Young man shot multiple times in San Pablo Park

1. This comment thread is now closed – Eds.

2. Whites, Asians, Hispanics, law abiding, yet victimized blacks, and every other ethnic make up have plenty to be frustrated with relating to these shootings and other violence coming from the thug/don’t snitch culture. There is no excuse or justification and it is not acceptable for a group to “return the favor” of frustration or disrespect with the violence you seem to condone (note proper usage of that word). Again, CA should allow its citizens to defend themselves, but that won’t change until we have larger numbers voting for it.

3. i just love how whenever its a very violent and serious matter the first thing you white people do is jump to stating all of these facts that you love to shoot out of your ass instead of lending a simple condolence to the victim? ‘prayers for this young man’ is all we need on a post like this. Take that other stuff to the city council meetings and bring it up instead of hiding behind computer screens. Take it up with the community, instead of hiding behind computer screens.

4. So the restrooms are known for drug dealing, and dealers have been operating there with impunity?
   Meanwhile, there was pressure to dissolve the Drug Task Force?

5. Like, none. I just read through all the comments to try and find what she’s talking about. Hope he recovers 100%!

6. I disagree about Strawberry Creek Park. We’ve worked hard to improve the park. The problem of drinking and illicit activity are difficult to police. We’ve been demanding that BPD get out of their cars and walk through the park once a night. Hell, once a week would be nice. SPP needs an army of citizens, at least 20, to organize and pull resources from Parks and BPD to slowly erode the comfort of criminals to hang out there. You need to make it uncomfortable for them to be there. Criminals need shadows to operate. The geography of SPP makes this very challenging. But don’t expect Moore to wave his magic want. That’s not how cities work.

7. That’s not how it works. The community (you and your neighbors) need to organize and demand Moore’s attention and resources. Talk to Ryan. He’s one of the good ones. He cares. And so does Moore, if you demand that he cares.

8. LOL.

   In no small part, Moore keeps getting re-elected because this post reflects the general quality of the criticisms leveled against him.

9. Just reflecting for a moment on the irony of someone who “frequently” drives through my neighborhood attempting to lecture me on what’s really going on down here.

10. You talk as if you’re a successful businessman. Where have you ever engaged in any business successfully other than website creation? Surely you are not suggesting your so-called educational and permaculture enterprises are successful? That is not what others say about you. How many people other than yourself have you ever actually paid? My bet is you could count them on one hand and you probably treated them as independent contractors rather than employees. The attitudes you’ve repeatedly expressed on Berkeleyside regarding ‘ROI’ explains why you’ve never managed anything other than a paper-thin presence on various websites. You’re interpersonal skills leave much to be desired.

11. Not Blaming Cops.. or in fact anyone… I am merely expressing what it feels like Losing a child to Violence .. It Truly about having Regard, Respect and Responsibility for Life …. As Human Being creatures, created by God. We should be responsible citizens, hold persons accountable for violent acts. Throughout America these Tragic acts of violence are occurring with increasing frequency and senselessness, destroying innocent lives devastating families and the communities we live in. Again. My prayer is that no one will ever have to suffer this pain I feel when you lose a kid and it never goes away!

12. There is a narrative in parts of the AA community that wants most if not all white people being against people of color no matter what, and labeled indifferent when an injustice occurs, or judgmental and meddlesome when they talk about problems of gun violence regardless of who perpetrates it on who.

    So people who want to talk about the violence, or injustices, and what can be done to solve them are rejected as outsiders by comments like yours on the basis of skin color.

    One dead giveaway of that attitude in real life is the absolute refusal to make eye contact with white folks and to only talk to them in a very rude and abrupt manner or to argue.

    It sounds like you just want things to remain the same, no outsiders, leave us alone, we are doing something. Perhaps the community wants to stay within itself and solve the problems on its own. But that is also a good way of ignoring the problem. When will the African American community realize that this is a much bigger issue than it cannot solve by itself? It needs to reach out to the whole community, regardless of skin color.

    Everyone, black or white is someone’s child. The grief people go through when they loose a loved one is staggering, and it is not smaller or bigger on the basis of skin color.

    If you are doing something to help the community deal with the gun violence, I am sure Berkeleyside will find a way to highlight your efforts in a story. You will need to elaborate on that though and not just be vague.

13. Thanks. We’ll see if his opposition has more gumption.

14. A cop is way, way way more valuable than a silicon valley techie.

15. What do you think “you white people in Berkeley” should be doing “to help to solve or fix any problems”? Is there anything “you white people’ could have done to stop this shooting?
    Anything you could have done yourself?
    All of Berkeley belongs to rich people now, but if all white people are the same to you it’s likely you didn’t even notice your lower middle class white neighbors being replaced as well. By and for whom do you think the old houses of south berkeley were originally built?

16. When the only tool that you know how to use is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a nail.

    As you and I both know, crime of all types has declined significantly in South and West Berkeley over the past two decades. I would not have raised my children on our block on the 1990s. Today, I really don’t worry about it. Neither do my neighbors. Much of this decline is due to national trends, but in our neighborhood, it’s also because of the hard work that we’ve done to coordinate more closely with BPD and to get better enforcement on our streets.

    I don’t really know what “street culture violence” is, but I wholeheartedly agree that a shooting in SPP is a pressing issue. There’s just not much that Berkeley can do to reduce gun violence to zero. In the U.S., we have decided that a certain level of gun violence in our cities is acceptable. In 2015, there were over 50,000 incidents of gun violence. Good old Berkeley Exceptionalism isn’t going to save us from that.

17. As usual, our conversation has devolved to the point of absurdity, with you retreating to hearsay, trivialities, and distant goalposts in the face the public record.

    But that’s fine. You have your own very interesting district election this year. I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

18. Darryl did not support Measure T in his direct mail campaign pieces, according to constituents, after he voted to put it on the ballot. He didn’t stomp for Measure T door to door or spend money on direct mail in support. He knew there was widespread opposition. A candidate who puts his job above his political convictions lacks the courage to be an effective crime fighter.

19. Not nearly as disrespectful and rude as some of the comments here

20. You do know that Albany and El Cerrito are separate cities and have their own police departments, right? The policing in Berkeley is a product of money spent and amount of crime + attitude of the populace. Who would want to take a job at low pay with lots of physical risk and second-guessing by “activists” if you defend a victim OR yourself rather than take a bullet? Be looked down on as a bully when it’s YOUR JOB to tell people what to do so the parks and streets stay safe? To bust your hump arresting people like aggressive panhandlers and have them just get out the minute you bring them in?

21. the funny thing is you blame cops but it ain’t the gentrified white people committing these crimes at your park…now is it?

22. Maybe you don’t live in District 2, but you’re simply wrong. Moore endorsed Measure T and campaigned for it. He was extensively quoted in local media supporting Measure T:

    http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/berkeley-at-a-crossroads/Content?oid=3359423&showFullText=true

    http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_21681582/development-defines-west-berkeley-council-race

    https://www.berkeleyside.org/2012/10/23/district-2-city-council-race-is-battleground-for-measure-t/

    Both of his opponents made his support for Measure T a major theme of their campaigns. It was essentially the only issue that Cabral campaigned on.

    And, as you note, despite strong opposition to Measure T in his district, he was still re-elected. If you speak with those constituents who voted for him, like me, many will tell you that their support is in large part due to his character.

23. last week we sponsored a budget referral to add 5 additional officers to our police department with an earmark for a bicycle patrol that would exclusively patrol our parks.

    https://www.berkeleyside.org/2016/05/17/breaking-shooting-in-san-pablo-park-one-victim/comment-page-1/#comment-2682378746

    Also, LOL.

24. Hi SB,

    My name is Ryan Lau, I am the legislative aide for Councilmember Darryl Moore. We have been quite active with a variety of neighborhood organizations over the years, including the San Pablo Neighborhood Council. Often times it is around issues of crime and we support their efforts in whatever way that we can. In fact, we have been working with a particular neighborhood group that has a variety of issues, many of which relate to crime. Out of our partnership with that neighborhood association, last week we sponsored a budget referral to add 5 additional officers to our police department with an earmark for a bicycle patrol that would exclusively patrol our parks. We believe that this will be an effective way to discourage/prevent inappropriate uses of our parks that can lead to incidents like this morning’s shooting. Additional, it would provide additional presence in our neighborhoods as the patrol goes from park to park. We’ve also been involved in a gun violence working group, which is a partnership between the school district, our police department, Berkeley Mental Health and nonprofit organizations. It is examining a variety of models for gun violence prevention that have demonstrated results. We’re still in the process of determining what strategies we would like to adopt and how to fund them, but it is a longer term strategy. In the meanwhile, we are asking the police department to have an additional presence near the Park to prevent any further incidents as they work the case. Please let me know if you have any additional questions or comments. Thanks.

    Sincerely,
    Ryan Lau
    Council Aide
    Councilmember Darryl Moore, District 2
    City of Berkeley
    2180 Milvia Street, 5th Floor
    Berkeley, CA 94704
    (510) 981-7120 (Voice)
    (510) 981-7122 (Fax)
    rlau@cityofberkeley.info

25. And sophisticated performance of that job is often a great deal tougher than working in the routinized world of virtual reality.

26. Your simplistic thought process (‘spend $X to get zero Y’) might well work in forming a virtual reality, but that thought process has little if any relevance in a world governed by and for the people.

27. Darryl supported Measure T but he didn’t make that public, to ensure his re-election. And so in many precincts, he won and Measure T lost. Measure T lost by a very few votes city wide but was heavily defeated in the Rosa Parks neighborhood, the precincts west of San Pablo Avenue closest to Aquatic Park. See Stephanie May’s Map:
    http://www.mizmay.com/2012/12/MeasureT.html#!/2012/12/MeasureT.html.
    One could argue that IF Darryl had supported Measure T, it might have won, which says something about his character.

28. This is so sad. When will black on black violence end? My heart goes out to the neighborhood who are also the victims here.

29. Latrice, I’m sorry people’s comments here have been so disrespectful and uncaring. I hope that your brother recovers quickly and that you have him back home soon.

30. Berkeley council member is not specified as a full-time position in the City Charter. Current salary is a little over $37K per year. This represents less than 50% of area median income, meaning that without another source of income, council members would qualify for subsidized housing here.

31. Please see my response to Doug F below. Obviously, I can’t speak to others’ experiences, but I’ve lived in a few Bay Area cities apart from Berkeley, and Moore has really been the most engaged and available local politician of whom I have been a constituent.

    Cabral finished a distant third in 2012. Moore’s more formidable opponent was Denisha DeLane, a young black woman who grew up in District 2. She had been Margaret Breland’s legislative aide, so she was well connected to local leadership. Also in 2012, Measure T was on the ballot, which galvanized Moore’s opposition. Moore still won by over 30 points. He’s very popular in the District.

32. I’ve never seen one at the park across the street from the station!

33. I agree with the need to fix all these social, ethnic racial, cultural and economic inequities but lousy schools? For the disadvantaged and troubled kids, you mean? Really?

    Public schools these days are pretty much a clearing house linking to all sorts of assistance and programs that try to fix problems well away from students’ school life. They also have various professionals who see kids one on one. Not that a school can be effective at solving the larger problems in the family or beyond. That needs a very serious commitment to a comprehensive social program with carrots and sticks, a-la Denmark.

    Schools in Berkeley do way more for disadvantaged students. That is the way it should be because elem school is when we stand any chance to help kids overcome those deep family-rooted problems.

    Even so, schools depart towards various new approaches that are billed as breakthroughs. They are trying restorative justice now but the main objective is to reduce the percentages of disadvantaged students who get into trouble by … wait for it, redefining what trouble is (not much). So kids that get bullied are asked to accept the reality that the bully has a hard life at home and that consequences are not appropriate for the bully. There, that will close the gap in those ugly statistics. Tell me which kids gets a more lousy school experience, the disadvantaged one, or the one whose parents are present,

34. And to laura’s point, see this current news item – note what Evans, a previous victim of the convict, testified in the penalty phase of the trial:

    https://www.berkeleyside.org/2016/05/17/penalty-trial-begins-in-berkeley-oakland-murder-case/

35. I see the BPD there everyday. I walk my dog there-They patrol all the time. Its unfair accusation and the cop hater culture is really uninformed and lazy

36. Prop 47, which passed with solid support from Berkeley, makes most drug crimes a misdemeanor. There will only be more drug dealing in Berkeley parks thanks to the Safe Schools and Streets Act (Prop. 47) The people decriminalized drug dealing, so the police have little recourse. They will focus on “real” crimes. Nobody acknowledges the connection between drugs and violence anymore. Until there’s drug related violence, then everyone wants to know where the police were. This is a societal problem, not a police problem.

37. Why is there a $300,000/year police officer at Berkeley High?! How in the world does that use of public resources make any sense at all? Good grief. Not social workers, not security guards, but a cop? You do realize we can put 10+ people in place for the same cost?

38. Latrice, so sorry to hear this tragedy has affected your family and harmed your brother. Don’t listen to people being ignorant and hurtful. I hope your brother recovers quickly and gets back to his family. Thoughts to your family.

39. I do not know what the shooting was all about. Whatever it was, it was not necessary to try to take any lives, or take a life. I am praying for you, your brother and family and friends. Be strong and stay prayerful. I hope the suspect is caught and punished.

40. The brotherhood of police officers (cops) have the same codes as the streets. They do not snitch on their own and if one does, there is retaliation. There is also in many cases retaliation against citizens who have reported their corruption. The codes are old, they date back to the first police service.

41. To Latrice: I hope your brother comes through all right. This is terrible.

    To my neighbors: I see hourly prowlers around SPP but I’ve never seen a beat cop walk the park. With all the kids at Francis Allbrier I wish they’d have someone walk through, meet the people, pet the dogs, and make people feel like maybe SPP isn’t the place for shootings and headcracking.

42. So, do you know who the other person was or the nature of your brother’s business with him?

43. Found an earlier Berkeleyside piece about that incident. Unfortunately, it was not followed up on.

    https://www.berkeleyside.org/2015/11/15/male-sustains-serious-head-injury-after-fight-in-berkeley-6-arrested/

    “…bleeding from his ears…”
    Dammit!

44. Dont respond to those kinds of people.

45. Prayers.

    How are things looking at the hospital? I’m sorry your family was effected by this senseless and inexcusable BS. My girlfriend was approached from behind by four teens in Berkeley at noon, beaten on the head with a crowbar, robbed, and left for dead in a pool of her own blood. She survived, thank goodness. This was 24 years ago. And only the closest call among countless friends and family.

46. I remember that. The victim suffered “life-threatening injuries.” I think it was actually a fight a block or two away from the park that was a continuation of an earlier altercation at the park. The names of the attackers were reported here on Berkeleyside. Then, inexplicably, they were released. I then googled their names and they all were (if I recall correctly) high school football stars in a program priming them for college recruitment.

47. Darryl has another full time job, which is the major reason he is AWOL from neighborhood concerns. However, he keeps running for the position and people keep voting for him.

48. Coordinated between our neighborhood group and BPD?

49. Cammy, I was born here in Berkeley in 1972. In those 44 years, any memory I have of people’s park is exactly as your description above. I’m not trying to defend its culture, but it has always been a place to go to score drugs or get mugged . This is nothing new.

50. Did u talk to the police that was my brother who was shot

51. I somewhat agree, but… The only way the drug cartels & gangs are going to dry up & blow away is when all drugs are decriminalized, legalized, & made available thru govt clinics much more cheaply than the street price. And addiction to hard stuff is made a medical matter. The harder you make it to get the hard stuff, the higher price goes, & the more desperate the addicts become. They account for at least 60% of all burglaries & robberies nationwide.

52. Thank you. Please tell the police every last detail of what you saw, if you haven’t already, so we can catch the shooter. You can do this anonymously if you need to:
    Bay Area Crime Stoppers (BACS) at (800)-222-TIPS (8477).

53. I’m another pretty content District 2 constituent. We’ve only been in the district for 8 years, having moved down from Wengraf’s district, but things have improved in our neighborhood pretty dramatically in that time. I give a lot of the credit for that to Moore. I think he’s been a great council member.

    Do remember the names of his competitors in 2012?

54. Beware the Berkeley Apologists.

55. This is where i might agree with you…how about the police get bonuses based on reduced crime levels? everyone else works at a performance based scale.

56. that’s just great…its because of the bathrooms…NO it’s because these kids do what ever they want in school and at home and when they become adults they have no idea how to assimilate into society.

57. This will only keep happening if we continue as a society to glorify thug life, allow open drug use, don’t hold individuals accountable (starting at BUSD), continue to look the other way when people commit crimes, and rally for shorter prison sentences for drug offenders, you are a fool if you think drugs were no way involved with this shooting, gangs and drugs go hand in hand together. congrats this is what ultra liberal thinking in Berkeley has accomplished…trust me they love it here!

58. You are correct about the gunshots in North Oakland. 22 gunshot incidents in 10 weeks. 1 murder and 2 shot plus multiple homes and cars hit by stray bullets.

59. What are you talking about? There is one liaison officer at Berkeley High and the remaining security staff are either school administrators or essentially security guards. That said, giving untrained people authority that is not intensively supervised is a recipe for disaster.

60. I was there and the man was very dark skinned wearing all black. He has to semi-autos, a fanny pack and a bag. He had just come out of the bathrooms with the victim, who I did not see. I believe it was drug related, because of bag and fanny pack. He was probably 6 to 6 1. The way he acted was as if the victim was armed with a gun or knife. He fired one shot, then back away 5 feet, then fired 3 to 5 more times. He then proceeded to run.

61. Rebuilding the bathrooms in the same location won’t help with this problem because there are no windows in the rec center that look out at the bathrooms.

62. I am sorry for your loss, and join with you in the hope that no one else suffers the pain of the loss of a child. I hope BPD finds the person(s) responsible.

63. I respectfully disagree… I have also lived in Moore’s district for 17 years and have been an active and vocal neighborhood advocate. I have found him inattentive and ineffective. There are so many small things he could have done over the years to make things better and he’s never chosen to act. I am so glad he will have competition in the next election. You can bet you’ll see him make an appearance after every shooting, but take action to make changes to prevent future incidents? Doubt it.

64. Ryan is very good at appeasing Moore’s constituents, but actually doing anything about the problems? Neither of them venture into that territory….

65. That’s because legislative aide is a full-time job, whereas council member is not.

66. That’s early in the morning for a shooting. Was this gang related I wonder? And baggy pants? You mean paints pulled down so the person’s underwear is showing, or just loose fitted pants? And light skinned meaning Caucasion or African American?

    And regarding police in Berkeley Parks (Berkeleymom’s comment). She’s right – but more to the point, I see very little police presence in general. I see more police out in El Cerrito and Albany. So what’s going on here? Recently I drove by People’s Park on Haste Street, and saw it was completely taken over by homeless camps, drug use, and questionable types in the bathroom. And a man who looked questionable was using the swing. So it’s a good thing it’s not called “children’s park” because clearly no parent would take their child there. And there were no children anywhere around, and no police. For those who defend it for its history – grow up. Times are a changing and clearly not for the better for most.

67. It’s not society and the systems but the immediate family. Lack of supervision, lack of role models. We live by the rules and the disciplines provided by mom and dad. Mother’s maxims and father’s example.

68. The bathrooms at SPP are slated to be renovated in 2017 at a cost of $450K as reported by Director Scott Ferris in the Feb. 2016.Parks and Waterfront Commission agenda;
    http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/Clerk/Commissions/Commissions__Parks_and_Waterfront_Commission.aspx
    Says the design is complete. Maybe the doors need to be oriented differently. Time to attend a commission meeting and speak up.

69. Ryan makes more as a legislative aide than Darryl makes as a Council person.

70. The Logic is strong in this one…
    /s

    How would we pay go about financing criminals and not in turn finance their criminality?

71. Vlad, I appreciate your desire to efficiently reduce crime. But your math needs to include all the crimes that are prevented, a number rather difficult to estimate. In other words, each officer could be preventing millions of crimes, both through their actual work and just by being a visible symbol of our society’s commitment to the rule of law). $300K a year could be a bargain.

72. three other people are running against him this time. it would be nice to hear if any of them propose anything different.

73. Meh. The young people involved in this madness have the same opportunities as everyone else. The same public schools with the same dedicated teachers and the same facilities. If they qualify, they can even eat two meals a day for free at school. If their families are disadvantaged, they can receive modest but adequate assistance for everything from food costs to rent subsidies. And if they can simply not go to jail while in high school and perform scholastically at an average level, there are amazing financial resources available in order to pay for the college education they are given special access to through affirmative action programs. I support whole-heartedly every program that provides the above, and would argue for more. But you’re kidding yourself if you think the appalling behavior among our young folks is largely due to them being picked on by society. They are picking on society, and too many of us deny them the respect of responding honestly. The character of our young people is corrupted far more thoroughly by influences immediate to their families and communities than by having to navigate the same world you and I do.

74. I’m in this park every week with my two toddlers and never see a police presence. Anyone in the neighborhood can tell you that there’s illegal activity and violence going on in this park. Why can’t there be officers patrolling more often?

75. What community and police mtgs are planned of the area? The recent uptick in gun violence in the neighborhood is not limited to Berkeley – in fact there have been more shootings in north oakland and emeryville 10 blocks away this year. I suggest an article that looks into this, as I heard that police last year predicated a rise in gang-related violence this year since a number of enemy gang members were being sprung from prison at the same time. The problem is bigger than it seems when you look at Berkeley numbers, which are bad enough.

76. That park was also the scene of the gang beating late last year that nearly killed the victim, with a skull fracture. I haven’t heard how much he’s been able to recover.

77. That’s why god invented security cameras; HD video & recording are very cheap now. And god forbid the city ever do something about security.

78. They don’t make $300k, not even close. And it doesn’t matter what they make anyway. These shootings will never end, they are not preventable. You hate the police and everyone who is familiar with Berkeleyside knows this already. Just go away.

79. I have lived in South Berkeley for 14 years. Darryl Moore has been EXCELLENT with our community. We have met with him several times, in person, for many different reasons. He has our backs!

80. I am not aware that Darryl Moore does anything of substance for the community.

81. Actually, it’s a joke at the expense of people who somehow think rent for existing dwellings will magically decline.

82. If you are serious and not trolling, this is dumb nonsense. No other word for it. Unless a police officer was standing there, what would they have done to prevent this? Be specific.

83. The bathrooms at San Pablo Park are oriented badly. The staff at the Frances Albrier Recreation Center at the park, can not see the bathroom from their building which is very close by. So, even if the rec center is staffed which it probably was at this time of day, there is no one able to keep an eye on the activities around the bathroom.

    By reputation, those bathrooms are used for drug transactions.

84. What a callous response, to joke about gun violence.

85. This is awful, both my kids go to daycares in the neighborhood that go to San Pablo Park in the morning. There are dozens of toddlers there.

86. And how would this shooting be prevented exactly?

87. At least rents might go down in the area for a short time. Although that’s probably not what affordable housing activists had in mind.

88. Are you kidding? This park is filled with babies and toddlers at this time of day. South Berkeley is going through some kind of insanity. Darryl Moore – time to do some community organizing.

89. So I gotta ask – which one of our $300k/year police officers is going to take a paycut or otherwise be penalized for failing to do their job and prevent this?

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