Posted on Sun, 02/10/2008 - 18:24 — by WP64
I was there yesterday 2/9/08, I went to the True Vine Baptist Church in West Oakland and pulled my car into line at about 9:15, I was the 18th car in line. I had two handguns, both very old revolvers, so old in fact that they didn't have serial numbers but they were in good working condition; one belonged to me brother's father-in-law who asked me to turn it in for the cash and the other was given to me by an elderly friend many years ago B4 he passed away. At about 10:00 the cars started moving through the parking lot of the church exchanging their guns with OPD for cash, at about 10:25 a man walked down the line of cars telling people that they were only taking 5 guns per car, this was bad news for two SUVs in front of me because there were several men with many guns who came together in these cars, but they didn't leave the line.  I felt relieved by this, "spread the wealth" I thought to myself.   So the line kept moving slowly towards the church. At 10:45 I was 4 cars from the church's parking lot when a group of men started walking down the line of cars telling the drivers that they would not be exchanging cash for revolvers anymore but they also said I could still turn in my revolvers but I wouldn't be paid for them...[bleep]!!! Don't revolvers kill people anymore? Or is it that revolvers don't look as menacing as pistols/automatics do? Whatever the reason, I didn't stay around to ask, I pulled my car out of line and went home. When I got home (yes, I live in Oakland) and told my wife the story she asked me why I didn't just turn them in anyway? I told her that if the Government wants to buy my guns that's one thing, I can sell them a couple of handguns that are worth (apx.) what they are paying, but if the Government wants me to just turn them in w/o compensation that's something entirely different.Â
Here's a few of my reflections on Oakland's gun buy back program: most of those in line were white males 30-65 years old; a lot of them were not Oakland residents, I talked to one guy from Fresno and another from Fairfield; at 100 guns per drop-off location that's 300 guns (so called "assult weapons", pistols and a few revolvers) off the streets, this doesn't make me feel any safer living in Oakland; and lastly, it has been statistically proven (see John Lott Jr.'s book "More Guns Less Crime") that gun buy backs do NOTHING to reduce crime, but they do make for good press so the do nothing politicians (rear Mayor Dellums and Pimp-My-Carjacked-Ride Perata here) can appear that they are doing something. Â
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 282
Report jif
What a shame! I hate to hear your story, and it saddens me to think that OPD, Dellums and/or Perata would be so short -sighted. I wonder what OPD will do if your house is burglarized, the guns are taken and then used in a violent crime!? I don't blame you for not selling them back. What a joke - Perata was fist in line! He should have waited until the end so he could see who was bringing in guns, why they brought them in and what condition the guns were in! Then, in some alternate universe, he could admit how pointless this event was and that none of the guns being used by the criminal event were turned in. Anyway, you are right - this gun buy back will not reduce violent crime in Oakland.  Sadly this city will get what it deserves and hopefully the innocent will be spared .Â
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 75
Report Oakpundit
Joined: Feb 2008
Posts: 2
Report WP64
Oakpundit, I've tried to get involved on several occasions with mixed results. The Oakland city council, I've found, does not consider the input of a white, conservative male to be that worthwhile; I've actually been treated quite rudely by city council leader De La Fuente and member at large Henry Chang. My repressentative, Jean Quan, has been very gracious and engauging the two times we have talked; but my concerns and suggestions to her did not go far beyond her ears. I do work with my local neighborhood association and Crime Stoppers and I feel that my involvement with these groups is time well spent but I have to say, as the owner of a 30 year old Oakland business and a Oakland resident for 15 years, I don't see thing getting better in Oakland, only worse. From the schools, to the police and their losing battle to add to their ranks and fight the increasing crime epodemic to the Mayor who says, "I don't think the people of Oakland want a larger police force" one week then three months later cries about not being able to get OPD to the full staff that the people of Oakland agreed to pay for them to do with another property tax. I can go on and on, but I suspect that you know the stories. It's just so sad and frustrating  to be committed to Oakland as a resident and business owner and not see it getting better, just painfully worse.
Â
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 75
Report Oakpundit
Thank you for your thoughtful response. I empathisize and completely concur. The problem is every one relies on the current leadership. Only a people's movement or new organizations are going to bring about change. There is no leader that can do this for the American people be it changing our local inefficient, dysfunctional and corrupt city government or changing our national priorities so once again we can get federal funds for cops. As long as people sit and wait for leaders or someone else to do something, the problems will continue.
Oakland, as a city that developed too much section 8 housing and tried to help all the poor people in the Bay Area,  is painfully hurting under this crushing load. But the problems are everywhere--SF, a city that exported it's poverty to Oakland, also has shootings all over the city including North Beach.  And they are happening  all over the country to one degree or another as more people lose their jobs in the recession and export of jobs abroad under NAFTA and as the federal government sucks  billions more every year  in phony intelligence gathering and huge profits in the defense sector from American cities and infrastructure.
I wish a law and order regime would come to power in Oakland though I doubt it will because it could teach people the limits of police powers as well when you have an economic system crumbling and the dollar giving way against the Euro with practically no state or federal funds coming in. What's truly amazing is that people tolerate and accept the status quo.
It's hard for me to understand how people willingly participate in their own degradation and destruction which simply doesn't have to be.
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 282
Report jif
Get this straight - I live in Oakland! I work in Oakland! I have met with my City Council representative! I actively campaigned against Dellums because I could see that he would employee a political strategy that would destroy Oakland from the inside out. I have read Mr. Pine's limited campaign material, but I do not know enough about him to support him. Yes, I am sarcastic!  Yes, I do care about the future of Oakland. And I do not think focusing on petty subjects will make that change. Crime is a major problem here. Boo hooing on this site will not change that. The same goes for approaching the City Council and most in city gov't. With limited exception, they are a bunch of criminals who ought to be locked up with the murderers and thieves. If Oakland was smart and its citizens banded together (fat chance!) they would pressure Tom Orloff to do his job and throw the book at the criminal element that drags this city down. Orloff's record stinks because he is afraid to take on the tough cases for fear of lowering his success rate. The same is true of our City Attorney. That weasel is handing out money to anyone who asks for it. How about we hold him accountable for his behavior and drum him out of office? We need people in these positions who are willing to do their job instead of concerning themselves with how they appear to the black, hispanic, asian or white voters of this city. Political correctness is driving this city into a grave - literally - and the criminal element is laughing like hyenas, as they benefit from the confusion it causes which allows them to go on there merry way. Here it is, most of the murders in Oakland are black on black crime. The murders occur in predominantly lower income neighborhoods. The witnesses do not come forward because they fear retaliation from the criminal element that surrounds them or, alternatively, because they are the criminal element and are invested in that lifestyle! There is not much that I can do to change that fact. That change will have to come from within the community that is impacted by these crimes. No amount of social programs or stumping for the candidates is going to change that either. My solutions would include requiring young women who are crapping out baby after baby for the welfare dollars to sign an agreement after baby #1 that says she understands that she will not be given any money for baby #2 through #? Oakland schools would have a strict dress code that disallows the wearing of baggy pants and gangster gear by the boys and prostitute gear by the girls. These same students would be taught how to do the basics (math, science, writing, reading) the way it was meant to be taught. None of this accepting improper English because it is part of the black or lower income culture. English is English! Donald Trump isn't hiring people who can not speak it properly, and I do not see how we are serving these young people by allowing them to think it is acceptable.  I would go on but I do not have the time to defend my politics or what it is I do to make a change here in Oakland. I do plenty, which is more than I can say for the shiftless, unemployed lot that sits on street corners yelling racism every time they are stopped by the police and asked what it is they are doing!
Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 75
Report Oakpundit
JIF: I agree with all the concrete proposals you presented in your last post. I would add that I believe it should be public policy not to put young, unmarried, jobless women into Sec. 8 housing with public support for baby number one. No public support for Baby No. l until the age of 21 and then you have to be married at least and have had a job. We have the right as citizens in this country to set policies regarding the preservation of the family and who should get Sec. 8 monies and housing and who shouldn't. AFDC for one baby only. The rest the parents must support.
The problem is nobody wants to form a group and raise this with County Supervisors. People talk about sterilization in private and all kinds of drastic measures but are unwilling to do anything that requires serious, long term organizaing and public education efforts. So we end up with bad welfare policies that don't really help anyone.
then people wonder why there is HIGH crime in Oakland after Bill Clinton decided to throw people in the streets after 5 years (after exporting American jobs around the planet under NAFTA) and broke his promise to transition people into public service jobs. Some people ddidn't like this idea--they preferred to criminalize an entire grouping of people. It was predictable what would happen in Oakland. I don't understand why more people cannot draw the logical conclusions. We need a big jobs program. Murder is just destroying more families and prolonging the problem and Oakland's problems. Many people would rather just say"Oakland you deserved it"--elitist moralizing from people who are not far from being affected by the economic recession and shaky, possibly collasping banking system. There is widespread hopeless around our nation, not just Oakland but Oaklanders refuse to acknowledge this and draw the appropriate lessons. If they did they'd realize the solutions lie in people organizing statewide organizations with local chapters to lobby for change at the state capitol.
There is a place for sarcasm in this world to keep one's sanity. But not against those who are trying to keep their own sanity as well!