Shiver me timbers! Here’s something I didn’t see coming to an American city in 2023. The city of Oakland is now dealing with pirates.
As Oakland police grapple with rising burglaries, robberies and carjackings on land, residents on the water say they’re getting little help and are left on their own to chase out intruders.
Some have discussed arming themselves. Others have ventured out to reclaim their stolen property. Several bemoaned the lack of law enforcement response, saying it’s allowed crime to spiral and encouraged vigilantism. In recent months, a malaise has settled over the kitschy houseboats and lagoons, as boaters who sought an island lifestyle are suddenly finding themselves terrified…
Now, the harbors are losing business, with slips left vacant as people become reluctant to store boats at known burglary hot spots. Encampments sprawl along the shoreline, consisting of battered dinghies, inflatable rafts, and even a former U.S. Navy vessel that appeared to house several people before it sank in December. DeLong and others say they’ve become desperate.
“It’s almost the Wild West,” said Steve Meckfessel, managing investor at the Marina Village Yacht Harbor in Alameda. “It’s almost as if you were on a ship and there are pirates out there, and there’s no government, no one to protect you.”
The police chief says crime on the water only amounts to about 1% of the calls the police get but he’s sympathetic to the idea that people living on the water are right to be worried given that their backyard is open to anyone with a small boat.
The thieves steal from boats in the harbor and also from lock boxes onshore where owners keep supplies nearby. Because so few of the perpetrators are caught it’s hard to identify who is responsible but the locals say it’s a collection of homeless people living in illegal encampments along the water. They spread out at night and target “yacht clubs, sailing
centers and marinas.”
One shop that was recently hit repaired outboard motors. The thieves took tools, life rafts and other items, placed them on a floating piece of dock and towed the whole thing to a small flotilla of boats at a spot called Union Point. When the victims of the raid called police they were told police were too busy dealing with violent crime. The shop employees decided to confront the thieves themselves and when they called police again, four officers showed up and arrested one of the thieves.
A hearing on the problem was held last week and victims of the pirates made their case for more help.
“Piracy is the only way I can think of describing the situation,” [Jonathan] DeLong said at the meeting, conjuring scenes of night marauders who slink along the water on dilapidated boats…
Marina Village boat owner Marianne Armand choked back sobs and criticized the Oakland and Alameda police departments for what she saw as inaction, saying they do nothing even though residents have videos of thieves unloading stolen goods at a public dock in Alameda.
Whether or not you consider these people technically pirates is beside the point. They are part of an immediately recognizable type in the Bay Area, i.e. people who are probably addicts who have decided to make their way in the world by stealing from others. Instead of tent camps on the sidewalk, this group creates a flotilla of stolen boats to live on. Instead of robbing Walgreens and Target to get by they are stealing from boats and marinas. It’s the same type of fauna specialized for a slightly different habitat.
Until the city and the county decide to arrest a bunch of these pirates and make them walk the plank, they’ll just keep preying on decent people. What an embarrassment the Bay Area has become under progressive leadership.
