Recognition: Better late than never?

Richmond honors Tent City leaders

By John Geluardi
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Mayor Gayle McLaughlin honored a group of community members this week for their grass-roots efforts to reduce violence in some of Richmond's most troubled neighborhoods.

At Tuesday's council meeting, McLaughlin and Councilman Nat Bates presented 17 Tent City organizers with the Martin Luther King Richmond Community Leadership Award.

"I felt this was such an incredible initiative, and it meant something that these community members were willing to risk their lives and safety and put in their time and energy into making a statement that we need peace, and we need to stop the violence," McLaughlin said. "The leaders of this effort needed to be recognized."

On Sept. 25, several community members, frustrated by a surge in shootings, decided to take a stand. They pitched a tent in a parking lot near Fourth Street and Macdonald Avenue, a part of town long tyrannized by crime, violence and heartbreak.

Word of the effort quickly spread, and the first tent was barely up before people began arriving with contributions of food, blankets and good will. The frail urban outpost touched a deep chord, and the lone tent became an expression of a battered community's weariness and hope.

Within a few days, more tents were pitched, and then another Tent City went up in North Richmond's Shields-Reid Park. Then two more popped up, one in Martin Luther King Memorial Park and another in John F. Kennedy Park. In all, the Tent City protest lasted 37 days, with many community members camping out the entire time.

Organizers said the Tent Cities had communitywide impact that resulted in fewer gang-related street killings. While the Tent Cities were standing, there were seven homicides in Richmond, but only two were rivalry-based street killings. In the 10 days before the first tent was pitched, there had been six such killings.

The Tent Cities caught the attention of the media, and they were visited by a steady line of elected officials including U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez. Kaiser hospital provided hot meals twice a week, and Wal-Mart supplied tents and cooking equipment. Local small business CJ's Barbecue & Fish supported the effort from the first day with food and equipment.

"We realized if things were going to get better, it was going to be up to us," said the Rev. Charles Newsome, who pitched the first tent near the spot where one of his cousins had been gunned down. "The community asked the youngsters to put the guns down and come together and talk. It's time for us to come together in this city."

Since the Tent Cities came down Nov. 1, organizers have worked to keep the Tent City spirit alive. Many have been regulars at City Council meetings and have organized to advocate for better street lighting and youth programs. Last week, they advocated unsuccessfully for Cortland "Corky" Boozè, a Tent City organizer, to be appointed to the City Council.

"Moving forward, we want the momentum of Tent City to carry forward," said the Rev. Andre Shumake. "It is important the city continues to support Tent City's grass-roots community activism."

Reach John Geluardi at 510-262-2787 or jgeluardi@cctimes.com.

tent city honorees

Recipients of the Martin Luther King Richmond Community Leadership and Service Award

The Rev. Charles Newsome

The Rev. Andre Shumake

Freddie Jackson

Cortland "Corky" Boozè

Robert Brown

Albert Lee

Wilma Miller

Jackie Thompson

Garland Harper

Stephan Cowans

John Wayne

Artesia Johnson

James Cash

Donald Seals

Felicia Haywood

Norman Walker

Patrice Boykin

For more information about Tent City, contact the Richmond Improvement Association at 510-860-3681.

UPDATE: Road rage foolishness

The Tazer doesn't know quite what to say about this criminal disregard for life...

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Passenger describes road rage
RICHMOND: Woman's boyfriend, who was driving, was critically hurt in Monday shooting

By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

Whatever insult the gunman perceived, it will never match the injury he dealt.

The owner of a black Lexus coupe wants the shooter to know how wrong he was Monday afternoon, when his decision during a driving dispute totaled her new, yet-to-be-insured car and nearly killed her boyfriend.

"When it first started happening, I thought it was just kids acting stupid ... but even for kids, they were being aggressive," said the woman, who asked that the Times withhold her identity because she is afraid of her attackers.

"What if my kids were in the car? What if my little brother (in the back seat) was sitting a little more to the side?"

Detectives continued to investigate the road-rage shooting that critically injured the woman's 34-year-old boyfriend about 3 p.m. Monday on San Pablo Avenue, and they urged anyone who witnessed the crime to call.

"You wouldn't think someone would open fire on the busiest street in Richmond during one of the busiest times of day," the woman said Wednesday. "Are you telling me that nobody got the license plate? That nobody else saw anything?"

The victim bought her car so recently, she only had driven it three times before. Last week, she took it to the Department of Motor Vehicles to be registered, she said.

Her boyfriend was driving her to work Monday, and they had just picked up her brother from his job, when a white, full-sized van making an illegal U-turn almost hit their car on Vale Road in San Pablo.

Her boyfriend shouted something at the other driver. The two men in the van then "looked at us all crazy," the woman said.

The van began driving erratically, chasing the Lexus and swerving around it. They turned south on San Pablo Avenue and drove about a half-mile to the intersection at Esmond Avenue in Richmond when the passenger in the van leaned out the window and pumped several rounds into the rear driver's side of the Lexus.

One passed through the car into the back of the driver, who then lost the ability to move his foot from the accelerator.

"I had to take his foot off the accelerator" and hit the brakes, the woman said. The car ran aground on the curb near the intersection of San Pablo and Clinton Avenues, about three blocks from the shooting, where it began leaking gasoline.

The shooting victim should make a full recovery, the woman said. But at the moment, she is without a car, without her boyfriend and without justice.

"Those guys need to be locked up," she said.

Richmond police Detective Mike Rood agrees. While police are following leads in the case, he said Wednesday that every tip helps bring them closer to the gunmen.

It was the second such road-rage shooting police are investigating in the area in less than a week. Last Thursday, a gunman critically injured a 23-year-old Sacramento man test-driving a sport utility vehicle from a local dealership on Interstate 80 near the McBryde Avenue exit.

In Monday's shooting, the van was a white, full-sized vehicle, probably of American manufacture. It had custom, 20-inch chrome rims, including on a fifth wheel attached to the back.

The victim said the driver was a white or Latino man with a round face who wore a dark-colored baseball cap and a white T-shirt.

The shooter, who sat in the passenger seat, was a Latino man with a dark complexion or a black man with a light complexion, the victim said, with a thin face and pronounced chin. He had wavy dark hair that he wore in a pony tail and wore a dark-colored baseball cap askew on his head, covering part of his face. He also wore a dark-colored jacket with patches on it.

Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.

HOW TO HELP
Richmond police ask anyone with information about Monday's shooting on San Pablo Avenue to call Detective Mike Rood at 510-620-6625.

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Honking seems to be the catalyst in the I-80 incident. The boyfriend yelling seems to be it for this one. Still, neither justifies violence as a response, and the Tazer hopes the thugs are apprehended before they can do this again.

What's next? Perceiving the use of blinkers as a prelude to getting cut off? Windshield sprayers as an insult to a paint job?

Auto safety may not mean personal safety

The Tazer remembers well a quaint old driver's ed film wherein the instructor liberally honked his way through LA. At a parked motorist who was about to exit, beep. At a motorist who was pointing out of a driveway, beep. At a motorist that was contemplating a right on red, beep. At motorist after other motorist for the purpose of announcing his presence, beep. At darn near everything on that pulldown movie screen, beep.

Fast forward to today, and you'd think that the car horn was more than the equivalent of "The Bird" and some angry words. It's supposed to be a safety device to call attention when just eyesight won't cut it, but nowadays it seems more like a liability...

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Driver critical after Richmond shooting

By Karl Fischer
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

A driver who honked at a van on San Pablo Avenue went to the hospital in critical condition Monday after the other party fired several rounds into his car.

The victim, a 34-year-old man, pulled out of the parking lot of a business heading south on San Pablo about 3 p.m., police said.

Near the corner of San Pablo and Esmond Avenue, the driver became frustrated with a white, full-size van with silver rims sitting ahead of it in a turn lane.

So he honked.

"We're not entirely sure of the sequence of events at this point," Richmond police Sgt. Allwyn Brown said. "So we're not sure what the motive was. All possibilities are open."

If police find that road rage fueled the shooting, it would be the second time in four days that a driver used a firearm to vent anger while driving in the area.

On Thursday night, police investigated a shooting on Interstate 80 near the McBryde Avenue exit that left a 23-year-old Sacramento man critically injured. He remained in critical condition Monday, police said.

In that case, the victim was test-driving a vehicle from an El Cerrito auto dealership with a salesman in the passenger seat when a sport utility vehicle cut him off on the freeway. He honked, and police say the salesman shrugged at the suspect vehicle when it pulled alongside.

The victim's car flipped on the freeway after the shooting. Police found what they believe was the suspect's vehicle abandoned in the unincorporated Tara Hills neighborhood Friday morning.

In Monday's incident, Police say the victim's black Lexus passed the van in a right-hand lane near the intersection and drew gunfire. At least one round struck the driver in the upper body, Lt. Mark Gagan said.

The victim drove about three blocks south on San Pablo before crashing into the west curb in front of a business near the corner of Clinton Avenue. Authorities evacuated nearby buildings because the Lexus began leaking gas, police said, but Richmond firefighters quickly alleviated the danger.

Two passengers in the car were not hurt, Gagan said. Paramedics flew the driver to a regional trauma center, where he was reported in critical condition.

Reach Karl Fischer at 510-262-2728 or kfischer@cctimes.com.