Oakland Police deserve credit

There was no ceremony paying tribute to the century-old Oakland Police Department when the baton was passed from Oakland to Sutherlin, so I wanted to publicly thank and remember the countless individuals who worked for little or no pay over the years. In recent years, Oakland police officers had received more public criticism than their counterparts in other police agencies, thanks to a 15-year-old struggle between two community factions that used the police department as a political football. Special thanks to former Oakland Police Chief Dennis Denney, who was there the night my father died in 1992. In less than two minutes of the 911 call, Denney was pounding on my parents' front door and administered CPR to my father long before medical help arrived from Sutherlin. Special thanks to former Acting Oakland Police Chief Larry... [read full story]