I peered out my kitchen window Sunday evening to locate a distinct popping sound in the distance and saw fireworks light up the sky about 2 miles from my home near Oakland's Lake Merritt.

At first I was glad it was not gunfire. But when I considered the violence that has hovered over the city like summer fog, it could just as well have been a signal flare and a call for help from East Oakland's besieged neighborhoods.

After last weekend's violence, which claimed the lives of three people including a 16-year-old boy, no one can deny that Oakland is in distress.

"We have shootings pretty much every day," said Sgt. Holly Joshi, a spokeswoman for the Oakland Police Department.

Last weekend was no different. The victims of deadly force included a 26-year-old woman, a 21-year-old man and teenager Najon Jackson. Four other victims were shot late Friday and early Saturday, authorities said.

Whatever rules used to apply on the street have apparently been suspended because women and children are now legitimate targets.

There have been 71 homicides in Oakland through the end of July, and 303 reported shootings, Joshi said - one of the highest counts in the past decade. The reports include shots fired at "cars, houses and people," she added.

As if on cue, nearly two dozen laid-off Oakland police officers returned to work Monday and will begin patrol duties after a week of reorientation, Joshi said.

They will spell officers who will form groups similar to the Crime Reduction Teams used by Oakland police in past years to supplement police presence in hot-spot crime areas. After more than a year without those police officers on the streets, there are lots of fires that need dousing around town.

Amid the mayhem, city officials are prepared to celebrate National Night Out tonight with a series of neighborhood gatherings. The events are aimed at promoting community-building and public safety.

But the sad reality is that the gunslinging criminals will observe the event only until the police leave. Then it's back to business.

Without enough police officers, the buffer that once existed between rival gangs and warring factions on the city's streets has been removed, said Dom Arotzarena, president of the Oakland Police Officers Association.

It's painfully clear that the practice of city leaders to siphon off a portion of every dollar for law enforcement to help social reform programs hasn't worked.

The city's Kids First Measure, approved by Oakland voters in 2009, requires that 3 percent of the city's general-fund budget be set aside for children's programs, but in the never-ending tug-of-war for the hearts and minds of Oakland's youth, the bad guys seem to be winning.

"I feel like it's gotten much worse and so many young people have been corrupted by the violence," said Erica McKissick, 17, who lives in East Oakland. "Gangbanging has become the thing to do.

"It's hard to say what you could do to change it," she said. "You'd have to change people, and that's a hard thing to do because a lot of the older people have been doing it for a long time," she said.

I know how McKissick feels. I've watched Oakland city officials attempt the same formulas again and again without positive results. It can be depressing.

Don't let McKissick's age throw you. She knows as much about the subject of human misery as any teenager should be allowed.

Two of her older brothers, Jesse McKissick and Diego Vasquez, died violent deaths before she turned 14 years old. Vasquez was involved with a gang and McKissick was mistaken for someone who was. They died seven months apart.