[mejarc]

In my seventeen years living in Oakland, I've grown exasperated with the Sixties-leftover, anti-cop rhetoric that has left us with a disproportionately small police force. We voted in a measure to hire more officers, but lose some every year to retirement and attrition.

I really doubt mere straight employment would turn around the robbing creeps who gang up (usually three to a car--one to drive, the others to mug) on their victims. Thousands of other Oaklanders contend with desperate poverty without resorting to felonies. Until we have a fully staffed police force, though, we're all on our own.