Kyung-Jin Lee

Hayward, San Jose, and Fremont joined more than 100 other cities across the country Thursday night to commemorate the Sikh temple killings in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Organizers say the idea was for all the temples to shine their lights collectively in a show of strength. 

Around 1,000 people came to support the victims and connect with their community. The candlelight vigil on the shores of Lake Elizabeth brought people out fropm all walks of the Sikh community – young professionals, monolingual immigrants and multi-generational families. 

When the Oakland Police Department put out a call for new recruits earlier this year, more than 2,000 people applied – mostly from outside of Oakland. The applicants live in cities in the outer East Bay and in San Francisco, but they also hail from as far away as Illinois and Florida.

With a Presidential election looming, the issue of the day is still the economy. California has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation, and that just counts people who are actively looking for work. It doesn’t include those who’ve been looking longer than four weeks, or the folks who are so discouraged that they’ve given up altogether.

Law enforcement agencies across the country have policies protecting people of color from being racially profiled.