From OPD, the crime report for Jan. 1, 2025 to June 30, 2025 (compared to the same period in 2024) is good news:
Violent Crimes (Homicide, Aggravated Assault, Rape, Robbery): Down 29%
Homicides: Down 21%
Aggravated Assaults: Down 18%
Rape: Down 24%
Robbery: Down 41%
Reported Property Crimes:
Burglary: Down 19%
Motor Vehicle Theft: Down 45%
Larceny: Down 17%
Arson: Up 9%
We can all celebrate these significant reductions. But before Barbara Lee and the jokers on the City Council start taking the credit (which they will), let’s remember a couple of facts: On August 5—just three days ago--the FBI released their own national crime statistics. “The overall rates of violent and property crime in the United States,” they reported, “declined in 2024, recording the lowest property crime rate and lowest violent crime rate since at least 1969.” Crimes were down significantly in virtually every U.S. city, in many cases by double digits.
Meanwhile Babs is out there, kissing babies and munching on Hyphy Burgers like she’s a good ole gal who rode into town and cleaned it up! Well, we know the truth: she had nothing to do with the drop in crime. If she’d been in power the last year, the Oakland Police Department would have even fewer cops than it has today (and if Babs had had the power, she would have canceled the Pamela Price recall so that Madame D.A., who hates cops even more than Lee, would still be prosecuting them for doing their jobs).
So I want to hear nothing, nada, zero, zilch, from these woke clowns who run our city [into the ground]. They’re benefiting from a national phenomenon that historians will one day analyze. I don’t know what caused this coast-to-coast turnaround (it certainly wasn’t Donald Trump!), but I do know what has helped us here in Oakland: Gov. Newsom’s full-throttled support for fighting crime. He gave us the California Highway Patrol; he gave us surveillance cameras; he did his part in recalling Price and Thao with public statements that, reading between the lines, were harshly critical of both. And for all those out there who loathe Newsom so much that they can’t even admit the truth that he contributed greatly to the crime reduction, here’s a fact: The part of your brain that used to be capable of gratitude and common sense has been eaten away by the cancer of your hatred.
Will this current relief from crime continue? Your guess is as good as mine. I sure hope so. Oakland feels safer, although it’s far from actually being safe. And we can’t let this temporary relief deter us from our ongoing work. We must increase OPD’s budget. We must insist on more police academies. We must work to crush the power of the anti-police kommissariat (including the Police Commission) and kick those morons out of power, so they have to get real jobs where they can’t harm us. We have to teach our children that the police are on their side; the corollary of that is to teach them to see through the self-serving bullshit that the anti-police cult spreads. This last mission is going to be very challenging, but that ought not stop us from trying. Young people are, bless their souls, idealistic. But they are also ignorant of reality. As they mature, they’ll become wiser to the ways of the world. In the meantime, young voters have the right to elect idiots, and they usually do.
Steve Heimoff