THIRTY-FIVE ARRESTS EVERY TIME
Suppose you heard on the news that there
were, say, 30 arrests at last weekend’s Dia De Los Muertos celebration in Oakland’s
Fruitvale District. There weren’t actually 30 arrests at last weekend’s Dia De Los
Muertos celebration, not even any reports of the kinds of problems that might lead
to such arrests, but for the sake of this discussion, let’s pretend that there were.
How long do you think it would take before local newspapers, television reporters,
Oakland City Councilmembers, somebody in the mayor’s office, and various community
leaders would call for something to be done–either severe police restrictions
on the event, or outright closing it down?
But let’s not limit the speculation to the Latino-based Los Muertos. Oakland police
have been more than eager to try to shut down any Oakland gatherings where there
was even the potential for trouble, much less actual arrests. So you would be willing
to bet–wouldn’t you?–that an ongoing event that regularly had more than 30 arrests
each time it took place would have little, if any, chance of continuing its run in
the City of Oakland.
The clever ones amongst you are already saying “not necessarily,” even if you don’t
know where we’re actually going with this.
Anyways, we learned last week that there is an ongoing Oakland event that
regularly gets away with more than 30 arrests each time it is held, with politicians,
police, and the press well aware of the situation, but turning a blind eye.
In an October 27 column entitled “Are Rowdy Fans Sinking Raiders?,” San Francisco
Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius reveals that according to Oakland Police Lt.
David Kozicki, the OPD “was probably making 70 arrests per game in years past” at
Oakland Raider Games. Mr. Nevius contends that “things are looking up,” however,
since the lieutenant says that “now we are down to half of that.” Half of 70 arrests
per game is 35 arrests per game, by my unofficial count.
The issue is being noticed by more people than Mr. Neivus.
After 38 people were arrested at the Raiders-Chiefs game in Oakland in September–compared
to only three people arrested at a Chiefs-Jets game earlier in the month in Kansas
City–reporter Greg Reeves of the Kansas City Star said that OPD Special Events
Coordinator Sgt. Tom Hogenmiller told him the problem comes from what Hogenmiller
called “one-game wonders that show up and think that to be a Raiders fan you’re supposed
to act crazy and disrupt other people’s enjoyment. … These are the [people] that
come and think they can get stupid. Drink too much. They just act like idiots. Those
are the ones that seem to eventually get in trouble."
The arrests are so commonplace that they have even become running jokes among the
Raider fans. In speculating in advance how the Raiders would fare–on the field–against
the Chiefs in that same September game, the writer of the Raiders Blog in the
Contra Costa Times asked, rhetorically, “Can the Raiders sustain their high-octane
offense over a full game this week? Will Chiefs quarterback Trent Green get so much
as a grass stain on his jersey? Will the Raiders secondary commit more penalties
than it makes tackles? Will the first arrest of the evening come in the Black
Hole or in the Kansas City backfield? [my emphasis added].”
[For those of you who don’t follow these things, the “Black Hole” is what Raiders
fans call the part of the stadium where the most outrageously-dressed fans set up
camp during the games. It’s important to note, however, that while the “Black Hole”
participants tend to dress up in violent-looking costumes, make a lot of noise, and
get the attention of the television cameras, the drunken rowdiness at the stadium
is not centered there, but in other parts of the stadium.]
I am not certain if any statistics are kept, or disseminated, on exactly what types
of offenses lead to these Raider game arrests. My guess is that no small number of
them are for public drunkenness. But there have also been well-publicized incidents
in the past of violent assaults on property and on the fans of other teams (Neivus
himself recounts the time his own car was vandalized at a game). And, in fact, it
is the threat of assaults that has led Oakland Raiders fans to get a reputation around
the league and around the nation for celebrating the thug life.
During a national broadcast back east of a Raiders game at the Coliseum some years
ago, an announcer said that a player was probably going to be assessed a $50 fine
by the league for throwing the ball up into the stands duyring a touchdown celebration.
“Heck, for $50, I’d go up in the stands and get the ball back myself!” the second
announcer laughed. The first announcer paused a moment, thought about it, and said
evenly “Not in those stands.”
That was during the years when the Raiders were first here, before they moved to
Los Angeles, and during the period when ticket prices were low enough that many of
the fans at the game were actually from Oakland. But since the Raiders returned from
Los Angeles ten years ago, game prices consistently rank in the top three in the
league. In 1993, those prices averaged more than $60 apiece, more than a notion for
lots of folks in the Fruitvale or West Oakland. And so these days, my guess is that
fans actually attending Raider games are more likely to be from the more affluent
areas outside of the city–Livermore, Concord, Pleasanton, Hayward, and so forth.
A few years ago, Oakland had a rash of people coming in from just such areas dumping
truckloads of trash on our streets and in convenient alleyways, presumably using
the “moral” justification of the movie gangster Zaluchi, who told his fellow Mafia
dons in the Godfather that he intended to keep the drug traffic out of his
own neighborhood and restrict it to “the dark people–the colored. They're animals
anyway, so let them lose their souls.” I’m only guessing, but maybe some Raider fans
from outside of the city think it’s okay to come to Oakland and act up at a Raider
game–get drunk and assault people, for example–because, after all, that’s what people
do in Oakland. Isn’t it? But since we aren’t being told where the arrestees are
coming from, we don’t know if this is one of the causes of the problem.
Meanwhile, Mr. Nevius of the Chronicle says that after all these years, the
Oakland Raiders management is finally getting the message. Lt. Kozicki, whose duties
include both coordinating Coliseum security and suppressing Oakland’s sideshows,
interestingly enough, told him that "recently the Raider management has been
taking an active role in fan behavior,” And Mr. Neivus quotes Alameda County Board
of Supervisors chairperson Gail Steele as saying "I think it is an issue and
I think the Raiders are concerned about it. I know for a fact that they are trying
to work on it.''
Does that mean that in order to discourage excessive drinking at the Coliseum, Oakland
police are going to begin to make “Operation Impact”-type stops of “random” vehicles
leaving the Coliseum on game day and make all of the occupants get out while they
check everybody’s ID, smell breaths, and do a visual check on the seats and floorboards
for anything that they can charge somebody with? Or is that only allowed while stopping
young African-Americans and Latinos along the International Boulevard and MacArthur
Boulevard corridors?
In any event, it is interesting to wonder if this type of activity–widespread arrests
happening regularly at an ongoing public event–would be tolerated in Oakland so long
for any other group than people attending Oakland Raiders games. And if it wouldn’t,
then why has it been tolerated for the Raiders?