Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf
Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

Oakland officials announced the full return of the city’s Ceasefire Strategy, which aims to reduce gun violence by encouraging potential offenders to put down the guns before they get arrested.

Four call-ins are planned for this year. Potential offenders are called in to ask them to change their lifestyle and accept services and life coaches designed to help them do that.

Twenty-six officers are currently on the Police Department’s Ceasefire unit and that will increase to full staffing at 32 by the end of the summer.

Oakland officials, including Mayor Libby Schaaf and Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, are also increasing the number and quality of notifications to potential offenders, increasing enforcement actions and asking the courts to change the bail policies for offenders.

“We believe that this holistic strategy is going to return Oakland to a place of peace and safety,” Schaaf said at a news conference.

— Keith Burbank in Oakland focuses on power of persuasion as it renews efforts to curb gun violence

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76 COMMENTS

  1. AKA “the UN approach.”
    Just ask Putin to leave Ukraine.
    Just ask Azov to stop abusing ethnic Russians.
    Just ask Epstein to stop diddling kids.
    Just ask the cartels to stop smuggling drugs.
    If quarterly call-ins don’t do the job maybe up it to bimonthly.

    We’re all so fond sanctions these days maybe sanction the gangs by stopping the flow of illegal drugs?

    • It’s a voluntary probation program before prison is needed. We know that gang violence is restricted to a relatively small pool of repeat offenders. If they can intercept youths who seem to be headed down that path and give them another way, lives can be spared (plus costs of trial, investigation, and incarceration). The most important part is finding the right life coaches. OFWGs and soccer moms don’t cut it. To get respect, the mentors need to be reformed gang members who served their time. The potential offenders need positive male role models, education, job training, drug treatment, hope, and life skills. The government education and welfare system didn’t prepare them for life, and, in many cases, caused the problems. Regular policing is still needed for the ones the program doesn’t work for and those already committing violence. Of course, the program can get screwed up. DC had a mentor who wasn’t reformed and got in a gunfight.

      • So “reformed” gang members/BS artists on the public payroll and voting demtard. Go it.

        The stupid is strong with anymouse. Or is just sarcastic.

      • Anymouse, Here is a RED HOT NEWS FLASH for you. Probation of any kind does not usually work. It is merely putting off the inevitable. Probation Officers are already snowed under with a heavy case load and you want to give them more?

        • Unfortunately Walt we need that delay of the inevitable otherwise we would have more prisoners than we could conceivably house with anything approaching a solvent budget. Mind you that was before bail reform and the close down without replacing prisons craze we have been in lately so open air “correction and rehabilitation” it is going to be barring some extreme changes to culture, laws, or economy.

        • SAFE, I have to disagree. Incarceration is a “shock” treatment for the first time offenders, even the second time. Believe it or not, we hae plenty of room in most states’ facilities to handle the numbers. Remember all those prisons we have closed, especially here in NYS?

          Again, we do not “reform” anyone. If the convict/offender is not willing to accept what the program offers and there are quite a few programs, it is not going to do much of anything except keep the convict busy. It is why we hae such a high recidivist rate. My Mom use to say, “You can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”. When I was just an officer at Green Haven, a Captain who was a lot smarter than some of the people above him, said, “We don’t reform anyone. We keep them (inmates) here until the judge or the parole board says they can go home. And then we get ’em back in a year or so.” He was 100% correct.

        • Walt I do agree that for youthful first time offenders as well as the honest first time fuckups that got caught a short prison term can straighten them out. You know from experience those are not the majority of what we have incarcerated and keep producing in ever increasing numbers. When I say we don’t have room it is beyond the physical packing, simply we could barely afford it back when you were still working and the economic shocks of 01, 07, and present have made things far worse for what we can afford to house in prisons, mental hospitals, and developmental disability homes all of which are an order of magnitude more expensive than probation. We could build the prisons and have space but we cannot afford to staff them let alone fill them which may be part of the reason for the bail reform and release/shutdown push.

          Oh and also spot on re reforming inmates/revolving door. It is a small percentage that actually learn anything and stay out and most of our programs are a spectacular waste of taxpayer money in terms of return on investment.

        • A judge I worked for once said that he wasn’t concerned about “rehabilitating” criminals that he sentenced. He said it was his experience that they either had decided to change their lifestyle before they got to the sentencing stage or they had not. His only purpose in sentencing was how long the convicted should be incarcerated away from the law abiding community for the crime(s) he or she had committed.

          Every time someone talks about the cost of incarcerating prisoners, they overlook the cost to society due to the criminals’ depredations upon the community. Yesterday the local cops busted a felon from the next town up the road for stealing a car. During the chase he slammed into somebody else’s car, damaging both of them. Of course he was on early release parole because he was a “non-violent” felon.

          So that is two vehicles damage. Oh, but they are covered by insurance so it doesn’t cost anybody except there insurance company. Folks who think that also believe in a fat guy bringing goodies around at night in December. No, the fat guy in your house is taking the goodies, not leaving them.

          Insurance companies raise rates to compensate for policy losses. That’s the way it works. In addition, there is the non-compensable loss of time taking the motor vehicles to the repair yard, yakking with the insurance adjuster on the phone, talking with the service writer, renting a car, etc etc etc. Perhaps having to appear in court to testify that you didn’t give the felon permission to driver your car Sunday afternoon. In addition, cop time, DA time, court time, probation department time. Those are all considerable expenses caused because “we can’t afford to keep him in prison.”

          I have always maintained that we can’t afford to let the criminal s.o.b.s run loose.

          A few years ago a husband and wife, incarcerated felons defense team had their bright, beautiful, community active teen-age daughter murdered. I surmised that he probably was just coming from their offices when he spotted her, abducted her and killed her. I wonder how much they would have been willing to pay to keep the s.o.b. in prison where he belonged. I also wondered whether they reconsidered their chosen field.

        • Old Lefty, I agree with most of what you wrote, but I disagree about insurance. We all wind up paying for that in the long and the short run. Insurance companies are in business to make money. They have to pay those claims for the money the received from their insured.

    • Like the UK police sending stern letters to criminals asking them to cease and desist.

      I wonder how many were returning covered in faeces?

    • It has, I blame near-continuous Cellphone Usage + CRT + NoScore Teeball.
      The Evil Triplets of Brain Damage.

    • This is from the JFPO website:

      “On the first day of October 2021, two Dodge Chargers circled the 1200 block of North Mason Avenue in Chicago around 10:30 a.m. Three individuals then leaped from the vehicles and opened fire at a brick house in which members of a rival gang were sheltering. The gang members inside the building soon started shooting back.

      “In the end, 70 shell casings were recovered from the crime scene; one man was killed, two more were wounded and five were arrested for murder and aggravated battery.

      “Despite allegedly possessing guns that were illegally modified into machine guns, according to reporting by the Chicago Sun-Times, all five of the men arrested were released back onto the Chicago streets without charges.

      “Kim Foxx, the state’s attorney for Cook County, Ill., dismissed the battle as “mutual combat,” a broad legal term used to describe a fight that two parties willingly engage in; the county also cited a “lack of evidence” despite the shootout having been caught on video.

      Yes, you heard that right: these dangerous gang members who blatantly opened fire and murdered in broad daylight were back on the streets three days later without having to face any charges.”

      Yes, Indeed! We need more gun legislation. We need that just one more piece of legislation against lawful gun owners in order to bring the carnage on the streets to an end.

      Funny, except for four years on active duty with the USMC where I had a semi-automatic .30-06 rifle in my wall locker for the whole of the four years, I have owned firearms since 1953. That’s 69 years for those who can’t do the math. In all that time the only time I have discharged a firearm at a human being was while on guard duty on Okinawa where I tried to apprehend an Okinawan who was pilfering on my post. Talk about a goat rope. Good thing for me the Okinawa turned tail and fled, otherwise he might have been able to insert my M-1 that the DIs had spent many hours instructing me on how to operate same in a body orifice. Rather than follow my orders which were to shoot to maim, I couldn’t see maiming some poor slob over some petty theft, so I cranked a round into the hill just beyond the fleeing Okinawa. Early reveille for the staff NCOs of the camp as it was their quarters that I was guarding. Ever see a bunch of staff NCOs in boondocks and skivvies holding their .45s in the semi-light of 0330-0400?

      Other than that one sanctioned event, have never even pointed a firearm at an human being. I did fake three guy out one time by acting as if I had a weapon in my belt. I was working late at my print shop and I noticed 3 guys hanging around on the other side of the ally in front of the building. As I left my building to go to my car they pushed off the wall they were leaning against and started to come toward me. In my best parade ground Battalion Sergeant Major voice I bellowed, “Halt! Don’t approach!” and moved my hand to my back and under my jacket. They skidded to a halt and the leader said, “Aww, just going to ask for a light.” “I don’t smoke and don’t have a light” I replied and continued on to my car, keeping my hand behind me under my jacket and my eyes on them. Were they really going to just ask for a light up close and personal rather than calling to me to ask if I had a light? I don’t know. But they had been hanging around there for a good half hour or more and seemed to have all the lights they needed for the butts they had been smoking. No, I wasn’t armed. The is the Peepuls Demonkratik Reubublik of Kallyfornicadia where subjects are not allowed weapons for self-protection. Only politicians, billionaires and A-list bollywood characters are allowed to carry weapons. James Olmos, after he had been threatened by Mexican mafia after he made a movie portraying a gang-banger tried to get a concealed permit. Now I don’t know about readers of this list, but I would take a threat by Mexican mafia to eliminate me seriously. Apparently the LA C.o.P. didn’t think it was a serious threat. Olmos couldn’t get a concealed permit. He didn’t realize he wasn’t considered a member of the elite. Tom Selleck was able to get a permit. Didn’t know anybody had made a threat on his life. Larry comosellama who was the male star in the TV series Dallas was able to get a permit. He used to host a fundraiser on his ranch in Ojai for the sheriff every year, so that made him eligible for a concealed carry permit. Olmos, not so much. Well, it turned out to be an idle threat because the last I heard Olmos was still alive. So either the Mexican mafia is really taking their time or it wasn’t real, but everybody I knew thought it was real.

  3. “Four call-ins are planned for this year. Potential offenders are called in to ask them to change their lifestyle and accept services and life coaches designed to help them do that.”

    Oakland official: “You can change your lifestyle, we will help you. We can provide services and life coaches to help you change.”

    “Potential” offender gang leader: “How much money do I get?”

    Oakland official: “How much money do you get now?”

    “Potential” offender gang leader: “About $10,000.00 a month.”

    Oakland official: “How do I change my life to get into your lifestyle?”

    • Possum,

      This quote from Dean Martin: “I once shook hands with Pat Boone. My whole right side went numb”.

      • Actually, the quote was “…and my whole right side sobered up”

        Sorry for the misquote.

        • 1969 or70?
          Evidently someone had gone through the schools files, certain individuals were given free recommended tickets to see “Cross and The Switchblade” . There were other young men and women from other surrounding schools as well as adults and some law enforcement. This was held in a cities municipal building threate. After the show Pat Boone had a seminar, ( law enforcement had conveniently stationed themselves by the exits , closer to the coffee and donuts I guess) complete with x gang members who had found Christ and turned their lives around.
          Speeches, preaches ,and a few songs then a lot of fake smiles, acknowledgment and hand shakes.
          After exiting the building and walking to the parking lot Wes started laughing, I said “What?”, he said ” LOOK !” and pointed to the tour bus Pat Boone and entroge had arrived in.
          The tires were slashed.

  6. I don’t know what the Mayor and Police Chief are smoking…whatever it is it’s some good $#!t

    • Montana, they, along with the demographic they most pander to, are filling their pipes, and ours, with the sweet and heady essence of that Nineteenth Amendment. Hear them roar…

  8. So, do you think Oakland PD has hired an actual scientist to measure the efficacy of this program? Oh yeah, I forgot, they would probably recruit that scientist from the Commiefornia university system, where politics has completely replaced the scientific method.

    • I took a couple of minutes to peruse the degrees available from UC Berkeley. I figure the person they hire to “validate” their Program will have (at least) the following “qualifications”:

      Political Science – PhD
      Public Policy – PhD
      Social Welfare – PhD
      Interdisciplinary Studies Field Major – BA (note: a Field Major is promotable to Full Colonel after completing a sufficiently bogus field study…)

      I was hoping that Berkeley offered a PhD in Political Gerrymandering…I couldn’t find it listed under that title. I believe that falls within an Independent Study Program.

  9. These utopians don’t want the police to do their job. But they also don’t want a law-abiding gun owner, to exercise their human right to defend their life with righteous violence. Not even for their weaker loved ones.

    Utopians are just as dangerous as serial rapist or serial killers. Because they will prevent you defending yourself against all criminals.

    • The true utopianists want your final moments to be along the edge of a mass grave. They’re quite open about this.

      What you’re seeing now is part of the plan to get you there.

  10. “Holistic” is the buzzword of dumb people of every stripe. They use it to mean literally anything they’d like, especially when they have no idea what they’re trying to say.

    • Tim,

      Yup. Here in our house, we are fans of natural medicine, but, we have learned to be suspicious of practitioners who advertise themselves as ‘holistic’. They are often one-trick ponies (“Follow this diet, exercise, cleanse your liver and you will be fine”) who get just as belligerent as medical doctors when their protocols don’t work.

      As my Mother-in-law used to say “You cannot even trust your own rear-end, anymore.”

      • You forgot high colonics. That is big in the holistic circles too. Also detoxifying by a variety of means.

  11. I mean, conceptually it could work. The question will there be follow through? In the article they claimed it reduced crime, but that was over 2 years ago, will Oakland DAs prosecute those who don’t reform?

    • Whatever happened to “round up the usual suspects”? Or offering a reward for showing up for a scam where they “catch a predator”?!? I miss those daze…

      • Congratulations! You’ve won a Samsung 75 inch TV with free surround sound just bring this email.

  13. These are problems of the mind, which of course controls a persons behavior. Sometimes the only way to change that behavior is to blow their brains out. Might be worth a try.

    • I read the new yorker article which was dated 2018 and the program predated the article. Sounds like the whole program went in the crapper in 2020.

      I read a book written by the instigator of a similar program in Baltimore way back when. There was success for a short while, although I can’t say that a three or six month drop in shootings should be considered a success and then Bal’more went right back to where they were before the start of the program.

      There is a saying, “you can take the black out of the hood but you can’t take the hood out of the black.” As evidence, a black, retired local superior court judge shot and killed his live in squeeze and then when the cops showed up shot and killed himself. Well, at least he saved the taxpayers of the county the cost of a lengthy trial and a stay in some sort of public facility for an extended period, so he should get kudos for that.

      It’s a lifestyle. Look at the Springer and Pouvich shows to see how they resort to primitive violence for any reason. Did you see Will Smith last night? See the quote above about blacks and the hood. And they don’t see anything wrong about acting out like that. They think it makes some kind of statement. Yes, it certainly does, indeed.

  15. From the article:
    “Since the pandemic began, gun violence has erupted again in Oakland, leading to levels only seen prior to 2012. Other cities across the country also saw violence increase during the pandemic.”

    Oh is that why crime increased? The pandemic? Nothing else happened in 2020, like say, I don’t know, a movement or something?

    Every failed idea and policy in the past couple of years is being blamed on Covid. Now they have Putin to add to the blame list.

    And remember, black people are only arming themselves because they’re scared of white supremacists. Another well-worn excuse.

  16. This is hysterical. Who in their right mind or any mind would think that a criminal is going to surrender his gun, submit to arrest and take their programs which don’t work to begin with?

        • To be fair we still live here but yeah got the hell out of Albany as soon as I could afford to move, reminds me too much of Wilmington before it got bad and started competing with Philly for crime.

        • SAFE, I moved up here to Central NY about 20 yrs ago so my son could play hockey. I have not regreted it. (NOT UTICA). The PD we have here is a NO NONSENSE department. Crime compared to other parts of the region is very low.

        • Describes the area I moved to as well, outside of Albany/Troy/Hudson most of the police do everything they can (and have the support of the community/prosecutors) to lock up criminals in spite of bail reform. Funny enough it doesn’t cover “attempted” commission of crimes which can be upgraded to the completed version before trial.

  17. Lamp is the light of your life. So much so that if he doesn’t post you do a creepy stalker post begging for his attention. Stalker Troll, taking it to a new level.

    • Lol writes the ‘man’ who stalks me like the pervy boomer ‘he’ is. I ain’t into you, old man 🖕🤡!

    • Lol writes the ‘man’ who stalks me like the pervy boomer ‘he’ is. I ain’t into you, old man 🖕🤡!

  18. This will actually increase the violence. Given the fact that most lawbreakers and drug abusers have a heightened sense of paranoia, the mere fact that someone meets with police is going to get them pegged as snitches, real or imagined. We all know what happens to snitches.

  19. Ceasefire works if it’s applied the way Boston did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s a combination of sending violent gang members to prison and assisting the one who want to get out of gang life. It worked so well that it was called the Boston Miracle. Simply asking gang member to be nice, without the associated carrot and stick, won’t work.

  21. easefire works if it’s applied the way Boston did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s a combination of sending violent gang members to prison and assisting the one who want to get out of gang life

    • A different program paid for by the NRA in Virginia prosecuted felons in possession of weapons and they got the eight year bottom or ten year bottom as appropriate and then were sent to a federal prison far from their homies where they were all on their own among other bad guys they didn’t know. Gun totting and gun crime dropped dramatically just buy the simple measure of sentencing felons to the sentence prescribed by law. Whodda thunk something as complicated as sentencing felons to prison for the minimum term prescribed by law would have such a salutary effect on gun crime?

  22. At what point does the Ceasefire officer show the doll to the gangster and ask him “where did the bad man touch you?”

  23. Oh yes, begging them not to shoot. That’s totally going to convince a criminal.

    Showing this kind of weakness is so pathetic. Criminals know they run these craphole cities.

  24. I don’t think “Libby” represent the true diversity of Oakland, Ca. RACIST

    Maybe she identifies as negro, a tranney, a donkey?

  25. called in , then put in a room and the door locked for sixty five years
    I wonder what the numbers are on success ratios. Defeating acoholism is pretty low and even more so with a younger person.
    If it saves one life.
    Although that may be the mantra the hard facts are economics.
    How much are they willing to spend on saving that one life?
    My guess would be however much money they can funnel for themselves before the program stops.
    If the Man’s involved its crooked

  27. Oh, c’mon — that mayor is so damn cute, who wouldn’t go along with this just for a chance to maybe shag her?

  28. “Four call-ins are planned for this year. Potential offenders are called in to ask them to change their lifestyle and accept services and life coaches designed to help them do that.”

    Just wondering, what do they do if the “potential offenders” say “NO”?

  29. The Bolshies had a similar program at one point, but probably more effective.

    It was geared towards weapon registration. Basically, you were to show up, show them what you had, they’d make a record of your arms and send you on your way. To combat crime, donchaknow?

    In reality, you put your weapons in a room and were told there was a document to sign in another room, then you could come back and get your stuff. When you walked through into the other room, which was soundproofed, you got shot in the brainbox, taken out the back door and tossed on a cart.

    When the cart was full the rubbish was taken away and a new cart was rolled into place.

    At the end of the day the Bolshies had a bunch of new weapons and fewer potential resistance fighters to deal with.

    The Germans had a similar kind of program. A soundproofed room that was part of a medical exam. When you stood against the wall to have your height measured the device moved a hidden notch in the wall that was attached to an orifice in the next room. A guy on the other side simply waited for the orifice to move and then stop, put a pistol to his side and the POW got shot in the back of the head.

    Beware any government facility with red painted floors and weirdly bad lighting.

  30. This is just another scam by our “leaders” to put money into their own pockets…..
    The sooner you realize that the sooner these people can be put in their restful place…..

  31. THIS HAS PROVEN TO WORK

    When FJB asked the afghans/talis/plo etc to just chill out and help America

    we allll saw how willing they were

    blm wouldnt be any different

  32. Kids- they are asking to require meetings with “potential offenders”, not felons or people with criminal histories, if I read the article correctly.

    So, what do “potential offenders” look like? Black gangstas, perhaps? Hispanic gang members? White conservative firearms owners?

    Sounds like theee Utopians have been watching “Minority Report” over and over again until they have it all memorized. In the mean time, there’s a little thing like the Bill of Rights, and, “you know… the thing…”.

    Ridiculous, but it makes them look like they’re doing something without having to actually confront the problem that everyone can see. Instead of “Minority Report”, perhaps they should check out something much more simple and direct: “The Emperor Has No Clothes”. Might just take a 10 year old to straighten out some of the woke adults.

  33. Just pay the potential offenders $15 an hour not to commit crimes based on 44-hour work week with overtime and a vacation every six months. Maybe with union representation as well.

  34. Hahaha, I love it. I could write a long comment about seasoned criminals making thousands per day, which is why this will not do anything, or I could sum it up with a quote from the movie Forest Gump, “stupid is as stupid does”.

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