We need to realize—and it’s not emphasized enough—that when we recall Price and Thao, Oakland’s problems won’t disappear.
Sure, it will feel great, and will send a powerful message across America that even in Oakland, people are fed up with wokeism. But the murders, robberies, carjackings, encampments and all the other criminal sociopathy will continue for some time. So we need to think about what we do after we’ve successfully recalled these disastrous politicians.
Price and Thao stand at the top of a pyramid of dysfunction that extends downward through other city officials and departments, the Courts, and the entire government structure of Oakland and Alameda County. It will be necessary to scrutinize every office and root out these far-left bureaucrats. The Courts will be the hardest to clean out, but we’ll also have to get rid of every DEI clerk in every department, every reverse-racist, pencil-pushing woke knucklehead that got their job through cronyism. We will, in short, have to purge large numbers of them.
Speaking of Price, she’s moving remarkably quickly in charging suspects with the murder of Officer Tuan Le. Three men have now been accused of the killing; all are being held in jail without bail. But something smells fishy about this.
Price knows that she’s widely mistrusted throughout Alameda County. Citizens have been watching her closely for a year now, and they don’t like what they see: her obsession with “racial equity,” her vengeful persecution of police officers, the softness with which she treats criminals of color, her intellectual limitations, the near-total lack of transparency of what she says and does behind closed doors. With the Recall looking more and more likely to succeed, Price is desperate to change the public’s perception of herself. What better way to do it than to present yourself as a crusading, crime-busting District Attorney?
Personally, I’d like to see all three defendants get the death penalty, but Gov. Newsom has suspended it, so that’s not likely. Meanwhile, never one to allow an opportunity to slip away, Price is determined to use the slaughter of Officer Le to her own personal advantage.
Price knows that her weak point in the Recall is the AAPI community. She’s vastly unpopular with Asian-Americans, who correctly conclude that she’s indifferent to the violence plaguing them. Asians make up more than one-third of the population of Alameda County. If Price loses them, she loses her coveted office. Hence, she’s courting Asians, or pretending to, in a cynical ploy to convince them she’s actually on their side. A few days ago, she showed up at a Black and Asian “unity” meeting, along with her friend Carroll Fife. Price mouthed all the right words when she assured Officer Le’s family and the Asian community that she would “leverage the full weight of my office against these people who we believe ruthlessly and wantonly murdered an officer who gave his life to protect our community against those who would do harm to all of us.”
She sounded sincere. Unfortunately, sincerity isn’t an motive we associate with Price, or with Fife. Both have too much of a track record of lying, of spinning facts, of contradicting themselves, of saying things they believe will help them politically, of stirring up racial divisions that throw gasoline on the flames of our culture war. We know too much about both of them to be fooled. They are unrepentant radicals, steeped in the toxic fury of 1960s-era Black radicalism, with its vengeance fantasies and penchant for violence.
So I would urge people not to be distracted by Price’s quick action in the Officer Le murder. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” Machiavelli is said to have observed. Price finds herself in the crisis of her lifetime. She was patiently waiting for a cop to be murdered so she could turn the tragedy to her advantage. Now, it’s happened. Permit me to infer that when Price first learned of Officer Le’s death, her reaction was, “Oh, thank you Lord.” Fate tossed her a lifebuoy just when she needed it the most. Shamelessly, Price is trying to claw her way to victory over Officer Le’s body.
Steve Heimoff