There’s nothing more infuriating than hearing the anti-cop brigade continue to wax hysterical about defunding the police, even as our friends and neighbors are being slaughtered all around us in record numbers.
That was my thought when I heard Cat Brooks on National Public Radio on Sunday morning. Brooks, who I trust is enjoying her 15 minutes, launch a diatribe about what she refers to as “the violent carceral state.” Of course, one could wait forever for Brooks to criticize the violent actual state of Oakland, which is due not to our rate of incarceration (not very high) but to the pathological lawlessness of feral individuals; and that irony was not lost on me a few moments later when, going through my news feed, I found this article from KRON4 News on Oakland’s 105th murder of the year., that of Dirk Tillotson, who was shot to death by thugs who invaded his Maxwell Park home. (Within hours, Oakland’s murder number rose to 107.) With nearly three months to go, at the current rate Oakland will have 140 murders by Dec. 31, 2021, putting us on pace to exceed the 145 murders of 2006, and even threatening our record high 165 murders, back in 1992.
Reading the KRON4 article, I wept when I read the words of the pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church, about the impact these murders and other violent crimes are inflicting on his community. “People are just shooting guns like the wild, wild west. It’s crazy out here,” he said, adding, “I’ve never seen the condition of our city — deep 6 and deep 7 just full of trash and debris. It’s like a third world country out here.” Deep 6 and deep 7 refer to the City Council districts that comprise Fruitvale and southeast Oakland down to the San Leandro line.
It’s important to keep in mind who represents those two districts, which in many ways are the epicenter of violent crime: Loren Taylor in D6 and Treva Reid in D7. What do those two worthies have in common? Both were the only City Council members to vote, last June, against the rest of the Council’s decision to strip the Oakland Police Department of $18 million. Both did so, we must assume, because they heard from their constituents, loud and clear, that they wanted more cops on the beat. And, responsive politicians that they are, they responded by saying NO! to the six defunders: Fife, Thao, Bas, Gallo, Kalb and Kaplan.
Only 2-1/2 months later, Thao came to regret her decision—better late than never!--after hearing from her own angry, frightened constituents. A few weeks ago, she reversed course and proposed the creation of new Police Academies, where cops are hired and trained. The other five anti-police council members, embarrassed by their cowardice, have been quiet on the topic of policing—but as we have seen from Ms. Brooks, she now has a national platform to talk about “the carceral state.”
But there’s a change in the wind. You can sense it in social media, in news reporting and in just talking with your neighbors. Something happened during this terrible summer—something bad (because so many people got killed and victimized) but also something good, because ordinary Oaklanders, who may have thought they had no skin in this game, came to realize that it is they, and their partners, kids and friends, whose lives and livelihoods are on the line.
Loren Taylor last week announced he’s running for Mayor. The Coalition for a Better Oakland isn’t ready to endorse him, or anyone else, at this point. But we are going to invite him to a little chat, to find out whether his praiseworthy June vote was a sincere act of ongoing support for public safety, or just another expediency that can be reversed with the next shift in the political winds.
