Three police officers in Oakland, California were gunned down on Saturday March 21st 2009, and a fourth was critically wounded in an afternoon of violence that began with a routine traffic stop and ended with a grim news conference to announce the toll of one of the worst days in the Oakland police department’s history. The Associated Press reported Saturday that people lingered at the scene of the traffic-stop shooting. About 20 bystanders taunted the police.
Oakland's Lost Dreams
There have been problems in that neighborhood, but no one could remember when four officers were shot in the line of duty on the same day. Oakland police opened a substation at the Eastmont Town Center in 1992, responding to neighborhood complaints about crime and violence in the area. But the substation, built in an old tire shop, did not end the neighborhood's troubles. Tension between police and the community has escalated since the fatal shooting of an unarmed 22-year-old, Oscar Grant III, by a transit police officer on New Year’s Day.
To map the out-of-control murder rate, the San Francisco Chronicle used Google Maps to show the distribution of every homicide from 2007 and 2008. The data is astounding. Most killings in Oakland involve people with some connection to the illegal drug trade. The nutcase gang members were a little different. Investigators believe the group began their spree by robbing street-corner drug dealers but later targeted slaying victims at random.
The subject of the March 21st manhunt Levelle Mixon, 27, of Oakland, not a nutcase gang member was on parole for assault with a deadly weapon, and has prior convictions in Alameda County for grand theft and possession of marijuana. On Saturday two officers were shot after making a traffic stop. The suspect fled the scene on foot into a nearby neighborhood and what happened next resulted in the worst day in the history of the Oakland Police Department.
According to the government we are a nation that is currently involved in two wars. One in Iraq, and one in Afghanistan. Welcome to the third. It is the Grand Theft Auto War.
About The Author:
This artice was written by Mark Soveign who owns and writes for Wertheim Communications LLC