Silence Frustrates Cops in Many Oakland Cases
The San Francisco Chronicle
On Aug. 21, Oakland registered its 71st homicide of the year when 38-year-old Robert Ashford was shot dead on a narrow side street. Ashford was presumably killed by the same carload of thugs he had just admonished for speeding through the neighborhood.
Although several people witnessed that East Oakland shooting, none of them is talking to police.
The killers remain at large.
As of Friday, Oakland’s murder rate has now climbed to 85. Only 1 in 3 cases has resulted in an arrest. The unsolved murders vex authorities, especially that of Ashford, the older brother of an Oakland police officer. Ashford’s death underscores a serious problem that may be contributing to Oakland’s murder rate: the inability to engage a public that is too afraid, too alienated or just too disenchanted to talk with police.
Witnesses are the key to solving and, in some cases, even deterring crime. Without them, our justice system breaks down.
The reluctance of witnesses can be attributed to many factors: from the ruthlessness of today’s assailants, particularly those in gangs, to the wariness of many residents about the ethics and efficacy of police.
“It sucks. It’s hard to get people to come forward,” said Oakland police Lt. Brian Thiem, head of its homicide division. “The vast majority of unsolved cases are ones where we don’t have witnesses.”
Thiem blames the problem mostly on the stigma of being labeled a “snitch” and the disdain it brings from not only the community, but sometimes even from people in law enforcement. Thiem should be applauded for outlawing the use of the word by his investigators and ordering them to treat witnesses with great respect.
But the problem is deeper and more complex than that. More and more, potential witnesses don’t believe the system will protect them or even effectively prosecute the culprits. They wonder if their names will really be concealed, or if their identities might be revealed during an interrogation with a suspect or through loose talk on the streets. They worry about their vulnerability in the invariably long lag time between arrest and trial.
In short, too many witnesses see themselves as easy prey for hoodlums who try to intimidate entire communities into silence.
Although Oakland offers a witness protection program, many potential witnesses don’t use it. Sometimes they don’t want to be uprooted from their jobs and communities, quite understandably. But more often, they simply don’t trust the police department that runs it.
“There is growing cynicism . . . less respect for the system and process,” said Alameda County Senior Deputy District Attorney Russ Giuentini. “As a prosecutor, we’re telling somebody to put their life on the line. You want to win cases but you don’t want to fill up body bags.”
Giuentini perhaps had the death of Chance Grundy in mind. Grundy, an eyewitness in an Oakland murder case, was shot to death on Jan. 27, two weeks before trial. A second witness in the case was killed on Feb. 13. Grundy’s family filed a $ 3.5 million lawsuit against the city, alleging that police failed to provide protection even though they overheard the man who orchestrated the slaying talk about it while in jail.
“There was no protection from the police, and when that gets back to the community, who else is going to stand up?” said Rev. Bob Jackson, a pastor in a part of East Oakland dotted with shrines at what used to be murder scenes. “A lot of people know a lot. But until you make them safe, what can they say?”
The crux of the problem, Jackson and others are convinced, is that many don’t see police as allies. Law enforcement credibility -- eroded by a history of zealous, sometimes harsh, policing in Oakland -- has been further depleted by a recent rash of department scandals.
With three officers on trial and a fourth a fugitive for alleging beating and framing people in West Oakland, two other officers were arrested for soliciting prostitution while on duty. At the time, cocaine, heroin and several hundred dollars were found in their police car.
Meanwhile, another officer was charged with 13 counts of having sex with two teenage girls. And earlier this year, a decorated narcotics officer was fired for lying and falsifying drug operation reports.
These and other incidents have undermined public confidence in law enforcement.
So police investigators are left struggling to forge alliances with the same people who accuse them of harassment, racial profiling and deceit. “In some communities, some cops are perceived as criminals as well. So people don’t know who to trust,” said Maya Harris West of PolicyLink, a nonprofit research group.
As author of a national study on police procedures, “Community-centered Policing: A Force for Change,” West charts several steps police departments can take to recapture community credibility -- starting with greater openness and oversight.
The reluctance of witnesses to come forward in this wave of Oakland murders shows that police-community relations is an essential element of public safety that is lacking in some neighborhoods. It takes a high level of respect, confidence and trust to elicit citizen cooperation when the stakes can be life and death.
It is not enough for a police department to say that witness protection is a priority. That message needs to get to the streets -- and, most important of all, it must be believed.