Oakland deals
with post-game
melee Sunday
Dana Hull
San Jose Mercury-News (KRT)
OAKLAND — It's bad enough
that the Oakland Raiders were de
molished in the Super Bowl.
Now Oakland, which has spent
years trying to shed its rough-and
tumble image, is dealing with nega
tive publicity and at least $150,000
in police overtime costs from Sun
day night's post-game mayhem.
After the Raiders lost 48-21,
hundreds of young people gath
ered 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 van
dals. At least 85 people, many of
them teenage boys, were arrested.
Oakland's wild "sideshow” cul
ture of speeding street racers added
to the chaos, and fresh tire treads
from drivers doing “doughnuts”
mark dozens of intersections.
Monday, merchants along Inter
national 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 bro
ken windows,” said Arthur Whit
more, 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
"These were 12- to 16
year-old kids. Where
were their parents?"
Richard Word
Oakland Police Chief
with the police until early in the
morning. They said the damage
was not caused by Raiders fans
upset that their team lost the Su
per 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 ar
rested 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 pos
sible 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 peo
ple 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 com
ment Monday.
© 2003, San Jose Mercury News (San
Jose, Calif.). Distributed by Knight
Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
Danielle Hickey Emerald
Erin Miller (back) is part of a sibling duo on the club tennis team, while Harvey Rogers (hitting ball) is another Duck competitor.
Tennis
continued from page 9
having fun, cuts were made during
tryouts as the coordinators wanted
the team to have a competitive,
serious side.
“We want somebody that’s not
lazy,” Davis said. “Someone who
will take it seriously.”
“Tennis is a game where your
feet should never be still,” Ottum
said. “Never.”
Adding to the uniqueness of the
roster are the sibling duos of Tyler
and Nicholas Viles and Erin and
Beth Miller.
“(Tyler and Nicholas are) really
consistent and always working
hard,” Davis said. “They’re self-mo
tivated guys.”
“(Erin and Beth are) really
good,” Ottum said. “They’re the
most consistent players on the
(women’s) team.”
The team practices twice a week
on the indoor tennis courts in the
Student Recreation Center. Buller
said other schools are jealous of the
Ducks’ facilities.
“It’s a great complex,” Buller said.
“We’re really lucky to have it.”
Greg Smith, a coordinator and in
structor of racquet sports for the
University of Oregon, is the official
coach of the Ducks, but leaves most
of the duties up to the coordinators.
The Ducks’ ultimate goal is to
compete at the USTA’s national
tournament, but they will wait until
next year once they’ve gained expe
rience. This means, after all the
hard work that went into putting the
team together, the Ducks have one
thing to look forward to before next
year’s national tournament.
Hard work.
Jon Roetman is a freelance writer
for the Emerald.
Men's
continued from page 9
slicked-back coach, Steve Lavin.
The boys from Westwood still
haven’t turned things around, have
lost fiv§-straight and are 2-5 in
Pac-10 play. After losses over the
weekend to California and Stan
ford — two games in which the
Bruins never contended — UCLA
is right down there with Oregon
State and Washington State at the
bottom of the conference stand
ings. It doesn’t get easier for UCLA,
either, as the Bruins face Oregon
on Thursday, then USC and
Georgetown next week.
“It’s becoming familiar,” UCLA
rnmmmi
Adam Amato Emerald
Azella Perryman (44) and Stanford had their28-game Pac-10 winning streak broken by USC on Sunday. The Trojans won by three.
guard Cedric Bozeman told the Dai
ly Bruin after Saturday’s loss at Cal.
“We are just not getting it done. I
don’t know what it is. We just have
to figure it out.”
The Bruins will want to figure it
out soon, or Lavin will almost cer
tainly be out of a job come March.
Heee’s baaaack
Stanford, which has won five of
its last six Pac-10 games, didn’t
need a boost. But the Cardinal got
one anyway, when forward Justin
Davis — the conference’s top
rebounder — returned from a
knee injury that kept him out for
five games. With Davis back in the
lineup, the Cardinal pulled away
and beat USG on Saturday, moving
Stanford into sole possession of
third place in the conference.
“(Davis) got word right before
the game that he could go,” Stan
ford head coach Mike Montgomery
told the Stanford Daily. “I thought
he added some stability. I told
(the team) before the game that he
was going to be available. The
crowd responded, and I think the
kids responded.”
Stanford, currently one game
ahead of Oregon and Arizona State
in the conference standings
will head to Arizona along with Gal
this weekend.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemeraId.com.
Women's
continued from page 9
overall and 0-8 in Pac-10 play.
The women of WSU have not won
a game since Nov. 29,2001, against
Gonzaga. The Cougars haven’t had
a conference win since a victory
over Cal on Feb. 24, 2001.
But despite the fact that the
Cougars are winless, they are not
heartless.
“Sometimes the ball bounces the
other way,” WSU head coach Sherri
Murrell said after the loss to Oregon
State. “I told the kids that’s how life
is. You could be doing all the right
things and something happens and
it doesn’t go your way. But these
kids have a look in their eye; they
know how they can play. They are
getting themselves in position to
win, and it will happen.”
Polk storms onto
leaderboard
Shawntinice Polk has made her
presence known on the Pac-10 sta
tistics leaderboard as the starting
"You could be doing
all the right things
and something
happens and it doesn't
go your way "
Sherri Murrell
WSU head coach
center for Arizona.
The Wildcats are in a tie for
third with UCLA in the conference
standings, mostly because of the
redshirt freshman.
Polk is dominating in the statis
tics as she leads the conference in
rebounding with an 11.2 per game
average. She also ranks first in field
goal percentage at .615 on average.
The Hanford, California native
also sits in a comfortable second in
scoring, averaging 17.3 points per
game, and blocked shots, where she
earns 2.17 per game.
Contact the sports reporter
atjessethomas@dailyemerald.com.