This is the kind of reporting that makes my blood boil. It provides details of how many women are being brutally assaulted and robbed on Oakland city streets, often in broad daylight. It also reveals how little is done to provide these victims with any kind of justice. A police department deliberately stretched pitifully thin by the City Council is unable to handle the volume of crime. A 9-1-1 call system barely works. And still, we have racist politicians who demand that OPD be defunded. Still, we’re saddled with so-called “anti-violence” programs that are nothing more than an ability to reward political allies with taxpayer money.
It’s enough to make you crazy.
I’m ready for significant changes. Let’s start with building new places of detention. The county jail is overcrowded? Then construct another one. Courts are overwhelmed? Then create more courts. The District Attorney refuses to press charges in many cases? Then recall her and let’s get a real D.A. Police are not allowed to get involved? Change the rules to empower cops and to protect them against lawsuits and revenge. Tent dwellers have equal rights to homeowners? No they don’t. Evict them. Juveniles deserve special lenient treatment? No they don’t. Jail them and let the ACLU howl. For that matter, let the cops crack down on anti-social behavior of all kinds, from blaring car stereos to peeling away, from sideshows to bikers doing wheelies, from littering to defacing property with graffiti. In other words, let’s get tough, and let the chips fall where they may.
The truth is, Oakland will continue to spiral out of control until the city is completely unlivable, because the “progressives” who run this town don’t give a hoot about average, normal citizens like you and me. They prefer to grind Oakland under their heels, in the name of imposing “civil rights” on us. What does “civil rights” mean to the likes of Carroll Fife, Pamela Price or Nikki Bas? I don’t need to define it; you already know. Just take a look at the crime statistics, at the desperate situation OPD finds itself in, at the shuttered shops and tents and zombies wandering the streets. That is Nikki Bas’s “civil rights.” That is Carroll Fife’s “structural racism.” That is the nightmare result of Sheng Thao’s fight for “equity.”
Some people have complained that I offer plenty of criticism but no solutions. Here’s my answer: rather than arrest fewer people, arrest more. Rather than lower charges from felony to misdemeanor, add enhanced charges whenever we can, and maximize prison sentences. Make it easier for cops to defend themselves, and make it impossible for them to be hunted by ambulance-chasing lawyers when they shoot someone to save their own lives. Let Oakland establish a nationwide reputation for being the toughest-on-crime city in America. Let every criminal think twice about coming here to commit their nefarious deeds. Let the honest people of Oakland breathe freely again, able to walk around at night and not be constantly looking over their shoulders.
And let “the community” rid itself of this awful fear of being snitches. Most of the time there are people in the neighborhood who know exactly who the bad guys are, but who refuse to talk to the cops. Somehow we’ve got to overturn that sociopathic behavior. “If you see something say something” should be our mantra. Parents, coaches, pastors, and anyone with youth influence should be drumming it into their heads: There’s nothing cool about letting murderers and thieves continue to run around and do their thing. The aberrant behavior in Oakland starts with aberrant parenting. If we have to enact new laws to take children away from irresponsible parents, let’s do it.
I don’t deceive myself that any of this will be easy. It will be the hardest thing a city has ever attempted. But unless we’re willing to tackle the big things, Oakland is doomed.
Have a wonderful, safe weekend! Back Monday.
Steve Heimoff