Every so often it’s fun to check in at the Anti Police-Terror Project and see what’s going in Crazytown. These are not good times for Cat Brooks and her merry band of cop haters. With public opinion having turned completely around now that people realize the cops are on their side, poor APTP is starved for attention, funding and even purpose. The media has largely stopped covering Brooks, thank God; the San Francisco Chronicle, which for years embarrassed itself by its brown-nosed fawning, seems to have lost her phone number.
Still, like a fentanyl addict, APTP and Brooks keep doing the same old shtick, hoping that things will turn out differently even though they never do, and for a good reason: APTP and our Miss Brooks have missed the boat. Even though they had a sort of heyday when Schaaf was Mayor, now they’re completely irrelevant. The only people who care about them anymore are deranged racists.
Here’s some of the nonsense oozing out of APTP’s Twitter page. They’re either tweets put up by APTP itself, or retweeted by its managers, presumably Brooks. (My comments follow each one.) All tweets were posted in August.
“Oakland crime is so low that OPOA is holding on to this sideshow story for dear life. Its hodgepodge network of mentally unbalanced influencers is falling apart and can't make it stick.” This references the gigantic sideshow that happened the other day, which all the local media interpreted to mean that B. Lee’s cretinous claim that crime is practically non-existent in Oakland is demonstrably fake. By the way, since I’m a proud supporter of OPOA (the police union), I guess that makes me “mentally unbalanced”!
“George Jackson was assassinated by San Quentin prison guards on August 21, 1971. They tried to kill the revolution—but his legacy still fuels our fight. This #BlackAugust, we honor his brilliance, resistance & sacrifice.” Jackson was serving a sentence at San Quentin when he violently tried to escape. During the ensuing melée, two prison guards were brutally slain and Jackson was shot and died. APTP surely could choose a better role model than Jackson. He was not “assassinated” but was killed during a violent incident he instigated.
“This is just the beginning from the fascist regime of Trump. Black people are always the #1 target. Federal and local authorities cannot continue to terrorize our communities. We see you, we resist.” A reference to Trump’s occupation of Washington, D.C. As all of you know, I am no fan of Trump. But Brooks just can’t stop her paranoid whining that all cops are bastards who hunt down and kill Black people. No, Brooks, Black people are not “the #1 target” of cops. Criminals are. Are you saying that Black people = criminal? I hope not, because that would be racist. The real terror in Black neighborhoods, as residents know, are Black criminals. This tweet is simply Brooks stirring the pot, urging her pitiful supporters to get ready for some kind of armed resistance to law enforcement—exactly what her hero, George Jackson, advocated.
“We're relaunching MH First! Join our 2-day virtual training to learn how to respond to mental health crises without police.” A couple things to point out here. First, the “mental health crises” Brooks refers to are the incidents in which a Black person has a confrontation with cops during which he is killed or injured. Afterwards, a friend or family member comes forward and tells reporters that the criminal was experiencing a “mental health crisis” and therefore whoever shot him should be fired or indicted. The idiot reporters never ask, “How was the cop supposed to know the criminal had a mental health crisis? All the cop knew was that the criminal was coming at him with a knife.” We really need to discredit this “mental health crisis” excuse. Secondly, the virtual training Brooks refers to, according to her own poster, says “Online training open to Black, Indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC).” This is outright racism. Brooks doesn’t like White people or Asians, and she’s not shy about proclaiming it. So let’s tell the truth: APTP is a racist cult. It should be investigated by the Alameda County District Attorney and its funding sources revealed and shamed.
Steve Heimoff