The last three years have seen a notable spike in homicide and gun violence in the Bay Area. In 2005, San Francisco’s homicide rate was the highest it had been in more than 10 years, and Oakland’s first-half 2006 murder rates were 78% higher than first-half 2005 (the most recent reliable statistics). The past week has seen 5 different shootings in San Francisco’s highly integrated Western Addition, and several more in the primarily lower-class neighborhoods of Bayview and Hunters Point. While the San Francisco Police Department vociferously defends its arrest rate for violent crimes (one of the worst in the...