Noel Gallo claims to be shocked, shocked by how bad things are. “It’s out of control,” he told a reporter. Well, here’s your multiple-choice quiz, kids: What is it that Noel has never seen this bad in Oakland?
a. Muggings
b. Car break-ins
c. Encampments
d. Shoplifting
e. Illegal dumping
The answer, it turns out, is (e), illegal dumping. But let me help Noel, who seems like a nice, fine man, understand something. We have to start with the concept that everything is connected.
All these ills stem from the same fundamental human sin: an absence of morality—a refusal to live by moral standards of decency. Once that Biblical impulse is lost, Noel, everything goes to hell. If a person is devoid of moral integrity, he or she will do terrible, horrible things that make life miserable for everyone else. That person will commit crimes, including murder, because he doesn’t give a damn about anybody except himself, or a few in his orbit. That person is much more likely to end up on the streets, addicted to drugs or alcohol, or be unable to hold a job or to support a family, or even to support himself, except through criminal activity. And, yes, people without moral integrity will drive a pickup truck to some dark street in East or West Oakland and dump out all their shit: old appliances, mattresses, rotting clothes and everything else that is so offensive to the eyes and noses of those of us who do have moral integrity.
So, Noel Gallo, you’re doing a good job denouncing dumping; your weekend trash cleanups are praiseworthy. But what are you doing about the mindset—the lack of moral integrity—that drives too many Oaklanders to lead lives of instability, dysfunction, and disregard for the peace and happiness of others? The key here is this: illegal dumping can’t be viewed in isolation from other forms of bad behavior. It can’t be solved in isolation from those other forms, either. Illegal dumping is largely a matter of law enforcement: you can’t persuade amoral people not to dump, precisely because persuasion is based on moral imperatives, and illegal dumpers have no moral integrity. Therefore, the only way to stop illegal dumpers is to subject them to the full and, if necessary, brutal extent of the law.
But this is true of all forms of criminality. It’s also true of illegal encampments, which violate not only longstanding local ordinances of trespassing and loitering, but of your own City Council’s unanimous vote, Noel, from last October: the Encampment Management Policy, which the Council—including you, Noel—now refuse to implement (which is why you’re getting sued). The common denominator of all these issues is one of law enforcement. Oakland has lost, or ceded, the ability to run a city based on law, and this loss is compounded by the City Council’s decision to defund OPD—a decision you supported, Noel, in June (despite your claims that you didn’t cut OPD’s budget, History has noted that you did).
Can’t you see? You can’t be cutting OPD and expect illegal dumping to stop. It’s all connected. Either you get serious about law enforcement, Noel, or you don’t, in which case your contribution to health and safety in Oakland will consist of little more than picking up trash in the Fruitvale.
Steve Heimoff