This is a little premature, but I want to share a vision: to organize a Day of Appreciation for the Oakland Police Department. This would be a one-time event, perhaps at Frank Ogawa Plaza, in which people gather to demonstrate their support for OPD.
All too often, the media portrays Oakland as a city of cop haters. To read the S.F. Chronicle or listen to KQED radio, you’d think everyone in this town wants to defund OPD. Even my young nephew who lives here, bless his heart, defends the ACAB graffiti and believes that The Riders still plague the police department, routinely beating up people of color and occasionally deliberately murdering them. It’s very tough to counter that irrational belief. A huge pro-cop demonstration will go a long way to show the world that we love and respect our frontline defenders and that OPD is one of the best trained and most disciplined police departments in the country.
Organizing an event of this sort will require a huge effort. I’d want it to attract a gigantic crowd and be covered widely in the media. If we have 20 people turn out, it might, or might not, make the evening news; if we have 1,000 people, it surely will.
Someone pointed out to me that this Mayor, Barbara Lee, and this City Council will never support the idea of a pro-cop rally. My response was, Maybe not, but screw them. We don’t need them; we’ll work around them. And eventually, when this thing gets big enough, it will be very hard for them to ignore or undermine it. We’ll ask the Mayor “How come you’re not supporting a show of appreciation for your own police force?” and she’ll have to answer.
The work before us will be long and hard; we’ll be lucky if we can get this going before September or October. Right now, I’m most concerned about turnout. I believe we police supporters have the trust of a majority of Oaklanders; they’ve been looking for a way to express their support but have never been given the opportunity (except when they recalled Thao and Price). The challenge now will be getting through to them, in a credible way, and persuading them to come to the event, and bring their friends and families. I have a vivid imagination, and when I visualize Frank Ogawa Plaza filled with 1,000, maybe 1,500 people all standing up for our cops, I get chills along my spine.
My spider sense tells me this can really happen. We can make history. For now, I’m asking for readers to be aware of this, to support it in your heads, and to volunteer to do whatever you can to increase turnout and maximize publicity. I’ll post further details in the future. Let’s get this ball rolling, folks, and send a clear message to every cop hater in town: You are out of step with Oaklanders!
Steve Heimoff