| San Francisco gets all the attention for its swift descent into chaos and anarchy, but almost no attention is paid to the equally sad decline of Oakland, a city of 440,000 across the Bay Bridge. And we’re not just talking about the city losing its THREE major league sports franchises: the Raiders, Warriors, and Athletics.
Kudos to the Oakland NAACP for sounding the alarm and calling for the city to declare a state of emergency over crime. “Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life-threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals,” a letter from the group says. It cites incidents in which women were targeted by “young mobs,” Asians were robbed in Chinatown, motorists had thieves smash car windows with them often still inside the vehicles, and news crews had their cameras stolen from them while working.
District Attorney Pamela Price – a George Soros-funded soft-on-crime DA – dismissed the group’s letter as a “false narrative.” She defended her decision not to charge nine juveniles, aged 12 to 17, over a recent string of 35 robberies. Price prohibits her staff from including sentencing enhancements when they charge criminals and orders they offer probation whenever possible. Last month, she told a TV station that “the DA’s role really has no impact on crime” and was instead focused on racial equity issues. “It is not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime. No one should live in fear in our city.” Says Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church. |
