OAKLAND — It’s bad enough that the Oakland Raiders were demolished in the Super Bowl.
Now Oakland, which has spent years trying to shed its rough-and-tumble image, is dealing with negative publicity and at least $150,000 in police overtime costs from Sunday night’s post-game mayhem.
After the Raiders lost 48-21, hundreds of young people gathered in the streets Sunday night. Some threw rocks and bottles at passing cars or set small fires across East Oakland. Frustrated police — about 400 were on duty — responded by firing tear-gas, stingballs and wood cylinders into the unruly, roving bands of vandals. At least 85 people, many of them teenage boys, were arrested.
Oakland’s wild “sideshow” culture of speeding street racers added to the chaos, and fresh tire treads from drivers doing “doughnuts” mark dozens of intersections.
Monday, merchants along International Boulevard, the commercial corridor that runs from downtown to the San Leandro border, spent the morning sweeping up broken glass and shaking their heads.
“Our biggest damage is the broken windows,” said Arthur Whitmore, the district store manager of Kelly-Moore Paints at 49th and International. Whitmore learned that the store’s front windows had been smashed and paint stolen in a 4 a.m. phone call. “But the worst damage is to the city itself. What kind of opinion are people going to have of the city of Oakland?”
City officials were quick to point out that, despite hours of mayhem, there were no serious injuries. But three firefighters were hurt while trying to put out blazes; two were hit with bottles and had glass shards in their eyes, while another injured his wrist trying to extinguish a blaze at a McDonald’s restaurant.
Most of the fires were set to trash cans and cars. Police said three businesses were vandalized.
Many Oakland leaders said they were disappointed that so many of the revelers were juveniles intent on wreaking havoc and playing reckless games of cat-and-mouse with the police until early in the morning. They said the damage was not caused by Raiders fans upset that their team lost the Super Bowl, but by kids determined to turn the evening into an excuse for partying in the streets and causing mischief, particularly since similar disturbances erupted last week after the Raiders won the AFC championship.
“These were 12- to 16-year-old kids,” said Oakland Police Chief Richard Word, who personally arrested a 14-year-old boy for throwing rocks at passing cars. “Where were their parents? The Oakland Police Department is not a babysitter. These were young kids. At midnight on a school night, parents need to keep their kids at home.”
Word said that the melee cost his department at least $150,000 in overtime pay alone, at a time when the police face budget cuts and possible layoffs in the coming months.
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, who flew home from San Diego on Sunday night, met with merchants along International Boulevard on Monday. He supports the police and fire response to the disturbances and says problems were blown out of proportion by intense television news and media coverage.
“Don’t tar a city of 410,000 people with the activity of about 50 people,” said Brown through a spokesman. “Our understanding is that at least half of those who were arrested were not from Oakland.”
It was not clear Monday if the Raiders and the city will sponsor a parade or rally later in the week. City officials are waiting to hear from the Raiders about what kind of celebration, if any, they’d like to have. The Raiders did not
return phone calls seeking comment Monday.