By Ricardo Hazell
Riddle us this dear reader, what do the violent situations that have taken place in the Sudan, Uganda, Haiti, Somalia, Rwanda and Liberia all have in common? These are situations in which African people or people of African descent are being killed by other people of African descent in staggering numbers for one reason or another.
And if you're into riddles then you're going to love this one. What do you get when you take film footage of the atrocities that are occuring abroad and put the footage on super slow motion? You get the genocidal, sometimes gang-related, automatic weapon powered skirmishes that occur in depressed black neighborhoods across the US. All too often these "battles" result in the yet another death of a young black male.
Oakland, California, a locale of seemingly endless musical and athletic talent is also the second most murderous city in the California behind Compton, California.
On December 9, San Francisco Chronicle staff writer Meredith May visited the plight of Oakland's desensitized and sometimes brain washed young black male populous and the familial/cultural circumstances that can cause them to become killers in a piece titled "Many young black men in Oakland are killing and dying for respect."
She writes: "Along with the Christmas trees and family gatherings, there's another end-of-the-year ritual in Oakland - a candlelight vigil for the murdered. The body count is woven into the civic consciousness here - a number chased by homicide inspectors, studied by criminologists, lamented in churches, reported by journalists. Every mayor leaves City Hall on broken promises to quell the violence, and the killings continue. An additional 115 have been killed this year, putting Oakland on pace for another gruesome record. In the last five years, 557 people were slain on the city's streets, making Oakland the state's second-most murderous city, behind Compton. Most victims are young, black men who are dying in forgotten neighborhoods of East and West Oakland."
As I, and others who are or were apart of the affected demographic at one time can attest to, there are cultural machismo and deep seated psychological issues of self-hate that frame the murderous kindling of no single parent households, third world-like poverty levels, drug-abusing role models and homes in which children are constantly exposed to sex, drug usage and guns. The hood tends to reward the wicked. Not that all who sell drugs or murder are inherently wicked. In heated situations things often happen so fast that even the most sainted among us has to make a quick decision. It's a decision as old as life on Earth, fight or flight?
"A handful of their killers, speaking from prison, describe an environment where violence is so woven into the culture that murder has become a symbol of manhood," wrote May. "The inmates say the only difference between these neighborhoods and prison is the absence of walls. The same hierarchies apply - the meanest rise to the top. It's a survival skill that ensures ownership of drug corners, a sense of self-worth, female attention and protection from attack."
Contrary to popular belief, there is no inauguration or induction ceremony when it comes to criminal activity. Often times crack dealers where destined to become such because of many small to medium-sized drug enterprises that are a family affair. Is it the new millennium replacement for the Mom and Pop store?
May writes, "Criminal families are on their third and fourth generations. Grandparents - the ones who have historically stepped in to help raise fatherless boys and instill a sense of right and wrong - are dying off. Back in the 1980s, drug dealers who first brought crack cocaine to Oakland used to hide their activities from their parents because it was shameful, but now it's a full-blown family business, said Michelle Gandy, a private investigator who interviews murder defendants for Alameda County court-appointed criminal defense attorneys.
"The kids today recognize that their parents are in it, too, so there's
this hopelessness," she writes.
Increasingly, the young murder suspects coming to the station for questioning seem to lack basic morality, said Sgt. Tim Nolan, who has been investigating Oakland homicides for 17 years.
"There are more and more families where there's less and less structure," Nolan told May. "Talking to these suspects day in and out, there's a higher percentage today with no sense of right and wrong. It's frightening, but we are creating super-criminals."
Nearly half of all murders in Oakland go uncharged for lack of a willing witness, so a shooter knows he has about a 50-50 chance of getting away with it.
"Murder is hardly ever a whodunit in Oakland," said criminal defense attorney William Du Bois, who has been representing Oakland homicide suspects for nearly three decades. Because witnesses won't testify, certain Oakland neighborhoods have an abnormally high per capita rate of killers walking the streets. They are known, feared, and have an incredibly toxic influence on impressionable young boys aching for structure.
"In these neighborhoods of concentrated poverty, all the doctors, lawyers, pharmacists, architects and postal workers have left," said Richard Miles, chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Bay Area. "The kids have nobody but drug lords to look up to."
For this report, The Chronicle conducted prison and telephone interviews with five convicted Oakland killers, reviewed the court files of 60 murder trials, listened to police interrogation tapes and talked with homicide inspectors, district attorneys, family members, criminal defense lawyers, forensic therapists and criminologists.
The inmates who spoke to The Chronicle hoped that their stories would dissuade younger generations from following in their footsteps. Their stories, and those told in the court files, show that Oakland killers share many characteristics. They are young. Most killed before their 25th birthday. A majority grew up without a father - he was either murdered, incarcerated or abandoned his children.
To read the full report from the San Francisco Chronicle, click
here.
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