If a loved one you know hasn’t been robbed, you’ve probably heard about a friend that has been mugged or robbed in Oakland. It’s unfortunate, but you do hear the common sayings due to the history: “Oakland is Raw” and “You can love Oakland but Oakland won’t love you back”. If it’s not the city penalizing its people with parking tickets and citations, its people going after each other. Search “Oakland Robbery” in the news and you’ll find a string of attacks on the city, not always by Oakland residents, they all seem to be driven by one thing – cold hard cash:

1) Sunday Dec 19th 1pm: Two armed men from a SF Hunter’s Point gang, strong arm attacked a parking lot attendant at Oakland Raider’s game, Oakland Coliseum, caught and charged with armed robbery

2) Monday Dec 27th 3pm: Two gun wielding men, store invasion on small family business, armed robbery, broad daylight on Broadway @ 26th, escaped on foot

3) Monday Dec 27th 8pm: Masked gunman, store invasion (Walgreens) escaped on foot

4) Thursday Dec 23rd 3pm: Two men, steal Fed Ex truck full of packages from Fed Ex driver, Chun Li (no relation to Street Fighter II video game character)

If you go back to September 2010, then Oakland City Councilwoman, Mayor Jean Quan, was robbed of her purse at Safeway’s parking lot. Unlike the daylight robberies, this happened in the evening at 9pm in the Dimond neighborhood.

Cameras are not always working and when they work, they are not always recording. The system is not 100%, likewise, there are no 100% guarantees with any defense or preparation, and crime is not isolated only to Oakland, it can happen anywhere. You can blame the economy, yes, everyone is hurting, and the top to bottom pinch is affecting us all. Be safe, travel in numbers, stay in well lit areas to minimize opportunists such as the above. The more eyes, the better.

And a super resource Love Oakland uses for viewing the crime via map location date and even time of day is http://oakland.crimespotting.org. Thanks to Oakland Digital for providing that link!