For more than four hours Oakland residents stepped to their Zoom mikes calling for an historic redistribution of public resources, away from conventional policing and toward the needs of the poor.
While a few callers asked the deciders to consider the violent crime surge before raiding the Oakland Police Department budget, an overwhelming majority, plainly working from prepared talking points, denounced OPD as ineffective at preventing or deterring crime. More effective anti-crime measures, they said, would be low-cost housing, universal health care, “union jobs with excellent wages,” more funding for artists and musicians. And wifi for the homeless encampments.