Rep. Barbara Lee meets with organizations fighting for public safety and violence prevention
OAKLAND, Calif. - Oakland city leaders say crime rates are down, and community violence prevention groups are part of the reason.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee visited with the organizations receiving federal funding in a roundtable discussion on Wednesday about public safety.
They sat down at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center in Chinatown and discussed ways to prevent crime and gun violence, while supporting social justice and public safety.
The roundtable discussion included public safety officials, community leaders, and non-profit organizations with boots on the ground combatting violence, including Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ).
"I want to be part of the work and I want to be part of the solution and not just leave my city in crumbles," said Michael Muscadine, a community violence interrupter with CURYJ. "We just do a lot of community outreaching, working with young folks formerly incarcerated or directly impacted and also folks that are coming home from incarceration."
The congresswoman led the discussion addressing their challenges.
"They all have a common goal, and that’s to make our community safer," she said.
Oakland Chinatown hosted the roundtable discussion to help strengthen relationships.
"We really thank her for taking the time to be here and for giving us the grants that we need to keep Chinatown safe," said Francis Lan, Board President for the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce.
It’s not just Chinatown, though. This was a chance to connect people from all over the East Bay.
"If you look at just about every criminal justice, juvenile justice, police accountability, school discipline reform legislation that’s passed in California in the last 12 or 13 years, our fingerprints are on it," said CURYJ Executive Director George Galvis.
Galvis said it was powerful to be able to meet with other groups doing similar work. "Oftentimes, a lot of our work can be hyperlocal and yet we’re dealing with the same issues as we are in Chinatown, as we are in Fruitvale, as we are in West Oakland and in other parts of her district and so unfortunately sometimes that work happens in silos."
It wasn’t about politics. Congresswoman Lee said this was a solutions-based conversation.
"One brother who is formerly incarcerated who now is a student at UC Berkeley and he told me that a lot of young people don’t know about the resources available," she said. "I’m saying ‘wow, if they could just get to them,’ so I asked him to develop a plan to get to me so I can figure out the best means of communication to these young people."
The groups said they appreciate the light shined on the positive work being done.
"We need more of that. We need more leaders in Washington, more leaders in the state level and even in the county to see what’s going on, cause we hear mostly about violence," said Muscadine.
Some of the other organizations there were Live Free USA, Kingmakers of Oakland and Peralta Community College, as well as city leaders and public safety officials from Alameda.
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