There wasn’t any huge news to break, but I hadn’t met him yet or seen him address the media, so I went to check him out yesterday. While we wretches of the Fourth Estate waited in the lobby of OPD HQ, on Seventh Street, to be brought up to the conference room, I heard one reporter ask another what the presser was about.
“The usual dog and pony show,” the guy answered.
Such cynicism is only to be expected from the press, a hard core if ever there was one. Once we were seated, Chief Mitchell and his team silently waited for the camera guys to signal that their equipment was ready. I watched him. Calm, steady demeanor. Dignified, intense, handsome—you might almost say charismatic.
Then he began his spiel. There really wasn’t a lot to say. Violent crime down. A new computer system is being installed at OPD. He was proud of “recent significant arrests” of violent criminals, including murderers. Then he took questions.
I got one in. “It’s great to hear of these arrests, Chief. But is the District Attorney actually prosecuting these people?” The Chief danced around this, proving himself an artful dodger. I can’t even quote him because he said nothing worthy of writing down. He did the same with another question, on the same topic, from another reporter. All he said, in essence, was “I look forward to working with all our partners, including the District Attorney.”
Later, on the way out, I mentioned this to Henry Lee, an on-air reporter at KTVU. “Yeah,” Henry smiled, “all police chiefs do that. They have to be careful.”
I get it. Chief Mitchell is still new, only three months into the job. He doesn’t want to publicly butt heads with Pamela Price, the way his counterpart in the City of Alameda, Nishant Joshi, did last month, when he called out Price for not filing a multiple murder special circumstance against a man who brutally killed five members of his own family. When a reporter brought that topic up, Chief Mitchell almost flinched. He made it clear he was not going to “bash” Price—not yet.
I find that disappointing. Why the reticence? Even Gavin Newsom has signaled his dissatisfaction with Price. She will almost certainly be recalled. She is vastly unpopular. She’s targeting Chief Mitchell’s own cops with a vendetta we’ve never seen before, just as she threatened. She’s giving criminals favored treatment over their victims and their families. Surely Chief Mitchell’s private feelings favor recalling and replacing Pamela Price. So why the hesitation? It seemed to me that the Chief is afraid of Price, although in God’s name I can’t see why. It’s possible this is tied in with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement and Mr. Warshaw, but trying to peer through that dark glass is useless.
I wanted to ask the Chief another question but never got the chance. It was, “Chief, in light of the Supreme Court’s Grants Pass decision, and with respect to London Breed calling for ‘more aggressive’ removal of encampments in San Francisco, is the Oakland Police Department prepared for an increased role in rousting these camps?” I thought it was a good question and I wish I’d been able to ask it because we deserve an answer.
Afterwards, I walked over to City Hall for the Recall Thao meeting called by Seneca Scott and Judge Brenda Harbin-Forte. The main purpose of that was the announcement that Judge Brenda is stepping down from her co-leadership role at OUST—Oakland United to Recall Sheng Thao—in order to focus on her run for Oakland City Attorney. Seneca introduced her replacement: her sister, Gail Harbin, who is well aware of the shoes she’s going to have to fill. The Coalition for a Better Oakland looks forward to supporting Ms. Harbin, and we’re anticipating that Judge Brenda will win her race and bring new, fair and rational balance to City Hall.
Steve Heimoff