Oakland leaders' priorities gone to pot Chip Johnson On the East Bay

Mayor Quan (left, with US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood) refused to even take questions last week during a news conference at the Port of Oakland about a shooting outside the multiscreen movie theater at Jack London Square on July 8 that left five people wounded. less Mayor Quan (left, with US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood) refused to even take questions last week during a news conference at the Port of Oakland about a shooting outside the multiscreen movie theater ... more Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Oakland leaders' priorities gone to pot 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

In Oakland City Hall, gun violence in the streets apparently rates a distant second to a real emergency: the threatened closure of a medical marijuana dispensary.

Over the past week and a half, seven people have been slain and 17 injured in shootings - but that apparently isn't enough carnage to warrant a response from Oakland's elected leadership. Federal action to close Harborside Health Center, however, prompted a swift response. Quick. Circle the wagons against the real bad guys.

When the closure of a pot club gets an immediate response from City Hall, but a killing each day for a week doesn't, it casts serious doubts on the city's ability to get its priorities straight.

Last Thursday, in response to federal action to close Harborside, at-large Oakland City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan joined a news conference organized by supporters and activists of Harborside to condemn the feds' action. She said some of her council colleagues - and Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker - sent statements in support of the dispensary.

However, there was no response from city officials to the violent crime spike, which began July 6. But perhaps it's because they took their cues from the top.

Oakland Mayor Jean Quan refused to even take questions last week about a shooting outside the multiscreen movie theater at Jack London Square on July 8 that left five people wounded.

Apparently, that shooting didn't raise eyebrows at City Hall, but it sure scared the heck out of the rest of us. That particular movie theater is a spot most Oakland residents have visited a time or two - many with their kids in tow.

It's pretty hard to take seriously the mayor's commitment to reducing violent crime when she's ducking basic questions about crime in the city. It makes her look disingenuous and weak and ineffective.

But the mayor is not alone. There are few City Council members willing to speak honestly about the stark impact of crime on Oakland's fortunes - or what is needed to turn things around.

Councilmen Larry Reid and Ignacio De La Fuente have tried to initiate curfews and gang injunctions, but rarely with support from colleagues.

It's safer, and politically easier, to take a symbolic stand on a populist issue over which local government has no control than it is to confront the responsibilities and challenges before them.

It's safe - and a cop-out.

In Oakland, taking a stance as a law-and-order politician would be considered a political risk. Gov. Jerry Brown did it in the first of his two terms as Oakland's mayor. But then he's hardly your average, everyday local politician.

Kaplan said her only reason for attending the Thursday press conference in support of the medical marijuana dispensary was based on the city's dire need for more law enforcement resources.

"My entire purpose was not to say we should spend more time on the dispensaries, but that those resources (including federal law enforcement) need to be focused on stopping the gun violence and stopping the gun flow coming in from out of state," Kaplan said.

The press conference was the right forum because it drew large numbers of media that community meetings do not, Kaplan said.

If Kaplan, her colleagues or Quan could ever build up the courage to announce plans to close nonessential services and marshal all those resources to strike back at crime, every news organization in the Bay Area would show up.

If Oakland's elected officials could come to terms on even a single collective plan to address the intractable and growing crime problem, instead of making excuses, they would have everyone's attention.

There are only a few constants in Oakland. Violent crime is one of them, and government's inability to adequately address it is another.

Here's a clue: The whole idea is for government to push anticrime measures that aid and comfort Oakland residents - and not its politicians.