Discovery Channel out and out LIES about Oakland Gang Activity (Compton: renting, crime rate)

[18Montclair]

What else is new?

This is not South Central-what a joke.

10,000 Oakland gang members? Experts say unlikely - Inside Bay Area

10,000? What an outrageous exaggeration.

[E14]

i looked that up
bull**** authoritarian propaganda
the largest and by far most violent gang in oakland wears badges
taking large portions of peoples lives away for possessing small amounts of substances that make people feel good...

[BayDude]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

What else is new?

This is not South Central-what a joke.

10,000 Oakland gang members? Experts say unlikely - Inside Bay Area

10,000? What an outrageous exaggeration.

Now why would they "lie" about it? An anti-Oakland conspiracy?

ROLFMAO at some people here and on sfgate.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by BayDude

Now why would they "lie" about it? An anti-Oakland conspiracy?

Because if they stated the real numbers, either 800 or 2,000(Still an exaggeration btw)-neither of those would coincide with the stereotypes they already had cooked up in their small, ignorant, racist, classist minds.

That's why.

As far as gangs-Oakland is not Compton or South Central or Watts-never has been. We may have criminals but dying for a color is so Un-Oaklandlike.

ROLFMAO at some people here and on sfgate.

I wonder how funny it would be if the Discovery Channel did a show about SF having 10,000 Aids Cases.

(From the article)
The first segment of the two-part program (which will finish Monday) mentions the 10,000 gang members several times but does not cite a source. The narrator also says the number of gang members has increased tenfold in a decade,

So irresponsible and disrespectful.

[Tallysmom]

I suspect the truth is somewhere in between the two figures, of 2000 and 10,000. One of the things I think is we have a lot of young men who are way too willing to solve their problems with a gun and people who don't live here would automatically think gang related.

I actually live in the Killing Zone. In fact -- one of the houses they filmed cops swarming around in a fast montage shot is down at the bottom of my street... where -- surprise -- there has been gang activity.

I've had shootings all around me.

But I feel safe. I'm not involved in criminal activity, so that lets me out of a lot of crap that happens on the street. And we tend to keep to ourselves, and that removes the other part of getting caught up with what happens on the street.

I do rail against the people that have the knee jerk attitude about Oakland being a cesspool, because it isn't -- there is a lot of good here, but it is a city that has undeniablly big problems and big problem areas. But we need good people with jobs and lives to move here and help regentrify the place.

We need good schools and parents to develop good parenting skills to help their children learn because the schools can't do it alone.

We need a government in place that actually does their jobs instead of the crap we have in place now.

And you can scream from the rooftops all you like about how awful that documentary was -- but I live in those streets, and aside from the figures they quoted -- a lot of the other stuff was right on.

[bellalunatic]

Well, 10,000 does sound absurdly high...but it is a show made for entertainment.
I don't like the proliferation of entertainment parading around as a 'documentary' either. Misinformed, wether intentionally or accidentally is pathetic.
But sadly, this is the TV land world that we live in nowadays.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by Tallysmom

And you can scream from the rooftops all you like about how awful that documentary was -- but I live in those streets, and aside from the figures they quoted -- a lot of the other stuff was right on.

I will SCREAM from the rooftops about a program which says Oakland has 10,000 gangbangers. That is factually incorrect and makes a mockery of this city. It plays to stereotypes that are not true and serves absolutely no purpose but to perpetuate those stereotypes.

Furthermore you can scream from the rooftops all you like about how the other stuff was right on, but as of Sep 16, our homicide rate is down signifcantly from a year ago. In fact our overall crime rate is down signifcantly from a year ago.

I bet the show doesnt mention that.

[rah]

Most "gangs" in the bay are just people from the same block or project or neighborhood, who rep where they're from, and sell drugs or whatever. There's no initiation, organization or real structure involved, and the way you join one of those "gangs" is to actually be from there...much of hte gang violence is more like "neighborhood vs. neighborhood", than it is criminal organization vs. criminal organization (ex. Sunnydale vs. Lakeview in SF). The cops call these groups of people "gangs" and lump them in with the likes of the bloods and crips, but they're not really the same kind of thing....there are no bloods or crips in the Bay either (they tried expansion up here but were mostly very unsuccessful, as local "gangs" kicked them out...with the exception of just a couple sets that haven't been around now for years and years). The notable exceptions are the Nortenos and Surenos, and MS-13 and such, but aside from them, no one wears colors, and most violence in the Bay Area (in the black community at least) comes down to money/drugs/random arguments it seems...not all that much is actual "gang warfare."

Also, I've read that it's estimated that SF has around 3,000 gang members. Taking into account the fact that Oakland has half the population of SF, and for the most part has less actual crime in raw numbers (despite having a violent crime rate that's twice as high as SF), Oakland having 800-2,000 gang members does seem a lot more reasonable then 10,000.

Now other criminals/hustlers/drug dealers, etc. that's another story...but gangs just aren't that big in the Bay Area, outside of the latino community.

[18Montclair]

Originally Posted by rah

Now other criminals/hustlers/drug dealers, etc. that's another story...but gangs just aren't that big in the Bay Area, outside of the latino community.

Exactly, We have hustlers and drug dealers but gangs like that show portrays? No not really.

I think they have us confused with somewhere else. Like a Jailhouse.

[PeixeGato]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

What else is new?

This is not South Central-what a joke.

10,000 Oakland gang members? Experts say unlikely - Inside Bay Area

10,000? What an outrageous exaggeration.

I watched that show and I have to say, if I weren't a Bay Area resident, I'd be SCARED TO DEATH of ever setting foot in Oakland. Its a shame that a production company can produce a show for entertainment and masquerade it as a non-fiction documentary.

There should be a disclaimer at the beginning that says that "everything you are about to watch is based on scripted dramatizations and unsubstantiated data. None of the statistics or data we include in this program have been sourced from any credible agency or report and the viewer should do their own research before coming to any conclusions about the level of gang activity in Oakland."

They make it sound like the city of Oakland is a war zone where you take your life into your own hands if you decide to leave your house. And yes, nothing like another TV show to make you afraid of all black and latino men, even the ones that look like nice guys. After all, you just never know......