.........But just as instructive to our discussion is Oakland’s sorry history with two other annual celebrations—Carijama and the Festival at the Lake.

Carijama—at North Oakland’s Mosswood Park—was a dance-and-music celebration of the city’s West Indian and African connection, while the Festival of the Lake—on the shores of Lake Merritt—was Oakland’s crown jewel of street festivals, bringing together all of Oakland’s diverse communities and constituencies under one big tent. At their height, both of these annual events were bursting at the seams, so popular it was often hard to find a spare spot to sit on the grass.

The operative words here are was and were. Both Carijama and the Festival At The Lake fell by almost identical causes—violent disruptions by African-American youth outside of the boundaries of the festivals, and after the respective festivals were shutting down for the evening. There are disagreements to this day as to the exact train of events of these disruptions—and the role of the Oakland Police in either stopping them or escalating them—but that’s a discussion for another day.

In any event, Oakland’s official response to the problems at Carijama and the Lake Festival were identical—limit their attraction to these “disruptive” African-American youth by limiting their attraction to everybody. The Lake Festival was moved from sunny June to who-knows-what-the-weather-will-be October, also coinciding with Yom Kippur, ensuring that much of our Jewish bretheren would not be in the mix, and further and predictably sending it to a quick end. Carijama was moved from its neighborhood home at expansive, grassy, family-friendly Mosswood Park to the more austere, concrete-surrounded enclosure of downtown’s Frank Ogawa Plaza, a move that both fatally sterilized the festival’s atmosphere and failed to keep out the “disruptive” black kids, thus doubly ensuring its demise.

I put the word “disruptive” in quotes in describing the African-American youth in the paragraph above because it has never been determined whether those kids came out deliberately to disrupt something they did not like—having participated in such activities myself in my time, I know that this can happen—or whether the disruptions may have flowed from other causes, such as those youth feeling left out of events taking place in their own communities.

This is more than a mere academic argument. Upon its resolution rests the future of Oakland’s economy and, more importantly, its soul.

Police Chief Richard Word, left Oakland to become the top law enforcement officer in Vacaville in November of 2004, said it was not unusual to see an increase in the number of complaints while a department works to implement a consent decree.

Word said it was a "good thing" that more people are coming forward to report problems, perhaps because they were more confident that their complaint would be taken seriously.

"Officers have to show restraint," Word said. "I'm dealing with the profanity and the lack of respect shown to some community members."

Joyce Hicks, executive director of the review board, said officials will better understand the increase once data for all of 2004 are collected.

"But there's definitely an uptick," Hicks said. "It could be that there is a greater awareness of the board. We've been holding more hearings and have more staff."  Oakland Tribune

Interim Oakland Police Chief Wayne Tucker agreed with the findings of a critical independent audit on police overtime spending, but disagreed with some of its cost-cutting recommendations.

"The audit presents lots of long-term opportunities for the (Oakland Police Department)," said Tucker, who was named to the post in February. source  May. 06, 2005 Contra Costa Times

Brunner said she met with Police Chief Richard Word on Tuesday and was hopeful that the festival could be held at yet another venue next year, if changes are made. Crowd control would be easier if the festival could be moved to less-busy parts of the city, Brunner said, suggesting Raimondi Park in West Oakland or Middle Harbor Shoreline Park at the Port of Oakland. She proposed that festival organizers monitor a youth "after-party" that would allow young people to focus their energies constructively.

Police Chief  Word is now thinking along those lines, suggesting adult chaperones that must stay until the event is cleared or a city-sponsored after-party that gives the young people someplace else to go.

"It's very disappointing they still haven't learned how to do crowd control using police officers instead of nonlethal weapons," said Councilwoman Jane Brunner. "The police chief said this would not happen again. It clearly points out that the Police Department needs another alternative mode for dealing with crowds."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/28/CARIJAMA.TMP

Oakland police disperse unruly revelers with projectiles
"This was the best way for us to disperse the crowd," police Lt. Dave Kozicki said. "We were able to break up the crowd without having our officers get into any fights.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/05/27/MOB.TMP

2003 April: Carijama in Limbo

It would be a damned shame if we let that happen to Carijama, which is a treasure. check for update