When Jack Saunders, the late Rich DiLeo and I started the Coalition for a Better Oakland in 2020, we settled on two issues to focus on: cops and encampments.
By “cops” we meant strengthening the Oakland Police Department and resisting the “defund the police” cult that had seized control of city government. By “encampments” we meant the blight of tents and junk with which homeless people had taken over our parks and our streets.
The three of us all agreed on the “cops” part. I think I was the strongest advocate of getting rid of encampments. Jack lived in the hills, where there was no homeless problem, and Rich didn’t really get involved in the specifics of issues, whereas I lived (and still do) in Uptown, which has been seriously afflicted by homelessness. From the get-go, I wanted to get tough on encampments, and I’ve never budged from that position. I’ve advocated forced rousting, with jail time if people resisted, and I never much cared whether or not the city could provide alternative shelter. Eventually, the Supreme Court agreed with me, and they issued their Grants Pass decision.
Yesterday, Trump gave a powerful presentation on why he’s seizing control of the Washington, D.C. city government, including placing the Washington Police Department under federal control and deploying the National Guard to restore law and order to the city, which, like Oakland, has fallen into mayhem and degradation under liberal Democratic control. While some elements on the left are screaming that this is unconstitutional, I welcome it—and I invite Trump to do the same in Oakland, which, by the way, he mentioned in his speech as a city that’s almost too far gone to save.
I really don’t see how reasonable people could disagree with what Trump has done. As he told reporters in his packed news conference, “I know most of you are liberal, but liberals get mugged and killed too.” I’ve never understood how or why progressives are so resistant to enforcing the law and keeping everybody safe. It never made any sense, and is the main reason why I rebelled against the woke left and have fought, with all my might, against such local saboteurs as Pamela Price, Carroll Fife, Cat Brooks, Nikki Bas and Sheng Thao. They and their cohorts stood up to defend thugs and psychos in the name of “civil rights” and “equity”; it was like having the inmates run the insane asylum. By 2020, I’d had enough. By 2025, the American people have had enough, and what Trump did yesterday is merely an affirmation of the sea change our country has experienced over the last several years.
I do not credit Trump with that sea change, although I welcome it. The change in public opinion started with the lunatic “defund the police” insanity and has merely amplified since them. It was helped along by liberal judges who let horrible criminals out of jail on no bail, by permissive DAs like Price who said that it was decent Americans, like you and me, who were the enemy because we were “racists,” and by police-hating politicians who shackled cops and wouldn’t let them do their jobs. What Trump is doing in D.C.—or says he’s going to do—is to unshackle those cops. “You spit, we hit,” he told thugs, and I say, Good. I’d love to see cops get tough on these stupid criminals. I welcome it. If you want to call it a police state, go right ahead. As Trump said, regarding D.C., “The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY.” The same goes for Oakland.
It gives me some pain to endorse something Trump has done. I still oppose the Republican Party in most respects. Their anti-LGBTQ hatred will be repudiated by History. Their opposition to a woman’s right to choose is misogynistic, deadly and hypocritical. Their denial of climate change could kill us all, while their venomous embrace of theocratic Christianity is a slap in the face to the Founders. On top of all that, Trump is an ignoble, amoral, vulgar pig. Everybody knows it, although some won’t admit it. But I give Trump credit on this one.
Mr. President, please put Oakland on your to-do list: take over OPD (I believe they’d welcome it), send in the troops, neutralize the City Council and Mayor, get rid of the zombies and sickos that terrorize our streets, banish the encampments, and restore our city to beauty and safety. Yes, crime may be going down, as liberals point out—but this isn’t just about crime. It’s about the quality of life in Oakland, which is degraded by every one of these ranting nutjobs who wander our streets and infiltrate our communal spaces. And it’s about bums living in our parks and on our sidewalks. If Trump can rid D.C. of these elements, he can do it in Oakland.
Steve Heimoff