by Kim Curtis, Associated Press
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Two years ago, the crime-ridden west Oakland neighborhood became engulfed in police scandal after a band of officers were accused of everything from beating suspects to planting drugs on innocent people.
Residents say police are being more careful these days, but they also say crime is as bad as ever since the scandal broke, derailing scores of prosecutions and leading to more than 17 civil rights suits by 115 people.
“There’s so much poverty, so many drugs. There’s an enormous problem to solve,” said Councilwoman Nancy Nadel. “We’ve seen the same guys dealing drugs on the same corners for years.”
The fired officers - Clarence “Chuck” Mabanag, Jude Siapno and Matthew Hornung - were to go on trial Tuesday for allegedly obstructing justice. A fourth officer and the alleged ringleader, Frank Vazquez, is believed to have fled to Mexico.
The four were turned in by Keith Batt, a rookie officer who described the officers randomly accosting suspects, handcuffing them and throwing them in patrol cars before questioning them.
Batt, who left the department after speaking up, said The Riders routinely beat suspects and concocted police reports.
Since then, the Oakland Police Department has set up a number of protections. Some residents and business owners say they notice a difference. Ellen Parkinson, who started the Oak Center Neighborhood Association in 1963, said police are “very sensitive, more sensitive than they were.”
“My main complaint is that there just aren’t enough officers,” Parkinson said. “The police should show themselves more often. They should make themselves visible more often and for a longer period. They should walk the beat and talk to the people on the street. Most of the time they just drive by.”
The department has more internal affairs investigators now, and more supervisors. The department also created an Office of Inspector General, an internal audit division, and has generally increased internal scrutiny, police spokesman George Phillips said.
For years, west Oakland had one of the highest crime rates in the state. Then-Mayor Jerry Brown was elected in 1998 and vowed to reduce crime by 20 percent. Though Brown has said The Riders were rogue cops, some critics have said officers are under too much pressure to produce arrests.
“There’s a general malaise on the part of a lot of patrol officers,” said Mike Rains, a lawyer who represents Mabanag. “I think a lot of officers now say, ‘Screw it.’ If we’re supposed to achieve this 20 percent crime reduction ... and if we’re going to lose our careers doing it ... it’s better to duck and cover.”
Violent crime dropped nearly 16 percent in Oakland from 1998 to 1999, more than twice the national average, and 19 percent more the following year. The economy was healthy and crime was falling across the country.
But it has started inching up again. Violent crime was up 10 percent from 2000 to 2001, Phillips said. And, on a recent weekend, there were six homicides in the city, three in west Oakland.
Phillips is hopeful the departmental changes not only will prevent future police misconduct, but help bring those numbers back down.
“We’ve adjusted the way we respond to crime,” he said. “We’re looking at the root of the problem, we’re not just responding to symptoms.”
Prosecutors have reviewed nearly 400 convictions in the 18 months before the four were taken off the streets in July 2000. About 90 cases, mostly drug-related, have been dismissed as a result.
“In a lot of those cases, I believe the person is guilty but has gotten a phenomenal break,” said Alameda County Deputy District Attorney David Hollister, who is prosecuting The Riders. “We’re not going to rely on the credibility of these officers.”
Some residents believe city officials have failed to address a deeper, department-wide problem.
Janice Stevenson, who accused Vazquez, Siapno and Mabanag of roughing her up and shooting her dog, says she moved because police were harassing her for joining a civil suit against the city.
“My 3-year-old granddaughter still gets scared every time she sees a police car,” she said. “She cries and still has nightmares about me being taken to jail.”
People United for a Better Oakland, or PUEBLO, a nonprofit organization that monitors police misconduct, said that except for a spike immediately after the Riders scandal broke, the number of complaints against officers has remained relatively stable over the past several years.
The group’s hotline averages two complaints a week, according to PUEBLO’s Maggie Aragon. And one out of five respondents to a recent survey felt they had been personally treated unfairly or discourteously by the Oakland Police Department in the past year.
“People in the community don’t get the perception that police are cleaning up their acts,” Aragon said. “People are really angry. You take away those Riders and four new ones pop up.”