Now there are many examples that fit this definition which have been reported on this blog: claiming credit for a park that doesn’t exist, nepotism plus special lowering of standards, transfer of city funds to patronage not-for-profits with no accountability, not to mention colorful phrases like “being in the pocket of the developers”.
Again, I find it difficult to believe that the regular commenters on this blog don’t believe that many city officials are “guilty of dishonest practices” and not just so incompetent that such an opinion is moot.

So instead of “corrupt-o-crats” how about “corrupt and incompetent career city officials that use their official positions to maintain and increase their power without regard to the welfare of the citizens of Oakland thereby making it very difficult to dislodge from their positions or hold them to account”

As for “losers”, yes, in the sense that the aforementioned officials stay in their positions, we and the rest of the general citizenry that are not privileged with patronage are losers.

Also, Len, thank you for reminding all of us about http://www.guidestar.org !
Any non-profit’s form 990 (their tax return) can be viewed here. Form 990 requires, among other things, salary disclosures for top employees, and the names of all board members. Sometimes people are even dumb enough to put home addresses on these documents. Anyway, the point is, there has been much talk about non-profits in Oakland receiving pork barrel spending from the city. This site is a great place to poke around if you want to dig up inappropriate executive salaries and the like.

in the early years the ga’s seems to have attracted a wide range of civic minded young volunteers who the founder and continuing guru showman Sliwa motivated into risking their lives to do for 0 money. Sliwa was and to a much lesser extent now, able to tap into that laudable public service yearing of many people. Was he a sham, mostly. Did he help some people, yes. Did he hurt some, probably.

many of the volunteer GA’s probably joined for a combo of helping other people and also getting their own troubled lives together a la the peace corp or the marines. didn’t find any reports about gross exploitation but yes reports of injured and killed young GA’s.

Is there really 0 downside to our mayor inviting the GA’s to patrol? You gotta ask John Burris that question, but my hunch is that if the GA’s mistakenly harrass any resident or if a GA is injured, Burris et al will have an excellent case that the city is liable. A big lawsuit could make using the free GA’s very expensive.

(you can view the 2006 year end tax return for the Alliance of Guardian Angels at http://www.guidestar.org) It’s clear from their tax return 54k of total insurance expense schedule that they don’t carry insurance to cover claims made against individual GA’s or by individual GA’s. I’ guessing that they insulate themselves from those risks by setting up local independent chapters to recruit and train GA’s.

Not obvious from their tax return that Sliwa or family members get big bucks directly thru the organization. Not enough detail, but the total revenue only a million bucks. Total payroll 127k, and maybe another 246k possible payouts for services, assuming the tax return is accurate.

Overall I’d call it sad grasping at straws for the residents; and showmanship by Dellums.

-len raphael
temescal

Thanks for responding. My point is that we would do well to find out what deterrent these kids DO respond to. Some may fear incarceration, others may not. If they don’t, what do we do? Another problem that comes to mind is the cost of incarceration. California has, if I recall, something like 165,000 prisoners at any given time, and each costs the state around $45,000 yearly to house, feed, doctor, and entertain. Step back and look at it and the criminal justice system seems seriously out of balance. I’m all for more cops and Measure Y implementation and cameras on street corners, but there is still something very wrong with this picture. How many more people can we really arrest? How much is incarceration itself siphoning off from state and county budgets? This is what leads people like Dellums from thinking there must be a better way. If only he could find it.

But forget about the research; the criminals’ whole ethos and lifestyle gives the lie to the commonplace outright. That punishment works to control behavior is the criminal code of conduct, for God’s sake. Tell the local dealers that threats don’t work to control underlings! If it didn’t work on them and their cohort, why would they themselves practice it? As I said before, things that are repeated mantras in college humanities classes don’t, dint of that, fare too well in the real world where people are not schooled early and often to be ‘pro-social’ and ‘play nice’. So, I agree with Californio that it’s a mistake to assume that everyone is motivated by the same types of rewards in life, but it’s just as much a mistake to assume without evidence that people aren’t strongly strongly motivated by fear.

that’s probably just muscle memory. I lived on Peralta St. @24th for quite a while. Biz did you do it too? Eek.

Biz – I think one of the things that makes folks like Steve Lowe chime in and tell us we’re a bunch of sore losers is language like “corrupto-crats”. I realize by unending Don Perata cracks and calls for the invasion of Piedmont probably go along with this, but I do think it’s more productive in the long run if we lean towards address points of fact and history.

My neighborhood is “good” by Oakland standards which means one burglary or auto theft per month and three violent crimes per year. I went to high school in Cicero IL and was an early “urban pioneer” in a loft near Cabrini Green in Chicago (with no car) so I’m fairly streetwise. Many of my neighbors are not. At least our OPD contact was honest with us and I understand how tough it is for the OPD.

Sorry about the Perata/Peralta name. I’m moderately disabled and often use speech to text software which will substitute words and I need to add all the proper names by hand and remove similiar phonetic homologues.

my second comment was about surveillance cameras that could be placed by the police, not citizens taking snaps.

and I live at 24th and MLK. My experience with crime and the OPD is anything but abstract. I also attend my NCPC meetings when I can.

You’re “what I’ve learned” list is depressingly correct. But I will say that the OPD’s presence in my neighborhood has been increasingly effective. Unfortunately, until we get them more money to hire more officers, it’s a shell game, and it seems the marginal improvements near me are leading to marginal backsliding near you.

In this particular thread, I’ve been exploring alternatives to increasing the amount of cops, because the issue of increasing the police force is already sort of a given for many folks who read this blog. We know we want that. What else do we want?… but…

I think that if we really really want to cut crime we need more cops. And if we want more cops, there is a certain demographic that will have to stop demanding attention to things like tree removal and park improvements in nicer areas, and get their priorities straight. We also need to stop paying city employees more than they’re worth.

Frankly, I’d be happy to cut funds for the rose garden or something if it means more cops and less dead teenagers. The people in the areas surrounding parks in safer neighborhoods can volunteer and donate, and they probably will. As for city employees: we have a crisis, in a corporation, when there’s a crisis, you cut bonuses, raises, and sometimes even reduce existing salaries. I don’t think keeping somebody at 65k for the next three years is going to starve anybody’s family. So do it. I’m experiencing slow growth in the private sector, cutting luxuries, and thus paying in less tax, shouldn’t that be passed along?