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Crime In The Oakland Communities
"On top of that, the police don’t seem to do anything, and just let kids kill themselves off"
By Jason Odoms
17 year old Jason Odoms lives in Oakland, California, and has seen his share of violence. Now he says within the last few years it has got out of control. He thinks he knows some ways to stop some of the violence in Oakland. Jason also writes about how the police treat him just because he is an African-American male.
Oakland is known for many things such as Ghost Riding (hanging out of the car while it’s in motion), turf dancing and weird slang. But now the way we think of having fun has been reduced to simple stereotypes we have to shed. If we don’t change the way other people see us, we’re in danger of being viewed as nothing more than crazy young people. How we try to change our image can determine how our future will look. I don’t want to be a victim of guilt by association, or perceived as a no-good troublemaker.
I personally have had experience with out of control teens and adults in Oakland.
When I ride around in a car with my friends, it seems I always see crimes being committed, like drugs, grand theft auto or even stores being robbed in the middle of the day. These crimes are wrong and need to stop. When I have kids, I don’t want them to witness any of these things.
All the arguing and fighting between people, young and old, at clubs and other venues can only result in one thing: violence. This is only so because of the alcohol use at the clubs. There are way too many people who don’t know what they’re doing and can’t control themselves when they are under the influence.
On top of that, the police don’t seem to do anything, and just let kids kill themselves off. I feel if the police get paid they should do their job. If they don’t, all this violence will kill more innocent people.
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