Oakland Mayor Blames Crime Wave Against Asians on Defunded Police; Black and Asian Activists Disagree
On 2/11/21 at 9:51 AM EST
As Asian Americans reel from a recent string of attacks in the Bay Area, some in Oakland have accused the city of pitting them against the Black population.
At a press conference in Chinatown, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf addressed the series of robberies and assaults targeting elderly members of the Asian American community. But her remarks quickly drew criticism when she blamed the violent incidences on defunding the police and budget cuts made to public safety, pointing a finger specifically to City Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas.
Asian and Black communities aim to work together after high-profile attacks
By Lisa Fernandez
Oakland Chinatown attack. January 2021
OAKLAND, Calif. - Some members of the Asian and Black communities are feeling under siege after a series of high-profile robberies and assaults in Oakland and other parts of the Bay Area, and they re trying to bridge the hurt and work together in the aftermath.
While some Asian Americans are feeling jeopardized by the brutal assaults and thefts, there are Black community members who feel like they’re being racially profiled in the hunt to capture those responsible.
Both communities have been victimized, said Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife, who is Black and whose district includes downtown and West Oakland.
The best Bay Area theater people to follow on Twitter
When you can t gossip in venues lobbies, here s who can help you keep up with local theater chatter.
Lily Janiak February 2, 2021Updated: February 7, 2021, 11:28 am
Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti-Police Terror Project, poses in front of a Breonna Taylor mural in Oakland. Photo: Yalonda M. James, The Chronicle 2020
For many of us theater lifers, the show onstage is only part of the draw. We also relish the preshow picnic tables at Cal Shakes, the cafe at the Exit Theatre, the bar and restaurant at PianoFight or even the BART ride home afterward, where we might eye someone else carrying the same playbill.
Man with gun disrupts MLK Jr. caravan in Alameda
Brian Boyle
FacebookTwitterEmail
Cat Brooks talks to protesters outside Oakland s police headquarters. Brooks led Monday s Martin Luther King Jr. car caravan.Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
In celebration of “the radical legacy” left behind by Martin Luther King Jr., a mass car caravan organized by the Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) set out to travel from the Port of Oakland to the home of Alameda District Attorney Nancy O’Malley while calling for restorative justice and the reinvestment of the Oakland Police Department budget into community resources.
But they were met with resistance, KQED reported.