Oakland’s Chinatown was hit with a series of attacks and thefts that put the community on the brink.
Video from a security camera records an attack on an elderly man on January 31. The footage taken from a camera on the corner of Harrison and 8th streets and stamped just after noon shows a man in a hooded sweatshirt pushing his target walking on the sidewalk. The older man falls first face into the sidewalk and misses a metal bike rack slender as his attacker walks past.
Police announced Saturday night that they a person of interest identified which has been in their custody since 1 February for other reasons.
Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, said the video-captured assault was one of a series of attacks and thefts targeting the community.
Captain Bobby Hookfin of the Oakland Police Department said police have seen an increase in robberies in the area since the beginning of the year. The department did not respond to a request from Times for how many similar reports have been received in the past few weeks, or how the numbers can be compared to previous months or years or other locations.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Chan asked that the city bring back walking patrols, especially around the Moon New Year, and for additional surveillance cameras. Chan also requested that parking regulations be adjusted so that visitors can park at street meters that are closer to shops.
Mayor Libby Schaaf asked questions and said she would not restore the walking patrols and “bring extra resources to this community as appropriate.” She encouraged business owners to purchase their own security cameras.
Schaaf also singled out Oakland City Council Chairman Nikki Fortunato Bas and Deputy Mayor Rebecca Kaplan over their summer proposal to reduce the police budget by $ 25 million. If the proposal had been implemented, Schaaf said: “those walking officers would have been gone a long time ago.”
The proposal did not move forward, but Schaaf’s government announced a $ 15 million budget cut in December that would affect programs, including a ceasefire, in which community groups, clergy and social workers work with police to reduce gun violence.
Bass, whose voters include those in Chinatown, responded on Facebook that evening that her proposal would allocate money from overtime from the police to community safety programs. She said the budget cuts in December ended foot patrols through the city, and that councilors were not consulted before the cuts.
In another statement on Saturday, Bas said he was working with the Oakland Chinatown Coalition and city police to maintain a community-oriented presence in Chinatown streets “and to focus police resources on addressing violent crime” while diverting other resources to alternative responses to mental health, homelessness ”and other forms of violence prevention.