Oakland To Hire Unarmed Security Guards To Control Riot Prone Area

Do you ever notice that the usual suspects will NEVER make note that the $2,000 given to businesses vandalized during the riots and the money spent on hiring guards COULD HAVE BEEN USED to educate these young people and/or used to operate a community center?

HUMMMMM.

So many ironies to digest


Expecting more protests, Oakland to hire guards



Oakland - A Legacy Of Conflict Between Blacks And Police

"Right now, you've got people down there trying to break down the doors to speak to you today, and nothing's being done to let them inside," said Tucker, a board member of the city's African-American Chamber of Commerce. "This is a metaphor of what's been happening on a larger scale in Oakland for years."

Historian Lavoie said you can trace the history of troubled relations between Oakland minorities and police to the 1950s, when the lure of post-World War II jobs brought African-Americans from the South, as well as white Southerners, many of whom would put on uniform and badge.

"The tension that resulted had a lot to do with who was hired, because a lot of the people from the South brought attitudes with them," he said. "Blacks, but also whites not willing to be as tolerant as Oakland historically had been."

Lavoie says relations between police and minorities have dramatically improved since the 1960s, when the Black Panthers formed to patrol the streets, ostensibly to police the police. Despite this week's flare of street violence, "what you should look at is how police responded Wednesday night, versus how they went after peace marchers in the '60s. There's a huge difference."