Oakland police say protests hinder crime-fighting efforts

[KamaAina]

http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/matier-ross/article/Oakland-police-say-protests-hinder-crime-fighting-5972359.php

Oakland police who already lost Thanksgiving Day with their families so they could keep an eye on street protests could wind up spending Christmas Day on the job as well.

A group angered over the deaths of black men at the hands of police is circulating a flyer calling for a “No Time Off Christmas Day” march, starting at 5 p.m. at Broadway and 14th Street in downtown Oakland....

It may be a stretch to link the surge in violence to the protests, but Figueroa says redeploying officers is affecting the Police Department’s overall ability to fight crime....

The city’s community policing has been especially hard hit, as neighborhood cops have been routinely reassigned to protest duty.

Well, at least they can radio ahead for a

[davidsilver]

1. Too bad

Oh, sorry for the inconvenience but the First Amendment take priority here.

[KamaAina]

2. Thank you!

And welcome to DU!

[True Blue Door]

3. Intimidating peaceful protesters is clearly a higher priority

than doing legitimate police work.

[GreatGazoo]

4. Part of a nationwide effort to flip all this and claim the protests are the problem;

not choking people selling cigarettes
not stopping and frisking thousands of POC, and
not the 2 high profile grand juries that rubber stamped this mess.

[_Blue_]

5. How long until every police officer calls in sick for a week?

The lawlessness would be crippling. I bet that officers do something like this at least on a regional level, if not a national level, to show people that they're necessary.

[KamaAina]

7. You mean the "blue flu"?

That usually happens during labor disputes, since police officers do not have the right to strike.

[marmar]

6. they'll say anything to stifle dissent

[jwirr]

8. Stop chasing people for using MJ and stop enforcing these piddly little offenses that you have been

killing unarmed people for and maybe you can do some real police work. But they are going to need some training for real criminal investigations - they can't even get the little stuff right.

[Maedhros]

9. Fine - then enact real reforms like the protesters want

and get back to business.

That was easy.

[SoCalDem]

10. It's all about control, and being free to police-at-will

which in the extreme is what ISIL and any organization wants to be able to do. When they are thwarted or impeded, they get pissed and lash out... It does not ever occur to them that what they are doing is counterproductive, vicious or unwarranted.

"Civil" societies freely give authority to police to do the "clean up", and in un-civil societies, rebel renegades take the authority, but the end result is often similar..One group of people exerting their authority over lesser-thans...with force.. a force driven by ideologies and prejudices..

Too many in police ranks DO see some people in their community as their enemy..to brutalize at will, ans who take umbrage when their "efforts" are questioned.