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A former Los Angeles cop who had allegedly warned he would target law enforcement in retribution for being fired is now suspected of shooting three officers early Thursday, killing one, The shootings -- which come a day after Irvine, California, police named Christopher Jordan Dorner as the suspect in a double slaying there Sunday be on the lookout for the onetime officer and Navy lieutenant. The manhunt stretched from Los Angeles to San Diego He worked for the LAPD from 2005 until 2008. Multiple law enforcement agencies linked Dorner, 33, to the shooting of two Riverside police officers in...

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan Involved in Car Crash: Police A car damaged in Sunday's accident involving Oakland Mayor Jean Quan. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan was involved in a car crash Sunday evening, police said. Oakland police said Quan was a driver in a two-car crash on 26th and Market streets at about 5:30 p.m. Police are investigating the accident, and they do not know who is at fault. But police said they have conflicting reports from witnesses about whether the mayor had the right of way. The mayor’s spokesman did not have a response as to whether or not Quan...

On more than one occasion I've heard politicians dredge up the old adage "You cannot arrest your way out" of a crime problem. In Oakland, it's apparently become city policy. There's been a precipitous decline in arrests in Oakland - a 44 percent drop from 2008 to 2011, according to a Chronicle investigation. And even as arrests have bottomed out, the city's crime rate has climbed in each of the past two years, including an overall 23 percent increase this year. One of the most startling statistics, the Police Department's homicide clearance rate, is particularly troubling. Through October, the department...

For a few moments last fall, West Oakland businessman Chris Hollis was filled with idealism as he attended Occupy Oakland's first gathering outside City Hall to protest an economic system he felt benefited the few to the detriment of the many. But within minutes, amid a mix of families and students, Hollis witnessed some participants stray from the focus on Wall Street and hurl vitriol at police. And within weeks, others would riot through downtown - and then justify their violence. "In an insanely short amount of time, they managed to turn what was basically a great movement for everybody...

Everyone who contributed to the violence and mayhem at Occupy Oakland protest marches should be held accountable - in one way or another - for their actions. Unfortunately, that's not how it works here in Oakland. On Friday, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan meted out punishment to 44 police officers for misconduct connected to Occupy demonstrations over the past year. The discipline ranges from recommendations to terminate two officers to 30-day suspensions, written reprimands and counseling. In comparison, 106 protesters have been charged with felonies and misdemeanors during all Occupy actions in Oakland, according to the Alameda County district attorney's...

OAKLAND -- A protest at City Hall that surprised both the Police Department and top city officials caused more than $12,000 in damage to public buildings and thousands more to private businesses, city officials said Monday. A day after about 200 protesters roamed downtown streets with no consequences, smashing windows of businesses and city offices, city officials were still trying to explain why no one was arrested and why police were unprepared. The protest was billed on Facebook as an anti-imperialist rally and march, timed to coincide with the 11th anniversary of the start of the U.S. war in Afghanistan....

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said Wednesday she takes full responsibility for incorrectly claiming for eight months that 90 percent of the city's homicides and shootings took place on 100 blocks.Quan is continuing to stand by her crime plan. The city's news release said that although the statistic was incorrect, "the premise of the public safety strategy is sound and has merit."

Oakland's sleight-of-hand play to sell the obsolete Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center back to the city for a quick $29 million may have backfired - leaving the cash-poor town with an even bigger deficit to eliminate.As you might recall, Mayor Jean Quan pushed through a deal to sell the old convention hall to the city's own Redevelopment Agency last summer - just before Sacramento eliminated such agencies and sucked their money into the state's ailing budget.The goal was to help erase the city's $58 million deficit for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Oakland thought it had beaten the deadline,...

It’s hard to remember a time when so many public officials in the Bay Area were caught in embarrassing situations or accused of misdeeds at the same time. Indeed, demands for resignations, whether coming from the press or the public, seem to have reached an unprecedented level. But not every transgression is equal, of course (although many of them are depressing). So in an effort to sort out which public official has behaved the worst, the Express staff decided it was time to do some head-to-head comparisons. And to make it a bit more interesting, we decided to do it...

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan isn't waiting to see if the recall drive against her qualifies for the ballot - she already has a well-oiled campaign up and running to keep her job. And with good reason. Joe Tuman, a San Francisco State political science professor and KPIX political analyst who placed fourth in the 2010 mayoral election, tells us that if the recall qualifies, "I would definitely run." Tuman's entry would offer Quan's opponents an alternative to the only other announced candidate so far, City Councilman and former mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente, whom some see as unelectable.So it...

Occupy Oakland activists have filed a lawsuit against Oakland and are seeking damages. The ACLU-backed suit argues that protesters are engaged in "peaceful expressive activity," while Oakland police have used "excessive force" that has inflicted "mental stress" on activists. The lawsuit also complains that police have not sufficiently warned activists before dispersal orders. Thus Occupiers "did not have an opportunity to gather their belongings and leave the camp without being arrested or harmed." Of course, participants are aware that when they trespass on others' property or block streets to keep people from getting to work that police are supposed to...

State of the City speeches tend to be long on optimism. No mayor stands up before a crowded council chamber and says that his city is going to the dogs -- even if it's the truth. Yet Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's speech Wednesday took the glass is half-full approach to new levels. When it was over, I wondered if we lived in the same city. "Oakland is on the rise," she proclaimed. "It's been a pretty good year, except for a few bumps." Excuse me? A few bumps? From August through December, three children -- ages 3, 23 months and...

The Occupy movement isn't the only Oakland organization without leadership. Anyone catch the Oakland City Council in action earlier this week? The council failed to pass a resolution calling on police to enforce all available laws to prevent another shutdown of the Port of Oakland or another violent demonstration. The seaport terminal has been shut down twice by Occupy Oakland protests since November. Council members Ignacio de la Fuente, Libby Schaaf, Jane Brunner and Desley Brooks voted in favor of the resolution, which also would have required Occupy protesters to obtain permits for their marches and rallies. But it did...

After a year of nearly non-stop crises, Mayor Jean Quan sought today to portray Oakland as "a resilient city" rebounding from the economic and political wreckage. In her first State of the City address, slated for 7 tonight, Quan plans to highlight the city's booming arts, culinary and cultural scenes, anticrime measures and some signs the city might be emerging from the economic morass. She met with some reporters this morning to talk about the city. "Despite all the bumps, this has actually not been a bad year for Oakland," she said. "The improvements are not fast, but they are...

Occupy Oakland is aptly named. When forces occupy a city, they know that occupied turf is not their home. They can maraud, loot, vandalize, abuse the locals, and then leave. They can treat other people's property as their own. The occupiers don't have to clean up after themselves. They don't have to worry about paying for the workers who clean up after them, either. Occupiers don't have to exert self-control. They can freely act upon their rage, while defenders of occupied territory must concentrate on protecting what others want to harm. Occupiers do not have to fear that they will...

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan said today that she is going to call national leaders of the Occupy Wall Street movement and implore them to disown Oakland's protest movement. Quan said Saturday's demonstration, where 400 protesters were arrested and City Hall was vandalized, showed that the contingent of protesters who have targeted Oakland were not as non-violent as they claim they are. "I plan to call some of the national leadership of Occupy this week to say that the Oakland group is not nonviolent and has not agreed to be nonviolent," Quan said in an interview on KCBS. "The national Occupy...

Oakland officials and Occupy protesters Sunday confronted the fallout from their continuing conflict, a fight that reignited Saturday with a chaotic, often violent day of demonstrations that resulted in at least 400 arrests. A day after Saturday's clashes, city officials took stock of the damage, which included injuries to three police officers and several protesters, as well as vandalism inside City Hall. There, dozens of protesters had broken in with a crowbar, grabbed California and U.S. flags, and ignited them on the front steps. "It's like a tantrum," Mayor Jean Quan said while displaying the damage inside the building, which...

Once again, Oakland is barreling into the pot frontier on its own. Federal officials have forced the shutdown of more than 200 medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California since fall, and the state Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a case that could throw the industry into chaos - but is that discouraging the city of Oaksterdam? Hardly. Oakland officials are planning to issue permits . . .

Mayor Jean Quan vowed Wednesday to quickly reform the scandal-plagued Oakland Police Department after a frustrated judge threatened a federal takeover if it fails to quickly make good on changes agreed to nine years ago. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said he "remains in disbelief" that the department has failed to adopt the reforms. Henderson's frustration with the pace of improvements was evident throughout a scathing five-page ruling issued Tuesday. "This department finds itself woefully behind its peers around the state and nation," he wrote. In his ruling, Henderson increased the oversight authority of a court-appointed monitor. Oakland Police Chief...

Oakland unveiled an austere budget Monday that calls for sweeping cuts to community favorites like Children's Fairyland and the Oakland Zoo but keeps police services intact. In all, more than $28 million will be sliced from the budget, mostly from the $388 million general fund. The cuts are due to the loss of redevelopment funds, which Oakland used to fund services and programs across the city. "It's not clean and neat. We wish it were," said Mayor Jean Quan. "For California's older, larger cities, like Oakland, losing these redevelopment funds has been very, very tough." The City Council will discuss...