San Francisco Chronicle, June 24, 2021: “Oakland City Council Votes to Defund Police, Stripping More than $17 M from Department Budget.”
Oaklandside, June 25, 2021: “Mayor Libby Schaaf said that the new budget will ‘destroy’ the city’s existing public safety system, which is based on police patrols and 911 response.”
ABC7 News, June 28, 2021: “Oakland police chief warns of slower response times amid budget cuts.”
San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 21, 2021: “Amid rising violence, Oakland council votes to fund another police academy. The resolution to add a fifth academy passed 6-2, with council President Nikki Fortunato Bas and Councilmember Carroll Fife voting against the plan.”
Nikki Bas on her Twitter account, Aug. 27, 2022: “There is NO place for violence in our town—not West Oakland, East Oakland, Little Saigon or anywhere else. We are coming together across neighborhoods and differences to be part of the solution because we all want & deserve safe streets.”
IS NIKKI BAS KIDDING US? Give me a break. Her hypocrisy, her fakeness, her breathtaking lies are mind-boggling. This politician, running for re-election, has suddenly discovered that public safety, of all things, is polling well; hence, she conveniently pretends she didn’t try repeatedly to destroy the Oakland Police Department, in cahoots with her BFF, Carroll Fife. Look, in case anyone has failed to get the message, here it is bluntly: Nikki Bas hates the police. She can’t be trusted to get her hands on the wheels of public safety. As soon as she’s re-elected (if she is), she’ll revert to form, joining up again with her fellow hater, Carroll Fife, and making war on the police. And if, God forbid, “progressive” Sheng Thao, is elected Mayor, my advice for all decent citizens of Oakland would be to leave. Get out of town while you can. If you think things are bad now, just wait until the Thao-Bas-Fife troika takes over.
We’re used to shameful flip-flops from ambitious politicians, but what Bas is doing now is unconscionable. We can’t let her get away with it. I despair that the local media—the San Francisco Chronicle, Oaklandside, or local TV news stations—will hold her to account, because the “reporters” who work for them are incompetent boobs, and they also harbor anti-police sentiments. It’s hard to imagine that Darwin BondGraham, for example, at Oaklandside would ever say to Bas, “Madame Council President, do you regret trying to defund the Oakland Police Department? And do you feel shame at now pretending to be an advocate of public safety?”
But we can make our own minds up based on facts and truth, not on what these “journalists” want us to think. Nikki Bas is bad for Oakland, bad for public safety, good for criminals. I don’t pretend to understand how or why she’s arrived at such an intellectually bankrupt position, but her reasons don’t matter. What matters is the reality: Bas has been as responsible as any politician for the predicament Oakland finds itself in. She needs to be thrown out of office.
Steve Heimoff