Justin Phillips’ intemperate screed against Chief Armstrong, in Sunday’s Chronicle, is proof that the radical woke left fears the Chief. They correctly perceive him as the most popular person in Oakland, the almost-certain winner of the At-Large City Council seat, and a future Mayor. So the mud-slinging has begun.
Phillips’s incendiary and false allegations are only the beginning of the attacks on Armstrong. The Fife-Brooks-Bas wing, supported by the Chronicle, has him in their sights, and they’re going to be slinging the mud hard, with Trump-style smears, innuendoes and outright lies, supported by side-snipers like The Oaklandside and KQED.
The Chief has a fine line to tread. He has to stand for public safety while at the same time avoid being mischaracterized as some kind of Black MAGA, which is what Justin tried to do in his column. It’s laughable, really, but the woke left has learned much from Trump about lying brazenly, and then doubling and tripling down on the lies, so that some credulous people believe them and a sympathetic press repeats them.
Among the more repugnant of Phillips’s lies are these:
• Armstrong is “merely the latest instrument of a local anti-progressive movement clawing its way into power.” The word “merely” is meant to diminish the “movement,” which in fact is not “anti-progressive” but anti-woke—and there’s a huge difference voters would do well to understand. The word “clawing” reveals Phillips’ disdain for voters who reject his woke ideology.
• The [NAACP Oakland chapter, which supports Armstrong] has been advocating for public safety policies that historically have harmed Black and brown folks.” Statements like this should earn Phillips a one-way ticket out of town. Phillips never had any problem with the Oakland NAACP until they became Armstrong’s unabashed supporters when Thao unjustly fired him. Since then, according to Phillips, the branch has been “echoing right-wing talking points.”
I encourage everyone to take a look at the NAACP’s website and judge for yourself if they’re “right-wing.” Do you want to know who’s “harmed Black and brown folks”? Black and brown predators. But Phillips can’t criticize them, because his ideology is based on justifying their criminality. It’s beyond shocking that Phillips can utter such sleazy falsehoods and that the Chronicle should stoop low enough to print them.
• Armstrong’s “tenure as police chief [was] rocky.” Here again Phillips borrows from Trump’s use of pejoratives (“crooked Hillary”) to smear Armstrong, who was the most popular and effective OPD chief in decades and probably the only one whose name most voters can even cite.
The wokes will try to shame Chief Armstrong for not being Black enough. To people like Phillips and Carroll Fife, the only worthwhile politicians are those who, like them, have declared war on White America, a war that pits race against race, neighbor against neighbor, friend against friend. Chief Armstrong, being a wise man, sees through this. His tenure as OPD Police Chief gave him the advantage of witnessing, up close and personal, how the wokes mangle truth and foment fear, in order to hang on to and increase their power. This is why wokes fear Armstrong: they know that he knows their little game. They’ve never had such an opponent in Oakland. No one with power ever had the guts to stand up to them. Now, here comes Chief Armstrong.
Which is all the more reason for him to tell the public that the wokes are a public menace, no less than the carjackers and killers. Chief Armstrong, who was born in Oakland, should name names and kick ass. Let the public know how the wokes, with their bizarre racialist ideology, got Oakland into this mess in the first place. He’s the only public figure in Oakland with the stature and credibility to speak the truth and explain the way out.
This election is not about race, although Justin Phillips and his cronies are going to stoke racial divisions because that’s what they do and all they know how to do. But the Chief can rise above that. Armstrong should get out there on the hustings and deliver some good old-fashioned fiery stump speeches. It’s not his style, but he’s going to have to learn how to be a prophetic orator. From pulpits to town halls, the Chief can capture the hearts and minds of regular Oaklanders, catapult himself to the top of the political heap, turn our city around, unite us and—just maybe—make himself a national figure.
Steve Heimoff