OAKLAND: T-shirts illustrate divide - 'Stop snitchin' stymies police trying to cut crime

I forget now, but who was the USF player that caused them to shut down their whole program for a couple of years? Raped some girl and ended up in the NBA for a few seasons.

Obviously they haven't learned their lesson.

Quentin Daley.....there were other reasons they shut down the program, but that was the final straw.

They've been running a clean program since 1987, but USF is under a lot of pressure to build a program equal to other Catholic schools like St. Joes, Xavier or Creighton, and to compete with Gonzaga in the league.

I hope the coach puts a stop to the thug-like clothing displays on the bench. What's wrong with wearing school colors?

Your idea is good.

Let's take it one step farther: the police should put out messages to the "communities" where this nonsense is evident and let the inhabitants know that they, the police, will no longer waste time in those areas where they are not welcome.

Let the idiots stew in their own perversity.

I moved out of Oakland last July - I had moved into an area that was relatively safe during the dot.com boom, but quickly resorted back to crack dealers, prostitutes and thugs within a year of moving there - and we were less than a mile from downtown.

It's just ugly there. The PD has severe budget issues, the cops are demoralized, the crime is so prevalent and common that things like car breakins and thefts are barely registered. The street i lived in had 4 cars stolen over one year, a car window or two broken every other day (mine twice), and home invasion is a fave in that part of town. Thugs openly sold crack at the 7-11 across the street, and waged all out warfare upon each other over the turf - and threatened anyone on our street who tried to complain or denied them spare change. The head dealer lived up the street, and routinely would show up with his cronies and beat up the crack heads who wandered our neighborhood (who often ended up in our backyard or basement of our apartment building...doing what? You don't want to know.). Someone was moving from our building, and put a couch on the street on the curb, ready to be loaded onto the van on the next trip. They went inside, and when they came out, a crack head was passed out on it. When they tried to get him off, he got belligerent and pulled a knife. The owners went inside, called the cops...who never showed up. They cops never showed up whenever we called about the druggies, or our cars getting broken into (we'd get a form in the mail for insurance). They never showed up when the neighbors had loud out of control parties on weeknights that would go past 1am. More and more of the better buildings that got built or renovated in the .com boom are being taken over by section 8, and they all now stink of urine and pot, and have trash everywhere. I desperately want an artist's live/work loft, as I'm an artist, but the areas they are in are rough, very rough (and now all the lofts are "gourmet" lofts with granite counters and such, and rent for $2000 a month, and you can't build...feh...don't get me started...). The only areas that i felt somewhat safe in, and that's from living there for 3 years, was the rich areas taht I could'nt afford - and even there you see bars on windows.

An Oakland cop told me, if a life isn't in immediate danger...they're busy. I can believe them. It's EVERWHERE. There are parts of town you do not go into, as a white person, ever, for any reason. They WILL shoot you. Every parking lot is a break in waiting to happen. Dealers are everywhere. Prostitutes are everywhere. Every neighborhood has it's own crackheads and beggars. The only "safe" place nearby was the pool hall frequented by the asian gangs. EVERYONE it seems is armed. I saw more guns pulled or displayed in the 3 years there, over the stupidest of things, like taking a parking spot. You havent lived until you've shopped for hard drives at CompUSA with thugs with gold teeth and bling up the ying yang.

These t-shirts are a sympton of things you can't even imagine. Oakland is so screwed up, there's very little I could imagine you could do to even begin cleaning it all up. Thugs rule downtown, the cops lost control a long, long, long time ago, and the shirts prove it. They operate with near impunity. They know the cops are swamped, and slow to respond (if at all).

That's why the cops spend more time busting suburban guys trolling for prostitutes than going after the dealers and thugs - it's too dangerous! And they take you car in Oakland, and auction it off. Just say "No Ho", as we used to say in the 'hood. It funds the Oakland PD, so they do it a lot. They also keep the rich, liberal enclaves in the hills somewhat cleaned up, altho theft is pretty bad there, too. Can't have the ex-hippies and lawyers upset, now.

It's a tradegy. Oakland has a long, rich, vibrant history, and if you saw what it's like today...there are old, old, old buildings and houses that is they were restored properly, would be breathtaking. It's right on the bay, on clear days you can see the Golden Gate, and the hills.

The cops already don't enter those neigborhoods unless they have to.

The shirts mean the thugs have won...and they know it.