If you read the newspapers these days in the Bay Area, you’d think that the liquor store owners in West Oakland were responsible for Oakland’s crime problem. City leaders, who believe that liquor stores are magnets for the bad elements of the city, are leaning on store owners to change their inventory from cheap wine to broccoli. When you drive through West Oakland, there are many, many small independent markets and a noticeable absence of large chain supermarkets. There is no doubt that the amount of liquor being purchased and consumed in Oakland’s troubled neighborhoods is a problem, but it is the shop owners’ problem or the customer’s problems? In a typical Bay Area nanny-government approach to social problems, the government and community groups answer to the problem is to lean on the shop owners and, in some instances, shut down stores.
The new focus on liquor stores comes after two West Oakland stores were vandalized and then one set on fire about two weeks ago. Police believe that a group of men associated with a Black Muslim group which runs the Your Black Muslim Bakery and a few other businesses in Oakland took action against the stores (which are owned by fellow Muslims) because they are angered that Muslims are selling alcohol. Yusuf Bey IV, 19, the son of the late Black Muslim leader Yusuf Bey, was one of the men arrested for the crimes. Bey held a press conference yesterday at which he said, “These liquor stores are a big problem in our community. A lot of murders happen around these liquor stores.” He did not talk about the criminal charges pending against him.
I can understand how community groups, populated in part by people who live the neighborhoods and area church leaders, want to see the stores closed or changed. Crimes do happen around such places. However, even if the stores were gone, the neighborhood would not be greatly improved. How about starting with an increased police presence? How about families taking responsibility for the whereabouts and actions of the family members? In Oakland, it is nearly a given that when an arrest is made for a violent crime, the family denies that their family member was involved. Just last month, a man died while being arrested by the police. His mother and other family members claim that he was beaten to death by the police after they had in him handcuffs. The reality is that an autopsy showed that the man died because he choked on a bag of narcotics he swallowed (obviously, trying to hide it from the police).
City officials have asked for the neighborhood liquor stores to close earlier, post security cameras and improve exterior lighting. Many have agreed (others have closed or agreed to stop selling liquor). But the leader of a group that represents more than 150 local shop owners made a valid point in a recent interview with the Chronicle: "We cannot dictate what you drink and how you act when you drink it. We’ve made a big effort to provide more food, more household items and other items beside alcohol. But we’re all small businesses, and each shop is in a different situation."
The real answer to Oakland’s crime problems lies with improving local schools, ending dependency on government welfare and getting families to take responsibility for their family member’s behavior. These problems start at home. It’s time to put pressure on parents, not just shop owners, to take steps in solving the crime problems in their neighborhood.
This entry was posted
on Friday, December 9th, 2005 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.
