Free Republic

Oakland, in the Jerry Brown years, practiced an unofficial policy of what might be called “community cleansing.” This is not to be confused with “ethnic cleansing,” the horrific activity in parts of, say, Eastern Europe or Central Africa where whole ethnic populations are violently and bloodily removed, either through exile or actual genocide. No, Mr. Brown’s “community cleansing” policies were far more genteel, involving little violence (though some—that’s what the whole Oakland Riders police scandal was about) and targeting not whole ethnic groups, but rather portions of the population that were considered as being “undesirables.” Part of this involved harassment,...

Armed robbers terrorized Oakland restaurants and small businesses in three separate crime sprees over the past year. The first wave targeted Asian eateries and struck during the 2007 holiday season. The second arrived last spring and was more indiscriminate. The third struck in July and August. All three made newspaper headlines and led television newscasts, shining a spotlight on the city's out-of-control crime problem and the Oakland Police Department's apparent inability to cope with it. In fact, the department's public response to the takeover robberies was both odd and illuminating. The department's mantra for dealing with the city's crime spike...

OAKLAND -- A former Oakland police officer acquitted of charges that he framed people as a member of "the Riders" has filed a $5 million federal civil-rights lawsuit, saying he was slandered. The lawsuit filed against the city by Matt Hornung, 34, is the latest chapter in a saga that began six years ago when four members of what authorities called a rogue band of officers were accused of routinely planting evidence and beating suspects in West Oakland. Two criminal trials ended in mistrials. Jurors acquitted Hornung on several counts in the first trial, and another jury cleared him of...

For nearly five years they have been vilified in court, in public and in the media. Their nickname -- the Riders -- has become synonymous with rogue cops. Now, after twice successfully fending off criminal charges, the three former officers at the center of Oakland's biggest police scandal in decades want to patrol the city's streets once again. "Some people think I'm crazy, but I just want my old job back, the same shift and everything,'' Jude Siapno, 36, one of two former Riders defendants told The Chronicle on Friday in his first interview since they were charged in 2000....

Oakland, Calif. (AP) -- A jury on Thursday acquitted three former police officers on several counts against them, while deadlocking on others, involving charges they assaulted people, falsified reports and conspired to obstruct justice while working the night beat in West Oakland. Clarence "Chuck" Mabanag, 39, Matthew Hornung, 33, and Jude Siapno, 36, were accused of committing more than a dozen felonies during a two-week period in the summer of 2000. Mabanag was acquitted Thursday on one count of making false statements in police reports. The jury deadlocked on three other false statement counts and a charge of filing a...