Oakland Teen Shot During Birthday Party

A birthday is suppose to be a celebration of your forward progression, one chapter of life ending so that another can begin. I guess that's not the case if you live in the city of Oakland. Eric Toscano turned 18 on March 13, and didn't even make it two weeks before having his young and promising life ended. Saturday night during his belated birthday party he and three other teens were the victims of a drive by shooting. The teens ages 17, 18 and 19 were all wounded by the gunfire. Toscano was a senior at Skyline High School and was member of the football team as well. He played defensive end and had been accepted to college, now all this has been taken away from not only him but his family. Some would call this a "dream deferred", I rather would call it unecessary and unacceptable.




I didn't know Eric Toscano personally, but I did attend high school with his cousin Lizet. That is why I decided to write this blog, to send my condolences out to her family in a time of mourning. Secondly I wrote this blog to as a form of activism, to address a topic that I'm honestly tired of writing about. Is anybody else fed-up with these senseless murders? Which go unsolved while the people responsible sit back and get away with stealing. Not only have they stole a young man from his family, friends and teammates, but from the city and world also.




In one of my first OaklandLocal blogs I asked the question, When will all of this stop?. I'm still waiting on this answer, just as every other citizen of this city waits as well. It was reported that crime decreased 34% last year, definately positive news in a city that dearly needs it. We still have long way to go before Oakland can be a completely positive place. This weekend's Oakland Marathon was a bright spots, and with more events like it the city could be made over. But it gonna take a lot more to help the process, more than just Mayor Dellums or Police Chief Batts talking about fighting crime on the streets. It's going to take a real effort in the hearts and minds of the citizens to fix what could be a problem for future generation of Oaklanders.





It seems to be status quo in this city, that when something like this happens nothing comes from it. Police report no leads, and don't usually make any arrests. While the community pauses for a moment of slience and then continues on with whatever else is going on. All of this needs to change as well, there needs to be more an uproar. We need to hold city officials accountable for our streets not being safe for today's youth. We always hear the same tired solutions and excuses from Mayor Dellums, more police on the streets is clearly not the answer. Especially when it crystal clear that this senseless killers have no respect or value for human life. But if someone took a person in their family away then that would look for sympathy. They would want justice, they would want something to be done. Instead they sit back and watch the news reports and listen to crying family members as they to come to grips with the reality that they'll never see their loved one again.