Later today, I’ll drop off a $500 check for Save Alameda For Everyone (SAFE), the organization sponsoring the recall of Pamela Price. Headquarters is Carl Chan’s office at the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce. Carl is the driving force behind her recall.
As our Facebook readers know thanks to Jack Saunders’ reporting, the Coalition for a Better Oakland is thrilled to make this contribution. It’s probably the best money we’ve ever spent. The most important thing voters can do this year is to fire Price and replace her with someone who takes public safety seriously.
We’ve now had six months in which to judge Price, and the evidence is overwhelming as to her malfeasance. She is, to put it simply, a racist, in the sense that whenever a Black person commits a crime, she finds a way to reduce his sentence to the lowest minimum possible, on the theory that Black people, as the victims of “structural racism,” are compelled to commit crime. As San Leandro Police Sergeant Steve Cesaretti put it, “With the recent regime change in the D.A.’s office, we all anticipate unreasonable plea offers being given to violent criminals.” Cesaretti was himself a victim in a violent mall shooting in San Leandro, in which the shooter, Luracious Wilkerson, was sentenced to a mere 16 years in jail after Price struck a plea deal with his lawyer, Michael Cardoza, who admitted that even though Price’s ruling benefited his client, in his view Price “is putting society at risk.”
It’s not just unreasonable plea offers Price is giving criminals. She’s also refusing to file “sentence enhancements,” which are additional charges to those already brought against criminal defendants. As former Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Butch Ford, whom Price let go this Spring after his more than 20 years of service in the D.A.’s office, not charging enhancements has seriously consequences. First and foremost, enhancements enable prosecutors to charge criminals with the maximum penalty possible, which is the best way to get truly awful people in jail for a long time. District Attorneys cannot file enhancements to charges once charges have been alleged, at the time of a preliminary hearing. “Therefore, the charges cannot be added later,” even if a mountain of evidence is found that adds to the severity of the criminal’s crimes. Price, who got rid of Ford after he criticized her, is engaging in a purge of Assistant DAs who request adding enhancements to cases.
Price’s grudge against cops, which seems to emanate from her infatuation with the Black Panthers, was illustrated almost as soon as she took office, when she reopened old cases, some more than a decade old, against eight police killings and in-custody deaths, all of which had been dismissed under her predecessor. This signals to police officers throughout Alameda County that Price has essentially declared war against them, which further diminishes their morale and makes cops more hesitant to get involved in potentially violent cases. As the Berkeley Scanner put it, under Price’s regime, “the penalty for most crimes in Alameda County will soon be restricted to probation or the lowest-level prison term.” That would fit in with Price’s expressed desire to “decarcerate” our jails and free the prisoners.
Then there’s Price’s egregious decision not to pursue “special circumstances murder charges” against the men who killed 23-month old toddler, Jasper Wu. It was that case in particular that horrified the Asian-American community and led directly to the recall effort. And, just the other day, Price struck back even more viciously against Butch Ford by filing criminal charges against him, an action that appears to be viciously vengeful.
I could go on and on citing more irresponsible and dangerous actions by “Madame D.A.,” as she announced she prefers to be known. In response, Price has done what so many of her woke colleagues always do: claim that any criticism of her is “racist.” The recall itself, she says, is a form of “election denying” similar to Trump’s defense of Jan. 6 insurrectionists. “And the movement of election deniers has been infested with racial bias,” she told KQED.
Of course, people who play the race card have nothing else with which to defend themselves. Price can only appeal to the sympathies of wavering voters by claiming to be the real victim here. “I have been called every Black name and identified as a Black woman and attacked as a Black woman by people who now, I guess…Carl Chan [is] embracing.”
I believe the voters of Alameda County have the sense to recognize BS when they see it. Soon, signature gatherers for the recall will hit the streets. Please sign up. And please donate some money to SAFE. They’re still working on their website, which should be up soon, and I’ll publicize it when it is. Thanks for any donation you can make!
Steve Heimoff