8 arrested in Oakland crime crackdown

Oakland police arrested eight men late Wednesday and early Thursday whom they said were responsible for a spate of violence in East Oakland.

The eight men are members of gangs or cliques, authorities said, and were picked up as part of the city's Operation Ceasefire program, which seeks to stop shootings and killings in the city by asking known suspects to cease criminal activity or face arrest.

At a news conference Thursday, police would not identify the men or say exactly what charges they are facing. Police spokeswoman Officer Johnna Watson said the men are all violent criminals. A 14-year-old prostitute was also rescued, police said.

"Robbery, assault, pimping - we do know they have been involved in violent incidents," Watson said. "We know they have committed violent crimes and that they will continue to do so."

Reygan Harmon, a public safety adviser for Mayor Jean Quan and interim director of the Ceasefire program, said that none of the eight men participated in the Ceasefire call-in meetings where service providers offer support and police warn that further bloodshed will lead to intense police scrutiny.

But, she added, all the men should have known they were on law enforcement's radar.

"What they did after they made every arrest is they sat them down and told them, 'You got this attention because we called in members of your group earlier this year and yet you continue to engage in violence,' " she said.

"We wanted to tell them that so that when they go into the cells and they go into Santa Rita (Jail), they talk to each other and that message spreads, that 'I got locked up because of that Ceasefire thing.' "