"As we remember the painful events from a year ago, let us make a profound, nonviolent statement based upon our commitment to justice and our passion for peace.

Let this moment be a moment where we continue to come together as one community and bring more peace to our streets and significant change in the coming new year. In January of this current year, during my State of the city speech and shortly after the tragic death of Oscar Grant, I challenged this city to reduce overall crime by 10 percent. Since that time our residents, our community partners, police officers and city staff have joined hands to form a strong front in the battle for peace.

As a result, I am proud to say that we have stepped up to the challenge and will meet that goal. This will be a direct result of our community partners providing more jobs for our youth, our police officers being deployed more efficiently, and our city putting forth more preventative measures to stop crime before it happens. While this is good news, we have a long way to go for sustained peace, because thousands of young men of color are dying all over America.

It’s time for us to further strengthen our partnerships with the federal and state governments to provide more resources for our fight for justice. To that end, let us work together and be the essence of solidarity. Let us continue to join our hands and hearts to ensure that our strength is not solely a means to an immediate end, but a comprehensive strive towards justice for all. My friends, change is necessary and you have that power to implement such change.

I wish you all a Happy New Year and look forward to working with you as we go forward. Together, we can do great things"

--Mayor Ron Dellums

This entry is part of our Oscar Grant Memorial Tribute. See the full series here.