I want to talk about yet another example of how the liberal media sneaks in their anti-police bias through the use of code words to smear their enemies.
The East Bay Times the other day had a big article headlined “Is police watchdog body truly independent?” The “watchdog body” is, of course, the Oakland Police Commission. You don’t even have to read the entire article to know what it’s about: Its answer to its own question is, No, the Police Commission is not truly independent. The undeclared presumption here is that the Commission should be independent, which means free to harass the Oakland Police Department any time, in any way they want to, with no constraints or oversight. But due to outside influences, the Commission is unable to be as destructive to OPD as its members want.
Well, that’s a sentiment worth fighting. The Commission plays the Gestapo role to OPD. Its members historically hate cops; that’s why they get appointed to it by the Mayor and the City Council members. B. Lee may argue that she doesn’t really hate cops, but we know better: she’s been an unrepentant Black Panther for fifty years (remember “off the pig”?), and as for the Council members, with the happy exception of Ken Houston, all of them would be glad to see OPD defunded—especially the truly deranged Carroll Fife.
In the article are two descriptions by the reporter, Shomik Mukherjee, of individuals mentioned in the text. One is James Chanin, the lawyer, whom I think most of you know is one of the driving forces behind the repellant Negotiated Settlement Agreement. The other person is our friend Rajni Mandal, who, as a concerned citizen volunteer, does a better job reporting on the Oakland Police Commission than any salaried reporter at any other media outlet. Mukherjee refers to Chanin as “a civil rights attorney.” But Rajni is “a gadfly.”
You see what’s going on here, right? Calling Chanin a civil rights attorney automatically confers a kind of moral authority on him. Why, Dr. King also dedicated his life to civil rights, and King was an American saint! Surely Chanin too must be a paragon of virtue, with one foot already inside the pearly gates.
But Rajni a “gadfly”? The word is an insult. Its literal meaning is “a fly that bites livestock.” But its everyday meaning is “an irritating person, a nuisance who will often ask too many questions or lob lots of criticisms in order to get his or her way.” Why did Mukherjee describe Ranji in such a demeaning manner? Because he can, because of his prejudice, because his editor didn’t stop him, and because Rajni Mandal defends police officers and that is something the East Bay Times can’t stand.
As for the Police Commission, Mukherjee’s article is laughable. The Commission is a truly evil cartel of police haters, public safety opponents, political opportunists, and reverse-racists. Anyone who follows it routinely, as Rajni does, understands the harm it causes. With all the other agencies making war on cops—the Department of Violence Prevention, the Department of Race & Equity, the Privacy Advisory Commission, the Community Policing Advisory Board, the City Council’s Public Safety Committee, the Negotiated Settlement Agreement, the Anti Police-Terror Project, and the employee unions, with their dark money—the Oakland Police Commission is another bullet aimed at OPD’s heart.
But the public just doesn’t get it, and for good reason: every news outlet tells them that cops are brutes who must be reined in. Criminals are just misunderstood babies, the victims of structural racism. People who yearn for safety are racists. If you tell the truth about the horrors the Police Commission regularly inflicts on us, you’re a gadfly. If you try to destroy the Oakland Police Department, you’re a civil rights hero. Something is dreadfully wrong here, and we’re running out of time to fix it.
Steve Heimoff