The California Democratic Party (CADEM) is doing a good job of driving away moderates and independents by its police-phobic policies. The latest example is CADEM’s decision to consider a permanent ban on accepting donations from law enforcement agencies, even as a temporary ban remains in effect.
The party’s progressive wing, which is strong in California and has criticized police for alleged “brutality and racist profiling,” has led the effort to reject donations from police departments, individual cops, police unions, police PACs or lobbyists. A leader of Black Lives Matter, for instance, says “This [Democratic] party cannot claim that it believes that Black Lives Matter…and then allow police association money to flow in through the back door.” Progressive politicians are heeding her words: State Senator Scott Weiner (D-San Francisco) tweeted that he would no longer accept police contributions; following that tweet, Senator Lena Gonzalez (D-Long Beach) tweeted “Same!”
We know from our own experience here in Oakland that hate groups on the far left, such as the Anti Police-Terror Project, have long had it in for the Oakland Police Department. Its head, Cat Brooks, has influence in the City Council, especially with defunders like Kaplan, Fife and Bas. But even as we’re witnessing Brooks’ star fading as the public demands more police, her influence, and the influence of people like her, is growing within CADEM. Politico reports, “Progressive activists pushing for the changes argue the party must uphold its values by repudiating groups that run counter to its…criminal justice goals.”
What “values” are Democrats supposed to “uphold” by stigmatizing cops? It makes no sense at all to suggest that cop-bashing is a “value” of the Democratic Party. It certainly never was in my lifetime, when cops have been honored; and I don’t think it is now, except among fringe radicals. Our own former Democratic Senator, Barbara Boxer, has called cops “dedicated public servants [who] need all the help they can get.” Our great former President, Barack Obama, similarly pointed out that “Our police officers put their lives on the line for us every single day. They’ve got a tough job to do to maintain public safety and hold accountable those who break the law.” President Biden last week praised cops: “Because of you,” he told them, “democracy survived.” Are progressive Democrats now saying that Barbara Boxer, Barack Obama and Joe Biden don’t “uphold the party’s values”? If that’s the case, I guess the California Constitution also doesn’t uphold the party’s values. It states that “The protection of the public safety is the first responsibility of local government and local officials have an obligation to give priority to the provision of adequate public safety services.”
Hear that, CADEM? “The first responsibility” of government is public safety. Not the second…not the third…not below “social justice” or housing, but the single most important responsibility of government!
This is the problem we confront in Oakland. Politicians such as Carroll Fife, Nikki Fortunato Bas and Rebecca Kaplan have put their strange ideological schemes above keeping us safe from predators. They may call themselves Democrats; they may run as Democrats in elections, but they are not Democrats—not in the normal sense. They are in fact abnormal, from the point of view of the Democratic Party as it’s existed for a century.
Last night, the Coalition did a Zoom with City Councilmember Treva Reid (District 7), who kind of made news when she informed us she’s officially running for mayor. We asked her many questions about cops, of course, and Reid made sympathetic statements about them. But when I asked her if she would accept campaign donations from cops or cop organizations, she said No. To me personally, this disqualifies her from being mayor. It’s intellectually inconsistent to say you support the police and believe in their crime-busting mission, on the one hand, and then say you won’t accept money from them. What message does that send to the community? It insinuates that cops are corrupt and that cop money is dirty.
If Ms. Reid or anyone else actually believes that, then their intellectual incapacity disqualifies them from public office. If they know better, and say it anyway just to pander to the Cat Brooks of this world, then their dishonesty disqualifies them. Being anti-cop is turning out to be a losing proposition, even in oh, so progressive Oakland!
Steve Heimoff