Yesterday began for me with an email from a trusted friend. “You’re going to get contacted by a reporter. He’s writing a story about how Mayor Lee didn’t show up at Wednesday’s memorial in honor of fallen OPD officers. Nor did anyone from the City Council.”
That whetted my appetite. I hadn’t known there was to be an event, or that the Mayor hadn’t gone. It didn’t surprise me, though, given the negative attitude toward cops that stains this city.
But first, I thought, I’d better validate the information. I turned to Google AI. (Yes, I freely admit I use it.) “Did Mayor Lee attend the memorial for Fallen Officers on May 6?”
Here’s how Google AI responded, quote:
Attendance at the Ceremony
· Official Remarks: Mayor Lee spoke alongside Interim Chief James Beere, where she praised the "act of courage and commitment" shown by those who serve Oakland.
· The Memorial Wall: She joined the families of the fallen at the marble memorial wall to witness the reading of the Roll Call of Heroes.
Well, that seemed like that. I emailed my source back, and he replied, “Absolutely not true.” It’s times like these that try a journalist’s soul. Although I respect my source a great deal, and he’s as tied in to Oakland, Bay Area and California politics as anyone, I couldn’t proceed with an interview without being absolutely certain of the facts. So I reached out to the Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA), which sponsored the event, and to the Mayor’s Office, where a secretary said she’d be sure to get my query to “the right person.”
I also emailed Zac Unger to ask why he hadn’t attended; I would have expected him to, as a former Firefighter and now City Council member. He got right back to me. “I wasn’t invited! I didn’t even know about it. I would definitely have gone if I’d known.” And I reached out to Darwin BondGraham, the talented young reporter at Oaklandside, to ask if he intended to report on what I considered to be a major lapse in responsibility for Lee and the Council—if it were true they hadn’t attended.
Darwin asked me, sensibly, “Were they invited?”
Meanwhile, the erstwhile reporter called me (I will not identify the newspaper). How did I feel, as the founder of the Coalition for a Better Oakland, about Lee not going such an important event? I could tell the reporter was young and hungry for a good story.
“Look,” I explained, “I can’t possible say until I’ve determined whether or not she attended.”
He was determined. “Well, how would you feel if it turns out that she didn’t?”
“I’m not going to speculate. Reporters have to stick to the facts. I can’t wander into hypotheticals. Sorry.”
He understood, and said he’d do his own digging. We promised to keep each other abreast of what we learned. I’m always glad to help a young journalist.
Things now speeded up. I got a call back from OPOA. They explained they had not invited the Mayor or anyone from the City Council. I asked why not. “We wanted to keep this a small event, for the families.” That was understandable. Had OPOA made it a large event, I’m pretty sure I would have been invited—and I certainly would have gone to honor the 55 OPD officers who have died in the line of duty.
To sum up this long story, OPOA never invited the Mayor or the City Council. My friend, who wanted me to talk to the reporter, had erred, or somehow misunderstood; he assumed the invitations had been extended. But I learned some important lessons from the episode, which I want to share with you.
First, it is vital for a journalist to get his facts straight. It’s tempting to rush to press when you think you have a great story. But your information may be faulty. So check it out.
Second, Google AI got it completely wrong! It must have been hallucinating. How on earth, with all the sources in the world available to it, could it possibly have told me Barbara Lee went to the memorial? And not only that, Google AI quoted her remarks, and actually had her paying her respects at OPD’s “Roll Call of Heroes”? That is obscene and disgraceful. It’s taught me that AI can get things wrong, and woe to us if we blindly believe everything it says.
The third lesson is for pondering. A very reasonable person in the media whom I know and respect told me that “even if [the Mayor and City Council] were invited, it's possible some might not have gone…I also know that those sorts of ceremonies can be moments of intense emotion, and some officers and their families are hesitant to have elected officials present because of how that politicizes things or can turn it into a spectacle instead of a moment for community.”
This is indeed a wise observation. But it’s not one I can support. There can be no higher obligation for an elected official than to dignify and respect the death of fallen peace officers. There can be no excuse for a Mayor or City Council member to not attend such a memorial. None. I’m gratified that Zac Unger, for one, reassured me he would have gone. But I can’t point the finger at anyone else, including Lee, for not going. They weren’t invited!
And with that, please pay your respects to the 55 fallen heroes with a moment of silence. Have a good, safe weekend.
Steve Heimoff