To Prevent The Mistakes Of The Jerry Brown Years
February 3, 2006

ROLLING UP OUR SLEEVES
Overcoming The Jerry Brown Administration's Lack Of Inititiative In Involving The Community In Anti-Violence Work
August 4, 2006

THE ONE HUNDRED MOST UNWANTED
Another Publicity-Generating Oakland Violence Prevention Initiative Rolled Out As Jerry Brown Campaigns For California Attorney General
August 11, 2006

PUTTING IT IN CONTEXT
Jerry Brown's Record On Crime And Violence In Oakland
September 22, 2006

MR. BROWN'S VICTIM-BLAMING
How Jerry Brown Deflected Criticism Of His Crime And Violence Failures
December 1, 2006

AND NOW THE OAKLAND FINGERPRINT FOULUP
In Which We Learn That Oakland Lost Its Police Fingerprint Technicians During The Jerry Brown Years
December 15, 2006

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