I’m sending out this rare Saturday column because of its importance. There was talk of recalling Thao even before her Wednesday firing of Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong. After she committed that heinous act, the recall chatter has turned into real action. With the firing, Oakland communities have had it with Thao, and whether she knows it or not, she’s facing an existential crisis barely one month into her mayoralty.

Yesterday’s rally on behalf of Chief LeRonne Armstrong was a great success. Called at very short notice, it attracted a good crowd at City Hall. Organization was by the NAACP and Seneca Scott; Loren Taylor also was there. The media showed up in force, and this morning, it’s a lead story in all the local news.

I don’t suppose anyone is surprised to hear that Thao has sacked the Chief. Thao has been a cop hater since day one. A self-professed “progressive,” she repeatedly tried to defund the police, despite warnings that to do so would further endanger the people of Oakland. When she was on the City Council, she allied with Carroll Fife, the leading cop hater on the Council, and her underling, Nikki Bas, and also affiliated with the biggest cop hater of them all, Cat Brooks. Together, these people led assaults on the Oakland Police Department and refused to do anything about homelessness. They and their allies plunged Oakland into the crisis we see today.

Nothing seems to be working in Oakland or San Francisco, when it comes to crime, drugs and homelessness. Despite billions being poured into programs, there’s more of everything bad in both cities. Drug rehab programs aren’t working. San Francisco’s so-called “crackdown” on drugs and stolen goods at U.N. Plaza is a waste if time.

D.A. Price has made no secret of the fact she wants to “end mass incarceration,” which means opening the jails and letting everyone out. This isn’t going to happen anytime soon, thank goodness, although we have to remain vigilant. But there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and Price thinks she’s found another way to give murderers, thieves and assaulters a get-out-of-jail-free card: Just claim they’re mentally ill, and argue that mentally-ill people deserve “care, not cages.”