RICHMOND, Calif. — At a packed hearing Tuesday night, council members of this bayside community of 100,000 considered declaring a state of emergency in hopes that it would bolster their demands for state and federal aid to stem a wave of gun violence sweeping the city.
Officials were also expected to approve $1.9 million in local expenditures to put more police officers on the street, mount hidden cameras in neighborhoods plagued by drug dealers, and seek injunctions against gang members.
Richmond, northeast of San Francisco, has been hammered by gun violence for years and recently was ranked by a Kansas-based research firm as the most dangerous city of its size in California and the 12th most dangerous in the nation.
The proposed state of emergency comes on the heels of 22 shootings in the last two weeks that left 8 people dead. Seventeen have been slain in Richmond this year.
The standing-room-only crowd filled the council chambers and the overflow of 200 to 300 more community members packed into a tent set up in a parking lot. The vast majority of those in attendance were in favor of the resolution, many carrying placards that said, "How many more must die?"
The Rev. Andre Shumake, minister of North Richmond Mission Baptist Church, urged the council to pass the resolution. "If we don't do something now, [the killings are] going to continue," he said. "There are too many African Americans and Latinos dying. And if you don't think there's an emergency, just contact the families."
A regional crime prevention effort that included federal and state participation succeeded in reducing Richmond's homicide rate in the late 1990s, said Councilwoman Maria Viramontes, who is leading the push for the declaration and other measures. The killings had fallen from a peak of more than 60 deaths a year in the early '90s to 35 last year. But the deaths are mounting once again.
"My job is to be an advocate for my people," said Viramontes, who served as executive director of the now-disbanded East Bay Public Safety Corridor Partnership.
"If I don't see the federal government paying attention anymore, and I see our state government neglecting us, then this [state of emergency] is an opportunity to get us back to the table, so we can make our case to them," she said.
The city recently dug out from an unexpected $35-million budget deficit, only to confront and eliminate a $21-million deficit in the current fiscal year. As a result, the police department is operating with 50 fewer sworn officers than the city charter permits.
