Someone shot Bobbie Sartain, 16, and her best friend, Raquel
Gerstel, 15. Their bodies were found near Brookdale Park in East
Oakland. The two girls were buried during the weekend. The same
day as Sartain's funeral, Michael Taylor, 24, was fatally shot
in the middle of the afternoon near Jack London Square in
Oakland -- also by a killer who is still on the loose.  In
police speak, these are "unrelated" homicides because the
victims did not know each other.  Yet they are very much related
in the overall scheme of the obscene carnage that has become a
normal occurrence in this city.  Since the first of the year,
there have been 120 homicides in Oakland, a city of fewer than
400,000 people. Most victims died in street shootings. Criminals
are shooting each other and innocent bystanders practically
every day. They are robbing people, burglarizing homes and
committing violent home invasions. The violence isn't just
happening in so-called bad neighborhoods, but all across the
city. People like my neighbors, who hav