West
This California city will stay in the 'doom loop' in 2024 as businesses flee and crime rises, resident warns
Burgeoning crime, struggling businesses and underfunded police have turned Oakland, California, into a “ghost town,” said a local safe neighborhoods advocate who believes the city’s decline is set to continue into 2024.
“We’re in a doom loop,” Seneca Scott, founder of Neighbors Together Oakland, a nonprofit focused on safety issues, told Fox News. “The doom loop means businesses leave because of the crime and problems, there’s less money to hire more police to solve the problem, and down you tumble.”
There have been over 14,500 motor vehicle thefts in Oakland this year, according to police data. That averages to nearly two thefts per hour. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
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“2024 is sadly going to continue the trajectory that we’re on now,” he continued, adding that Oakland will become “less livable and less safe.”
Violent crime in Oakland increased 22% this year, according to the most recently available police data, which also show a nearly 10% increase in commercial burglary. In September, over 200 business owners shut down their stores to strike against the government’s handling of public safety amid rising crime. The protest was held days after city officials admitted to missing a deadline to apply for state funding to fight retail theft.
COMMUNITY ADVOCATE WARNS OAKLAND WILL BE CAUGHT IN A ‘DOOM LOOP’ IN 2024:
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That same month, Oakland city leaders launched a grant program to provide funding for small business owners to hold events — like workout classes, musical performances and movie nights — to draw customers to local shops that have seen a decrease in patrons due to crime.
“Community safety is one of my administration’s top priorities, and this program will boost foot traffic and help our City create safe, welcoming, inclusive, and thriving communities,” Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao said.
Oakland police investigates a shooting. Robbery with a firearm is up 49% in Oakland this year, police data show. (Getty Images )
But Oakland is not thriving, Scott told Fox News.
“Oakland is now a ghost town, and people are scared to go outside,” he said. “So we’re hunkering down, and we’re sheltering in place due to the escalating violence and unsafety in our city.”
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The Oakland Police Department, meanwhile, has been without a head since February, when Thao fired then-Chief LeRonne Armstrong after an independent investigation found he mishandled a misconduct probe. On Wednesday, Thao rejected the police commission’s entire list of potential replacements, forcing the months-long process to restart.
And the defund the police movement led to more crime in Oakland, Scott previously told Fox News.
There have been over 14,500 reported motor vehicle thefts in Oakland, according to police data. On average, nearly two cars are stolen every hour in the city.
A BLM protester projects “Defund The Police” onto the Oakland Police Department in January 2023. (Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Further, lax prostitution laws have also led to “open-air sex trades and drug markets that would shock people,” Scott said. Earlier this year, sex workers were caught on camera working outside a Catholic school.
“So we’ve lost all rule of law in Oakland, which leads to a situation where you would think elected officials would change their course,” Scott told Fox News. He said that despite the rising crime, city officials’ approach to the problems remains unchanged.
“The only thing that has gotten better is that finally neighbors are waking up and organizing and getting ready for the 2024 election cycle to kick the crazy people out of office and restore,” Scott said. “All of these [problems] are results of failed progressive policies.”
Oakland’s City Hall did not respond to a request for comment.
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A federal appeals court on Friday struck down California’s ban on openly carrying guns across most of the state.
In a 2–1 decision, the San Francisco-based Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled California’s ban on open carry in counties with more than 200,000 people — covering roughly 95% of the state’s population — violates the Second Amendment, according to Reuters.
U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke, writing for the majority, said the ban conflicts with the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which requires gun regulations to be consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation,” Reuters reported.
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U.S. Circuit Judge Lawrence VanDyke appears in a video released by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals March 20, 2025. (9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals/Handout via Reuters)
“The historical record makes unmistakably plain that open carry is part of this Nation’s history and tradition,” VanDyke wrote. “It was clearly protected at the time of the founding and at the time of the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
VanDyke also noted that California previously allowed residents to openly carry holstered handguns for self-defense without penalty until 2012.
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A pistol is concealed in a belt. (iStock)
“That changed only when California enacted its urban open-carry ban barely over a decade ago in 2012,” he said. “In doing so, California joined a tiny minority of states to have adopted such severe restrictions on open carry.”
The decision overturned part of a 2023 ruling by a lower court that had dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2019 by gun owner Mark Baird, while rejecting his challenge to open-carry licensing in smaller counties, according to Reuters.
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A retail store in San Ramon, Calif., July 21, 2019. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
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In October, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and other gun groups said they were suing California over the state’s ban on Glock-style guns with features known as switches that allow them to be converted to fully automatic weapons.
The NRA was joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Second Amendment Foundation, Poway Weapons & Gear, and two NRA members in challenging the state’s ban.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
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San Francisco, CA
Philadelphia Eagles to play San Francisco 49ers in NFL playoffs. Here’s what you need to know.
The Philadelphia Eagles will begin the playoffs against the San Francisco 49ers in the wild-card round next weekend at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Birds (No. 3 seed) had a chance to earn the No. 2 seed with a win, but lost to the Washington Commanders in the regular season finale.
Here’s what you need to know about the matchup vs. the 49ers and more.
Which day will the Eagles and 49ers play?
The date and time of the wild-card round matchup between the Eagles and 49ers have yet to be announced, but playoff games are scheduled for Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
Two games will take place Saturday, three will happen Sunday and the final first-round matchup will be on Monday night.
Eagles and 49ers postseason history
The Eagles and 49ers have only met twice in postseason history, most recently in the NFC championship game in the 2022 season.
The Eagles won that game, 31-7, before falling to the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII. In that game, the 49ers were decimated at quarterback as Brock Purdy and Josh Johnson suffered injuries.
After Johnson exited, Purdy returned to the game in the third quarter, but he was unable to throw the football beyond a few yards. The injuries to San Francisco’s quarterbacks led to the NFL approving a rule change that allows teams to play an emergency quarterback if the starter and backup are injured.
The Eagles are 1-1 vs. San Francisco all-time in the playoffs. Philadelphia’s loss to the 49ers in the playoffs happened in the wild-card round in 1996.
The title game in the 2022 season between the Eagles and 49ers started a rivalry that boiled over into 2023.
In 2023, the 49ers traveled to Lincoln Financial Field in Week 13 and dominated the Eagles, 42-19. The loss started the infamous collapse for the Eagles to end the season as the Birds lost six of the final seven games, including the playoff exit vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The loss to the Niners in the 2023 season also featured Eagles security chief Dom DiSandro and then-49ers linebacker Dre Greenlaw being ejected from the game after a scuffle on the sideline.
The Eagles and 49ers haven’t played each other since the 2023 season.
How the Eagles and 49ers got here
The Eagles went 11-6 in the 2025 season and won the NFC East for the second consecutive year, which ended a 20-year stretch of the division not having a repeat winner.
The Niners had a chance to earn the No. 1 seed, but fell to the Seattle Seahawks Saturday night. The 49ers finished the year with a 12-5 record to earn the No. 6 seed.
DENVER — The Broncos have checked off their second goal of the season.
Denver officially clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs with Sunday’s 19-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers.
As the top seed, the Broncos will receive a first-round bye in the 2025 playoffs and will host their first playoff game of the year in the Divisional Round on Saturday, Jan. 17 or Sunday, Jan. 18 at Empower Field at Mile High.
The Broncos, the lone team in the AFC to receive a first-round bye, will host the lowest remaining seed in the AFC playoff field in the Divisional Round. Denver’s possible opponents for its playoff opener include the Texans, Bills, Chargers and the yet-to-be-determined winner of the AFC North. If the Broncos earn a win in the Divisional Round, they would also host the AFC Championship Game.
Denver finished the 2025 regular season with a 14-3 mark, which is tied for the most regular-season wins in franchise history. The Broncos earned the No. 1 seed over the Patriots (14-3) due to a better record in games against common opponents.
The Broncos are the No. 1 seed in the AFC for the first time since 2015, when they went on to win Super Bowl 50. Denver has earned the No. 1 seed for an AFC-best ninth time, and two of the Broncos’ three Super Bowl titles have come after earning the No. 1 seed. The Broncos advanced to the Super Bowl in six of the eight previous seasons in which Denver earned the top seed in the conference.
Broncos Head Coach Sean Payton has now led teams to the No. 1 seed on three occasions in his career, and he is one of five coaches to lead two different organizations to a No. 1 seed.
Bo Nix, meanwhile, became the fourth quarterback in franchise history to lead the organization to a No. 1 seed — joining Ring of Famers John Elway, Peyton Manning and Craig Morton.
Learn more about playoff tickets and suites by visiting DenverBroncos.com/Tickets
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