Three Shot in Drive-by near Youth UpRising

The report on the Oakland Tribune website begins, "A drive-by shooting this afternoon near Castlemont High School left three young men wounded, police said." (Feb. 19, 2009)

That's one way to locate the shooting. However, Castlemont High School is adjacent to the Youth UpRising agency.

The Oakland city council voted Youth UpRising a guaranteed $1.5 million over five years from Measure Y taxes. No reporting or results are required for this money. Youth UpRising also gets hundreds of thousands of additional dollars every year for specific programs. These grants require reports but not results.

That's good for the officials who run Youth UpRising, because they have no solid results to report.

Yes, they do invite gutter rappers to their center, anointing them "career counselor."

Yes, they hire out their youth members for a music video glorifying sideshows.

Meanwhile, Oakland's mayor and city councilmembers refuse to address the police staffing crisis. Oakland has half a police department. Without arrests, there is not even the possibility of getting thugs into remedial social programs. Without the threat of law enforcement, wannabe pre-thugs drift into the game. What the heck, Youth UpRising glorifies the culture. Oh yes, the formal message is to avoid crime and get yourself a "career" trying to make it in the rap music industry. The actual message to savvy youth is the opposite.

The mayor backed police chief Wayne Tucker to the very end, even after Tucker resigned in disgrace. Why? Dellums enthused that Tucker embraces the philosophy of all carrot and practically no stick. (Hear him yourself.)

Councilmembers make political alliances with poverty pimps running social programs. Three young men are shot up. The poverty pimps and city officials watch while Oakland sinks deeper into violence, assaults, robberies, and muggings.