Arlene George, a 24-year-old woman from Oakland, California, was found dead on June 20, 2017. She was fatally shot in the early morning hours near 32nd and Adeline Streets. Authorities believe that George was shot while inside a vehicle and then transported to the 2800 block of Hannah Street, where her body was left in the roadway. This crime highlighted the brutality that has frequently characterized Oakland's homicide cases. Despite police investigations, the motivations behind her killing remained unclear, adding to the city's list of unsolved cases and the broader issue of violence in Oakland.
During 2017, Oakland experienced a total of 77 homicides, each of them reflecting a different aspect of the city's struggles with violence and community disintegration. Arlene George's death was part of a broader narrative of tragic losses that year, which led community members and activists to attempt to memorialize the victims and draw attention to the systemic challenges they faced. Many of these deaths, like that of George, were shrouded in ambiguity and went unresolved, contributing to the city's difficulty in combating its high murder rate. Community members planted white crosses at St. Columba Church in Oakland as a visual reminder of each person lost to violence, a gesture intended to underline the ongoing crisis of violent deaths in the city.
The coverage of George’s homicide by projects like "Counted: An Oakland Story" aimed to document the human stories behind these statistics, focusing on the personal lives of victims like George and the impact of their deaths on their families and communities. This comprehensive project sought to explore the context and consequences of each homicide, offering a glimpse into the broader social and economic conditions that have contributed to Oakland's persistent struggles with violence.
