There’s a backlash against the defund-the-police movement across America. President Biden, President Obama and countless other Democrats have warned it jeopardizes the party, in addition to public safety. Oakland, with its long constituency of radical politics, might have been expected to be immune to the backlash. But no!
No sooner had the City Council taken its disastrous vote to remove $18.2 million of funding from the Oakland Police Department, than reaction began to bubble up from the street. When the citizenry, who in their daily lives do not follow the ups and downs of politics like the readers of this blog do, realized what had happened, the ripple of feeling in the community became a torrent. “What does this mean for us?” asked the average citizen. Murders, robberies, assaults, smash-and-grabs, all were on the rise, and to the Common Sense of the average citizen, defunding the police department seemed unwise, to put it mildly.
It was against this backdrop that the Chief of the Oakland Police Department, LeRonne Armstrong, made his remarkable statements the other day. “The police chief sharply criticized the City Council’s move,” the San Francisco Chronicle reported on its front page. Armstrong warned of
- Fewer officers on the streets
- Delayed response to 911 calls
even as the city saw four homicides in the 48 hours following the City Council’s defunding vote.
Backlashes are curious things. Politicians, with their antennae exquisitely attuned to public opinion, are often the first to sense them. Within a day or two of Armstrong going public, there must have been intense and fearful conversations between Council members who had voted to defund. Yesterday, at least three of them—Bas, Kaplan and Fife—launched their counterattack. Fife, in her usual manner, accused nearly everyone of deliberately spreading misinformation, and went so far as to tweet that she does not respond to “demands from white men.” In a Zoom meeting we had with Vice Mayor Kaplan yesterday, she repeatedly accused Chief Armstrong of “lying,” and suggested she might meet with the Police Commission concerning his fate. The sense of defensiveness of these politicians was palpable. Under mounting political pressure, they needed to coordinate their response so that the messaging was consistent.
What is that messaging? “We did not reduce the Oakland Police Department’s budget at all. In fact, we increased it by $9 million.” That howler, in all its Trumpian glory, is what Kaplan insisted to us yesterday. Asked why every media outlet in the Bay Area, and many beyond, reported that the Council had indeed cut $18.2 million from OPD, Kaplan insisted they had all been duped by Chief Armstrong.
What prompted the Chief to take his extraordinary move? We can only speculate. First and foremost probably was his affection for his officers and for his East Oakland roots. He finally reached the point where he could no longer remain quiet. Even at the risk of being fired, he had to speak up, to tell the public the truth of what the Council did, and warn them—us—of the impending threat.
But in the wheels-within-wheels drama of Oakland politics, other motives were ascribed to the Chief. Some said Mayor Schaaf herself put him up to it. Her battles with the more “woke” elements of the City Council, especially Fife, whom she allegedly detests, have been leaking out for weeks. Far from risking being fired by the Mayor, it was said, Armstrong launched his rogue attack on the Council with the Mayor’s full backing.
We may never know all the details. We’ll soon see if Armstrong is or isn’t safe in his job. But what is clear is that the City Council is feeling the heat. They should. I hope it burns, long and hot. What they did was very bad, and the way they’re now trying to squirm out of it, after getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar, is embarrassing. The Oakland City Council just defunded the Oakland Police Department during a crime wave, thus placing ideology over public safety. It’s as simple as that.
Steve Heimoff