When Pamela Price made a rare public statement on Twitter, someone else tweeted a very good followup question, which I’ll get to in a minute.
Price’s statement was a strong condemnation of a man, Bernard Jimmerson, who fired a gun at cars driving by his house. Jimmerson told police he was frustrated by the traffic noise. Sadly, one of his bullets struck and killed a young woman, Marie Bedford, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
When I watched Price’s 1-1/2 minute statement, I was kind of puzzled. She never does this kind of thing, especially in such strong language. She seemed to harbor serious anger toward Jimmerson. She said her office has filed murder charges. We might almost believe she’s a tough on crime DA.
This is so different from the Price we’ve come to know in the last five months. She never criticizes murderers; instead, she apologizes for them. Confused, I Googled “Bernard Jimmerson,” thinking he must be a White man. But no, he’s Black. So I was scratching my head. Why is Price doing this?
Then I went through the comments and found this one: “Odd that this would be announced by video on Twitter…a ‘man was frustrated at street noise’ and so this man is facing life in prison for shooting his rifle. These types of homicides happen all the time in Oakland. Why would the DA make an announcement about this?”
Why indeed. I can’t get inside Price’s head, but I can make a strong inference. Price has been under fire from her first day as DA by the public, who rightfully fear that she’s more interested in prosecuting police officers than in putting criminals away. Price has denied this. But clearly, the growing criticism is getting to her. There’s strong talk of a Recall. I think Price got together with her spin doctors, and they wondered what she could do to put an end to the blowback. Someone said, “I’ve got it! Why not bring murder charges against a Black guy, and then go on Twitter to announce it?”
And that’s what Price did. If you watch the video, it’s so evident that we’re witnessing an act: crocodile tears, a pretend-to-care, hearts-and-minds performance, filled with cynicism. It’s the perfect made-for-Twitter moment, sound-bitey and insincere: Price doing her best to convince voters fearful of crime that, when they elected her, they elected a crime-busting crusader who will keep us all safe.
That is total BS and everybody knows it. If I were Bernard Jimmerson’s public defender, I’d argue that Price purposely prosecuted Jimmerson to boost her political career. She threw him under the bus to protect her own interests. Now, I’m not saying Price shouldn’t throw the book at Jimmerson. If he really committed this crime, he needs to be taken off the streets. But, since Price has up until now shown very little inclination to get tough on murderers, especially Black murderers, we have every right to believe she’s playing to the camera, in the hope of deterring the Recall movement.
Some of the other comments about Price’s video were telling: “lol, guess who's not getting my vote again?” “How about you hold all criminals accountable? Better yet why don’t you sit down and let a real DA that actually knows how to do their job.” “great! when are u going to do something about the murder of 3 year old jasper?” “Fk Pamela woke Price”
Clearly, after five months, the people have Price’s number. They know she’s a con. That’s the good news. The bad news is that she’s still in office. With this Twitter video, she’s shown how desperate, frightened and despicable she is. And desperate people resort to desperate practices. It’s important to get rid of this racist now before she can do more damage. Recall Price!
Steve Heimoff