Oakland, California is about as blue as it gets, with literally every member of the city council being a Democrat and the city’s mayor being a Democrat. Alameda County, where Oakland is located, is also home to District Attorney Pamela Price, a Soros-backed prosecutor who is facing a recall effort in part because she’s known for being heavy on the virtue signaling and soft on crime.
But though the city’s branch of the NAACP is inarguably a woke group, one area where they appear to veer from that is on the issue of crime, which unsurprisingly has become a huge problem in the Democrat-run city.
A letter the Oakland NAACP wrote Thursday demanding an end to what they call “Oakland’s public safety crisis” is a testament to that fact, with the organization’s president, Cynthia Adams, and local pastor Bob Jackson pointing fingers directly at Price and the Defund Police Movement for being major factors in why criminals in Oakland feel emboldened to do what they do.
Here’s some of what they wrote:
“Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland.”
[…]
“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. If there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime will continue to soar. ”
[…]
We are in crisis and elected leaders must declare a state of emergency and bring resources together from the city, the county, and the state to end the crisis. We are 500 police officers short of the number that experts say Oakland needs. Our 911 system does not work. Residents now know that help will not come when danger confronts them. Worse, criminals know that too.”
[…]
“Unfortunately, progressive policies and failed leadership have chased away or delayed significant blue collar job development in the city, the Port of Oakland, and the former Army Base. That must change!”
[…]
“We urge African Americans to speak out and demand improved public safety. We also encourage Oakland’s White, Asian, and Latino communities to speak out against crime and stop allowing themselves to be shamed into silence.”
“There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to fester and rob Oakland residents of their basic rights to public safety,” they also wrote. “It is not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime. No one should live in fear in our city.”
Read the full letter below:
Oakland NAACP calls on local elected officials to declare a state of emergency around crime. Almost too many noteworthy lines to choose from:
“Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who… pic.twitter.com/PvJZgnwM3b
— Leighton 明 Woodhouse (@lwoodhouse) July 28, 2023
As I’ve said before, the issue of rising violent crime in blue parts of this country is making allies of people who otherwise have very little on which they agree politically. While in some ways it’s scary to have to rely on Democrats to be the voices of sanity on this issue, in cities with large concentrations of Democrats you have to work with the hand you’re dealt.
If you’re in such a city, keep the pressure up on your local officials when the Defund rhetoric/crime problem heats up, because as odd as it may sound this is one area where Democrats and Republicans alike at local levels increasingly agree on, as city-wide elections have repeatedly shown us over the last few years.
Flashback: San Francisco Mayor London Breed Makes ‘Remarkable Concession’ at City Hall on Smash and Grabs
