Oakland Police Department

Eli Reyes: Friends Crowd-Source to Help Cyclist Hit by "Aggressive Driver"

A vicious assault nine days ago left Eli Reyes with a broken femur and a number of deep cuts and bruises. She'd been riding her bike through downtown Oakland in the wee hours of the morning when an angry motorist pulled up at a red light, grabbed her through the open window of his truck, and dragged ... More >>

Pie in the Sky: UC Berkeley Works on Drones That Won't Spy on and/or Kill You

UC Students Demonstrate How Drones Can Help You

Coye Cheshire doesn't mean to be impolitic, but he can't help mentioning the FBI's fruitless search for a Boston Marathon bomber -- and how it could be abetted by technology. "The whole push is to find someone who had pictures, and who could provide high resolution information about public events," ... More >>

Occupy Oakland Didn't Trash Downtown for a Change

Occupy Oakland kept it rather mellow last night in Oakland as it commemorated the anniversary of its eviction from Frank Ogawa Plaza with a march followed by a slideshow(?). Although several banks boarded up their windows, preparing for another round of vandalism, protesters didn't smash or trash an ... More >>

Occupy Oakland: Flyer Asks Residents to "Beat Up" Anarchists at Anniversary Protest

Oakland received a chilling missive over the weekend from a group of folks who are calling on the city's residents to bring bats and beat the shit out of anarchists and vandals during next week's Occupy protest.The flyer, which was disseminated throughout downtown, urges residents to defend the city ... More >>

John Weston Osburn, News Photographer, Sues Oakland Cops for Being Too Aggressive

A news photographer is suing Oakland cops for  allegedly employing their heavy-handed tactics, similar to the complaints we've heard from Occupy Oakland protesters.The photographer, John Weston Osburn, a longtime member of Indybay Media, was covering a Oscar Grant protest in downtown Oakland on ... More >>

Another Journalist Robbed at Gunpoint in Oakland

Journalists over in Oakland are making headlines while trying to get the headlines thanks of a rash of robberies targeting news reporters and cameramen out in the field.On Monday, an Oakland Tribune photographer was out on assignment when she was held up at gunpoint and robbed of her laptop and came ... More >>

Report Questions Legitimacy of Mayor Jean Quan's New Policing Plan

A report released this week casts a long shadow of doubt on Mayor Jean Quan's new crime initiative, which promised to target specific areas in Oakland. When she announced the new law enforcement strategy, Quan claimed that 90 percent of all homicides and shootings happened within 100 blocks in the c ... More >>

Occupy Oakland Upset Over Proposed Shield Ban

It seems that Oakland City Hall might have given Occupy Oakland a new reason to protest. The Council's public safety committee is mulling an ordinance that, if passed, would ban protesters from carrying shields during any and all demonstrations. The ordinance, backed by City Attorney Barbara Parker ... More >>

Elderly Woman Carjacked in Financial District, Two Arrested

Two men led police on a high-speed chase across the Bay Bridge after carjacking an elderly woman in the city's Financial District. Officer Albie Esparza says the 83-year-old woman was parked in her van on the corner of Battery and Washington streets at about 1:40 a.m. when two men approached her and ... More >>

Occupy Oakland Protesters Charged With Hate Crimes For Stealing Wallet, Protest Planned

​By this point, it's clear that Oakland -- or at least the Easy Bay city's mayor, police chief, business and cranky old man communities -- hates itself some Occupy. The hating officially enters the criminal justice system today, when three Occupy Oaklander protesters will appear in Alameda County ... More >>

Mayor Jean Quan Calls on Occupy Wall Street to "Disown" Occupy Oakland

​After a weekend of epic chaos that led to more than 400 arrests in downtown Oakland, Mayor Jean Quan says she is going to place a call to New York City -- home of the Occupy Wall Street movement --  to let protesters there know she is really, really sick and tired of Occupy consuming her hom ... More >>

Boots Riley: Oakland General Strike Is "Like Us Flashing Our Guns"

via EKA PhotographyBoots Riley at Occupy Oakland​ The Occupy movement doesn't have a leader, but Oakland activist-rapper Boots Riley is serving as one sort of de facto spokesman for his hometown's defiant occupation, lending the collective grievances a high-profile voice. Inspired by public g ... More >>

Oakland Dogpiles on Mayor Jean Quan

Mayor Jean Quan has had better days ​Now that she has somewhat placated Occupy Oakland protesters, Mayor Jean Quan is pissing off police and the business community. Like a mother with rivaling children, Quan is stuck trying to balance the demands of both police and protesters as the city braces fo ... More >>

Gold Panda Makes His Machines Sound Human at the Independent

Gold Panda at the Independent last night.​ Gold Panda Oct. 25, 2011 The Independent Better than: Getting pelted with tear gas by Oakland police officers. If the subtext of Gold Panda's organic, melancholy electronica wasn't already clear enough, the incredible videos that accompanied the Bri ... More >>

Ranger Noir: S.F. Park Patrol Run as Money Machine

​This week's SF Weekly cover story "Ranger Noir" takes a close look at the law enforcement unit that covers San Francisco park facilities, and discovers an agency seemingly gone bad.Among its findings: A full-time Park Patrol supervisor holds a second, separate full-time job with the state of ... More >>

SFPD Investigates Officer for Mouthing Off to Press

Oakland Cops Illegally Strip-Searched Black Men in Traffic Stop, Must Pay $205,000

​A federal judge has ruled that Oakland police officers performed unconstitutional strip-searches of two black men they pulled over as part of an unnecessary traffic stop, and must pay $100,000 to each victim as a result.U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Hall Patel found that Ofc. Ingo Mayer, in t ... More >>

Oakland Discriminates Against Anti-Abortion Activists, Judge Says

​Oakland discriminates against anti-abortion activists by selectively enforcing their "bubble ordinance," which prohibits contact with individuals entering reproductive health clinics, the Ninth Circuit has ruled. The ordinance, which was passed in February 2008, makes it unlawful for anyone to ... More >>

Johannes Mehserle, BART Cop Convicted in Oscar Grant Shooting, to Be Released Next Week

Released for good behavior ​It didn't take long after the news broke that Johannes Mehserle, the former BART cop charged with shooting Oscar Grant, would be released from jail this weekend, for Grant's friends and family to plan a rally. And if history tells us anything, it is that Oakland should ... More >>

Last Night's Lauryn Hill and Dave Chappelle Show Was Every Bit the Crazy Last-Minute Idea it Seemed

Truly a last-minute affair​Everyone's been asking us today: How is it that a Lauryn Hill/Dave Chappelle show actually happened last night, anyway? And, frankly we wondered ourselves -- all we saw beforehand were the announcement Tweets like the rest of you. Being the journalistically inclined folk ... More >>

Owner of Oakland's Otaez Mexicatessen Killed in Apparent Robbery Attempt

Ray Chavez/Oakland Tribune, 2000Otaez owner Jesus "Chuy" Campos, fatally shot this morning in Oakland.​The Oakland Tribune is reporting that Jesus Campos, owner of Oakland's Otaez Mexicatessen, was shot and killed this morning in what authorities believe was an attempted robbery. From the Trib ... More >>

Blowing Smoke: Obama Promises One Thing, Does Another on Medical Marijuana

Johannes Mehserle Sentence 'Sends Wrong Message,' Lawyer Says

​A veteran civil rights attorney who has sued the Oakland and BART Police Departments more times than he can remember lamented ex-BART cop Johannes Mehserle's two-year sentence -- the shortest sentence Judge Robert Perry could have handed down. Jim Chanin has represented more than 500 clients suin ... More >>

Declaring San Bruno Fire 'Crime Scene' Kept Media Out

Smi23leA 'disaster' scene and 'crime' scene are not the same...​It would be hard to begrudge San Bruno police for moving to keep non-emergency personnel out of the neighborhood impacted by last week's blast and fire. On Friday, police declared the incinerated areas a "crime scene," which severely ... More >>

Jeff Wilcox, Oakland's Would-Be Pot Tycoon, Says First Harvest Could Be June 2011

Meanwhile, down at the pot factory...​Step 1: Approve massive marijuana factories. Step 2: Build massive marijuana factories. Step 3: Profit. Jeff Wilcox, one of the men who'd like to build one of those so-called "pot factories," laughs at the the supposedly easy path toward a Utopian, pot-growing ... More >>

Johannes Mehserle Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter

Involuntary manslaughter for Mehserle​Check back for updatesEx-BART cop Johannes Mehserle has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in the shooting death of unarmed BART passenger Oscar Grant. The jury could have convicted Mehserle of either second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter - ... More >>

Slain Hoopster Attempted to Rob a Drug Dealer, Police Say

www.rivals.comHyman Taylor​The former University of San Francisco basketball player killed in an IKEA parking lot last week was murdered in a botched attempt to rob a marijuana dealer, authorities said Monday.

Former USF basketball player, Hyman Taylor, Shot Dead in IKEA Parking Lot

Photo: USFDons.com​Hyman Taylor -- a former center for the University of California San Francisco basketball team -- was shot and killed last night in an IKEA parking lot in Emeryville. The 6-foot-9, 245-pounder from Oakland was 23 years old. Another 27-year-old man who police are not yet identify ... More >>

Police Will Still Bust Drug Dealers Despite Crime Lab Closure

Still in business...​Police Chief George Gascon ensured in a Thursday afternoon press conference that police are continuing to bust drug dealers even as the department crime lab's narcotics unit went dark this week after accusations one of the civilian lab technicians was skimming drugs from evide ... More >>

Yes, 'Epic Beard Man' From AC Transit Beatdown Same Guy Tazed at A's Game

The Internet, it turns out, is a fan of Thomas Bruso's work. The hulking older man dubbed "Epic Beard Man" by Web viewers across the realm enchanted with Bruso's form in administering an authoritative beatdown to a far younger fellow AC Transit passenger isn't an Internet virgin. It turns out Bruso ... More >>

Chronic City: To Tax Pot, Or Not? Oakland Votes Tuesday

Photo: chron.ronThe color of moneyMail-in voting closes Tuesday on Measure F, a new ordinance in Oakland which would impose a special tax on sales of medical marijuana in the city's dispensaries. The measure would make Oakland the first city in the United States to have a business tax category for m ... More >>

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Our critics weigh in on local theater

Also Playing

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Also Playing

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Also Playing

Our critics weigh in on local theater

Comparing Public's Anguish -- and Reaction -- Regarding Police Murders, Oscar Grant Killing Is Natural, Justified -- and Wrong

As the Bay Area's mood shifts from shock and horror over the senseless weekend murders of four Oakland police officers into a desire for the community to rise up and repudiate this sickening act, we can only measure the moments until some well-meaning soul utters the phrase "a teachable moment." Thi ... More >>

Scapegoating of 'Shot-Spotters' for Yet Another Shooting Death Is Simplistic and Wrong

Hey! I HEARD that!The impulse to ridicule technological advances and the people who promote them is a deep one (how many movie scientists who purported to help humanity have been torn asunder by their creations?). So, when San Francisco police were alerted to gunfire over the weekend in the Hunters ... More >>

Nonconformity Still Reigns!

The top eccentrics of San Francisco, and that's saying something.

Hello, Little Friend: What is High-Tech Anti-Gunfire Device’s Hidden Upside?

Spot That Shot: Can High-Tech System Alleviate City's Gun Woes?

Oakland Black Muslim and Chauncey Context : Links

Oakland Hyphy Sideshows Get A Supreme Court Reprieve, Sort Of

Gang Today, Hair Tomorrow

The Suey Sing Boys of Oakland were a bunch of low-level Chinese-American thugs. Then 10 of them became high-fashion hairstylists.

The Chair From Abu Ghraib

When a Texas Rangers reliever threw a chair at a fan, the response was outrage. But was the outrage overdone?

Boogie for a New Millennium

Zakiya Hooker preserves the legacy of her father, blues legend John Lee Hooker, plans her own musical career -- and tries to keep tradition from suffocating both

Black Rage

The Coup just may be the greatest, angriest, most militant hip hop act around. So what's up with the Puff Daddy tour?

Tale of a Gun

Following one semiautomatic from manufacture to mayhem

Hundreds of suckers have paid this man $195 for the right to drive this Lamborghini for an hour. But that doesn't necessarily mean they'll ever drive it, because this man is the all-time, small-time ...

Dream Schemer

The Absolutely True, Somewhat Spurious and Totally Impossible

CONSPIRACIES BY THE BAY!!!