Let’s give a shoutout to the Oakland Police Department for the fine job they’re doing in fighting against that common enemy of all of us, crime.
The latest weekly crime report (June 23-29) shows huge drops across the board in every crime. That is a first for Oakland, as far as I can determine: double-digit reductions in every crime category, except for certain rare homicides (justified, accidental, fetal or manslaughter), which were down only by single digits: 8 percent. Otherwise, here are some of the other major categories:
Violent crime: down 24%
Homicide: down 20%
Rape: down 23%
Robbery: down 35%
Burglary: down 35%
Motor vehicle theft: down 44%
Larceny: down 18%
We can’t give all the credit to OPD, but we can give them a lot, and we should. As for the city administration, including Barbara Lee, we can give them no credit whatsoever. As the Oakland Police Officers Association’s president, Sgt. Huy Nguyen, just pointed out, the city’s new budget is “a reckless defunding of law enforcement [that] will result in further defunding the Oakland Police Department and increase the danger of crime for residents and businesses.” Furthermore, it is a “direct repudiation of the will of the voters to prioritize the community’s number one concern: policing that protects public safety.”
We, the public, sounded the alarm when we recalled Sheng Thao and Pamela Price. We have made it abundantly clear that we want far greater support for OPD than this current City Council or Mayor are prepared to give. Too many of them are still mired in anachronistic and ideological dislike of the police, and they remain determined to steal every dollar they can from OPD’s budget to pay for their insane “anti-violence” and other woke schemes that don’t work. Yet despite this war on cops, the brave officers of OPD continue to do their job.
Hats off to them.
I’m meeting with Sgt. Hguyen tomorrow to talk about what more we can do to support OPD—and when I say “we” I mean you, the public-spirited voters of Oakland. I will certainly let you know what Sgt. Nguyen thinks.
Meanwhile, I hope you’re enjoying Summer so far. I’m doing my best to celebrate every day for the blessing it truly is.
Steve Heimoff