City officials are reaching out to Oakland youth in an effort to fully implement Operation Ceasefire, which was adopted last year as the police department’s violent crime reduction strategy but is only now getting a dedicated team of officers.
The move comes after the shooting deaths Wednesday of 1½-year-old Drew Jackson and his father, Andrew Thomas, in East Oakland.
Yesterday afternoon, Mayor Jean Quan and interim Police Chief Sean Whent talked violence prevention with young Oakland residents. They announced a partnership with community development and leadership program Youth Uprising, aimed at instilling an investment in public safety among young people.
“The shooting of Andrew and his son, Drew, is another example that no one is coming to East Oakland to save us,” said Olis Simmons, founding CEO of Youth Uprising. “The solution to violence has to be from the young people who live here that are not only the victims but, sadly, often the perpetrators of violence.”
Developed in Boston in the mid-1990s, Operation Ceasefire is a multi-pronged approach to reducing gun and street violence. Under Ceasefire, police put gang members and groups they suspect of violence on notice that they’re cracking down on shootings, while also offering to connect them to city services.
Oakland has already hosted two of these meetings, Quan said, and is working on setting up a third.