Jack, Rich and I started the Coalition for a Better Oakland three years ago. We had met on nextdoor.com (ironic, since I’m now permanently banned for being politically incorrect) and quickly discovered we were all upset by the direction Oakland was going. So we got together on Jack’s deck and invented this thing.
Jack, Rich and I had two major concerns, neither of which Libby Schaaf was doing anything about: encampments and crime. The three of us were sick and tired of the homeless camps, the zombies roaming the streets, the overturned garbage cans and filth spawned by homeless people. This mess began under Libby Schaaf, and she should have dealt with it immediately by declaring the city would enforce its laws. But she didn’t. She was a bleeding heart liberal, she felt sorry for the homeless, and the City Council was even further to the left than she was. So she did nothing, except to encourage the homeless to come to Oakland because “We love you.” Predictably, the problem got worse; now, it’s almost too late to solve.
We also were concerned with crime or, more precisely, by the anti-police sentiment that the far left stoked up in Oakland. Graffiti such as “all cops are bastards” and “fuck the police” were everywhere. This really offended me because I’ve always respected the police, despite the fact of having had my share of brushes with them when I was young and rebellious. People like Cat Brooks, Carroll Fife and Desley Brooks were on the political ascendency in Oakland; their overt racism, ignorance and hatred of cops alarmed and disgusted me, and Jack and Rich as well. Nobody in Oakland seemed to be standing up to these forces of anarchy and resentment.
The Coalition was the first overtly pro-police organization in town. In fact, we really blazed a trail that more and more people are following today. Things have changed over these past three years, as the crime spree has shown people that cops are a necessary part of an orderly society. Even the most “progressive” of voters has to think twice about venturing downtown at night; even the wokest of voters must wonder, every morning as he walks to his parked car, whether the window will be smashed. A loud “bang” has even the leftiest of lefties trying to figure out if it was a firecracker or a gun. Under these grim circumstances, I continue to be amazed at how many voters in Oakland still rally behind politicians like Pamela Price and Carroll Fife. Are they not able to put two and two together and realize how impossible these grifting pols are making our lives in Oakland?
But that’s politics for you. It’s why we continue this fight, which can sometimes seem endless and unrewarding. It’s said that Abraham Lincoln, a melancholy man, sometimes grew so depressed during the Civil War that he wondered if it was worth it. Nevertheless he persisted, and won (although at the cost of his life). We too persist, Jack and I (Rich has departed this Earth), and all our members. We love Oakland too much to cede it to the anarchists and racists.
Steve Heimoff