Tuesday, June 17, 2014

KTVU's Heather Holmes Purse Stolen From News Truck Outside OPD HQ; Oakland Takes Hit Too; Tuesday Opener

 Heather Holmes of KTVU was doing a live shot outside the Oakland Police headquarters Monday Night when her purse was stolen from an adjoining news truck.


Ironically, Holmes was reporting on a mugging that took place in the city earlier in the day.


Unfortunately, this isn't the only time KTVU has been hit.


And a KGO-TV news crew was robbed at gunpoint.


This is total bs. This is an embarrassment to Oakland. And it's a bummer too because by and large Oakland is a cool city; a city on the rise with a vibrant downtown, new restaurants and a booming art scene and renaissance in many neighborhoods.


But Oakland, my hometown, is still full of crime. It stinks too that Oakland doesn't have enough cops on the street to combat crime. What took place on Monday night, as bad as it was, and I'm talking about both the woman who was mugged and Holmes having her purse swiped, could have been worse, nonetheless it was bad,plain and simple.


I've mostly stayed away from reporting on these incidents because it's happened elsewhere but more so in Oakland. That sucks.


I've been asked about this subject numerous times and I don't have an answer. Does it mean that stations will be covering less news in Oakland because of these incidents? I hope not.


Oakland, as I said, has a lot going on, positively too, not just the crummy news about crime and the lack of cops on the streets. How sad is it that a city of over 400,000 people have barely 600 policemen? But that's another story.


That news people and their staff are getting robbed and in some cases at gunpoint, needs immediate attention and right away. Not that when it involves news media people is it any worse than the citizens on the street who are themselves victims of crime.


But Oakland has to move on this and immediately. This is serious business. And it needs to be dealt with right away.





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22 comments:

  1. Pretty sad stuff. Like you, I'm sick and tired of seeing Oakland getting beat up while San Francisco continues to receive knighthood status.

    Oakland's first step is to get a mayor who looks and acts like she's in touch with what's happening. Her honor can't even get a driver so she doesn't bang into cars while on the phone? That's pretty bad. And it's amazing how this story has just disappeared into the wilderness.

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  2. "But Oakland has to move on this and immediately."

    Well Rich, aside from demanding an immediate solution to a complex problem, what specifically do you suggest?

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    1. Lieberman only has indignation about problems, never any solutions.

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    2. > Lieberman only has indignation about problems, never any solutions.

      It's not his job to find solutions. He's not the mayor or the police department. I couldn't find a solution to steering the Costa Concordia around those rocks or evacuating the ship, but I do know the way the captain did it wasn't the right way.

      Heard this on NPR today: one of the supposed things the Oakland police are supposed to “fix” (due to the Riders issue) is the inordinate amount of stops they make on African-Americans…because they’re 80% of the stops, but only 28% of the population. Although other law enforcement groups outside Oakland are saying, Yeah, but if their 100% of your problem in the areas you’re having problems in – it’s a dumb statistic. I can't believe Affirmative Action is now being used in crime-prevention!

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    3. Only 28% of the population? I know alot of Latinos are moving in but I would think that number would be alot higher. Is it now a 30/30/30 city being black/white/latino? If no, what segments of the population tend to be causing the most crime? I have my ideas but facts and figures are always better than speculation.

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  3. The source of the police shortage and lack of effective strategies to contain crime appear to come from Jean Quan's signaling that she doesn't support effective police enforcement action if it contradicts her social activist philosophy. I realize many people could disagree with this, but while the direct and ironic story is that Holmes's purse got stolen right in front of OPD HQ, the bigger story is that Quan's (in)actions as mayor (oft-reported already) has another emblem of ineptitude.

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    1. Really? Crime in Oakland wasn't a problem before Mayor Quan?

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    2. > Crime in Oakland wasn't a problem before Mayor Quan?

      Nothing compared to now. There are cops on my street every week now. I live in one of the best neighborhoods, with houses closing in on a million dollars and many newly-minted dot-commers. We rarely saw police before. Now we see them all the time, we know them by name, and when we report new stuff they thank us but tell us not to expect a whole lot, because they're so stretched and getting little support. They NEVER said that before.

      So, no, it's a whole new ballgame with Quan. She's an idiot. I know someone who works for her and she and her coterie live in a fantasy land. When she learns something bad, her way of dealing with it is just to deny it over and over, louder and louder. Hopefully November will be a dose of reality.

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    3. Oakland's crime problem preceded Mayor Quan. Blaming it on her because she is "an idiot." doesn't make a lot of sense.

      I can't find any statistics that indicate crime has increased during Quan's regime, can you?

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  4. With Oakland on the rise you would think alot of the black population would have been priced out by now and migrated nortth to Richmond. Can anyone with extensive knowledge of Oakland tell me when Oakland went predominantly black and when all the crime started? You would think with its proximity to SF and its natural beauty you would have a world class city. Unfortunately it seems it took a bad turn in the early 70s?

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    1. Good questions....

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    2. Many have been priced out and have moved to Richmond, Emeryville, etc., but their police, while not perfect, actually DEAL with their crimes. Our are straitjacketed.

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    3. In 1980 Blacks accounted for 46% of the Oakland population. Today it is down to 26.5%.
      Whites and Hispanics account for 26% and 25.5% now.
      Growing up in the Bay Area in the '60's and '70's, there was no part of SF or the Southbay that we felt a need to avoid. However, much of Richmond and Oakland was bad news, even then.

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    4. @2:55 There are quite a few places to avoid in SF and the South Bay now. Unfortunately, they're all predominantly Latino. Is brown the new black?

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  5. Well, the robber, has Heather Holmes Home Adress and other important info of hers.

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  6. The rainbows from SF have been buying up the hoods in Oakland. Many of the Oakland residents have moved on to Antioch and Vallejo looking for cheap rent.

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  7. I am a photog at one of the "Big 4" stations here in SF (I won't reveal which one).
    I am licensed to carry a firearm (have been for 12-years now)--which I have hidden in my unit. I've been going to the SF shooting range near Lake Merced for 10-years now...and am a pretty good shot). Nobody knows that I bring it to work--not even the reporters I work with...not even the Desk.

    On those nights when I have to do a live shot from Oakland...or East Palo Alto...or Hunter's Point/Bayview, I bring it out of my unit and put it in my backpack (which I always carry with me out to the tripod/lights--the reporter I guess just assumes the backpack has extra batteries/CamCards, etc.)

    I haven't had to use it yet. But I take comfort in knowing that, if I ever feel threatened, I'm ready.

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  8. Jerry Brown created hope he could turn it around by attracting Corporations to move to Oakland. he did a good job in that regard but miffed on helping the A's get a stadium in Downtown. Had he done that, the downtown tax revenues from a new stadium would had been more than enough to hire more police. Oakland should really have like 1200-1500 officers. 600 is a shame.

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  9. I am sorry that she had her purse stolen. Question? Was the van broken into or was it unlocked? Question? If there would have been a security guard. would he have been with the van or the camera crew? So the question that I have is; do you need one or two security guards per news crew?

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  10. Oakland will continue to have a serious crime problem until the city has a different population mix. Can it be any clearer where the problem lies?

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  11. Probably just a secret admirer of Heather Holmes, infatuated with her personal effects.

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  12. Oakland has had serious crime problems for fifty years, but the department that polices it today is but a shadow of the professional agency put together following WWII. Thanks to the bleeding hearts who supported the violently criminal Black Panthers, OPD became a target for "reform," a word that implied improvement but really meant neuter, as in make the department less effective at jailing black criminals. Reform mandated tempering OPD's proactive approach, replacing competence with color in hiring and promotions, and holding the police department accountable for the mounting social problems that followed the destruction of the family/church culture. OPD, once the highest-paid department in the Bay Area, began an erosion process that caused good applicants to go elsewhere and ultimately led to its police academy losing accreditation (something otherwise unheard of).

    As the police department lost its grip on the city the criminals tightened theirs. Jerry Brown had good intentions, but after his get-tough-on-the-corner-boys message attracted political attention (along with blood suckers like race attorney John Burris), Mayor Jerry distanced himself and left the cops to suffer the fallout of the Riders scandal -- a scandal built around the discredited rantings of a cowardly rookie washout and set to flames by the hysteria provided by the local media. The result: cops acquitted, millions of dollars extorted, and a police department scapegoated and scathing.

    Oakland today is suffering at the hands of the offspring of those generations of welfare moms who took seriously the feel-good-do-it message that originated in the 1960's. Three generations of uncivilized bastards set loose on a city once known for its work ethic; set loose to boldly rob, rape, and murder each other and anyone else within reach. Three generations of reasons for businesses to close their doors, consumers to cross the bridge, and liberal news stations (like KTVU) and activists (like Jean Quan) to close their eyes and pretend they do not share in the responsibility.

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