OAKLAND — High-profile instances of women being carjacked and robbed in the Oakland Hills and North Oakland took center stage Thursday night at a community meeting that saw frustrations boil over amid a perceived lack of safety in parts of the city.
Concerns over violent muggings dominated the standing-room only town hall, which drew hundreds of people to the city’s Montclair District, for a rare chance to at once publicly question city police leaders and Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price on how to cut down crime in Oakland.
Her voice occasionally wavering, one woman described being held at gunpoint on July 1 while multiple assailants took her vehicle on Skyline Boulevard. She said she no longer feels safe living in Oakland.
“They took my bags, they took everything,” said the woman, who identified herself only as Amy. “What are we doing to prevent this? It shouldn’t happen at any time of day.”
“OPD is not asleep — we feel your frustrations,” answered Capt. Clay Burch, while describing how officers had solved other carjacking cases in recent weeks.
The meeting came as the city and the Oakland Police Department have faced increasing scrutiny over lagging response times. Their 911 system also crashed for days earlier this month and was criticized by an Alameda County Civil Grand Jury for chronic understaffing.
It also marked one of Price’s first public appearances since several community members opened a recall campaign against the first-term district attorney, who has sought broad — and at times, controversial — reforms to the East Bay’s criminal justice system.
Unbowed by several people who interrupted her answers with shouts of protest, Price defended her work over the first six months of her six-year term — arguing she inherited a “hot mess” from her predecessors.
In particular, she defended a decision by one of her prosecutors to not pursue charges against nine juveniles accused in a series of muggings earlier this year, including the brazen daytime robbery of two women in North Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. Video evidence in the case “was not sufficient,” she said, in part because the juveniles — all ages 12 to 15 — had worn masks.
Simply put, the prosecutor in charge of the case could not prove it beyond a reasonable doubt, Price said.
“She’s not here on a political agenda — she’s doing her job,” Price said of the prosecutor. “As district attorneys, we have to follow the law.”
Barbara Hoffer, 74, said she left “impressed” by Price — despite having arrived at the meeting a staunch opponent. Hoffer said she was robbed earlier this year near 51st Street and Telegraph Avenue, also in Temescal. The new DA, Hoffer said, appeared to be making the necessary changes needed within her office to improve public safety.
“It’s a tough job — she’s only been here six months,” Hoffer said.
Others left far more discouraged. Ben Huey, 60, said he felt “more despair than anything” after hearing Price speak Thursday — noting that he wanted to see more “out of the box” thinking from the former civil rights attorney. Yet he also criticized the city and its police department for not proposing more solutions to prevent crime in the first place.
“No one’s given me a good answer for that,” Huey said.