I’ve been thinking in broad strokes lately. Not just about the details of how many cops on OPD, or whether we can recall Thao-Price, or what Oakland should do if SCOTUS strikes down Johnson v. Grants Pass.

There’s so much horrendous stuff happening in America that sometimes it almost seems petty to focus on local politics. I mean, with Trump poised for a comeback, and “Christian” nationalists staging a slow-motion coup to take over America, and (unlikely) World War III looming, maybe our Oakland issues don’t amount to a hill of beans.

That’s the headline in yesterday’s Chronicle. The neighborhood is the 94612 zip code, which includes most of downtown to 11th Street, up to 27th Street, and east to Lakeside Avenue. My own home and zip code, 94610, are just one block away.

KTOP TV had a conversation with Darlene Flynn, the city’s Director of the Department of Race & Equity. Flynn has worked for years in the area of what she calls “racial disparity,” and now she’s running the only race and equity department of any city in California.

“Power” begins with archival video of goose-stepping cops from what looks like the early 20th century. A talking head voiceover: “We never can figure out who polices the police. We never can figure out what gives the police authority over the people.” Footage of a Black activist from the 1960s: “The police occupy our area like a foreign troop occupies territory.” A disembodied voice: “There are a lot of people who feel policing is out of control.” A Black woman’s voice: “The brutality of police indicates we have not achieved full citizenship. And that is why the police are the spark for such outsized protests. Because it is a direct affront to our belonging, to our ability to be here.”