Very little has changed in Oakland over many decades. The liberals simply feel now the time is right to acknowledge that a problem might even exist. My parents had a friend and buisiness associate murdered there in cold blood. My brother was robbed at gunpoint there. I had my car broken into there. And all of this happened decades before the existance of FreeRepublic. Everyone in the surrounding community knows going there during the day is risky, and at night isn’t even contemplated by the rational. Blacks killing largely blacks over drugs, turf wars, gang affiliation etc has been going on there forever. The more things change as they say.
I have a friend who lived and worked in LA for a while nearly 20 years ago. The had to keep tabs on which gang territory they were working in and dress accordingly. Also try to avoid working on borders between territories.