The Oakland Police Department is losing the narrative—if they haven’t already lost it--in this current defund battle, and there’s a good reason for that.
It’s because they can’t speak out. While the defunders at the Anti Police-Terror squad, the Police Commission and on the City Council are constantly interviewed by the media, inundating the public with their allegations that “all cops are bastards,” the actual women and men who wear the badge are forbidden to tell their side of the story.
You should hear some of the things the Police Commission hears in their public hearings. Cops are brutal thugs who terrorize the neighborhood! They beat up people for no reason at all! They’re greedheads who don’t care about anything except money! I’ve read through some of the Commission’s transcripts and let me tell you, I don’t think they let anyone testify who has anything good to say about cops. But if your heart is filled with anti-cop rage, step up to the microphone; the Commissioners are all ears in their little echo chamber.
To this unrelenting assault on their moral character and reputations, the cops must remain silent. They’re a military organization, after all, and like members of all military organizations they dare not get out of step with their bosses. Led by the Chief of Police, LeRonne Armstrong (who is hired and can be fired by the Police Commission), OPD’s top ranks either don’t want to defend their own rank-and-file cops, or else, they actually agree with the accusations. I don’t know which one it is, but either way, it makes Chief Armstrong look pretty bad. I don’t mean to pick on him. He’s probably a wonderful man, and I’d love to meet him. He may feel he’s doing the best he can under impossible circumstances. Maybe he thinks he has to suck up to the Cat Brookes and Carroll Fifes in order to keep the worst from happening to his cops. If that’s what he’s doing, he’s doing it very well.
What would happen if cops really had freedom of speech? They’d be in front of the T.V. cameras, looking the public in the eye and saying, “I always wanted to be a cop because I love this town and want to protect its citizens.” They’d tell you about comrades they’ve lost to violence, about getting spat at while doing their jobs, getting the finger, being shunned by the people they’re trying to help, being accused of things they didn’t do, feeling mistrusted by their own Chief. They’d tell you how much it hurts, how their stress level—which is high enough under the best of circumstances—is in the toilet because of the constant attacks on their integrity. They’d tell you how morale at OPD is at an all-time low, how cops are quitting in droves because they just can’t take it anymore.
But they can’t tell you these things because they’re not allowed to. And that’s why they’re losing the narrative. The people of Oakland hear only one side of the story—a very unbalanced side, in my opinion. And they hear it all the time. Reporters who cover crime and cops in Oakland always call the same sources —the defund crowd—because reporters need sources with important-sounding titles who return their phone calls and give good quote. I know: I was a reporter for a long time. When you find someone, like a Cat Brooks, who runs an outfit that sounds important and reputable, and who can rattle off powerful one-liners, you stick with that person. I don’t fault the reporters, who are only doing their jobs. But there is a problem when the reporters can’t call the cops. There’s no counter-narrative, no balanced perspective, no way for the public to make informed decisions. No wonder people, especially young people, think cops are thugs. That’s the only thing they ever hear.
This is why we started the Coalition for a Better Oakland. Until now, there has been no citizens’ group that speaks for cops. But there is now. We’re providing another narrative, a true one. If you love Oakland, and realize that these demands to defund OPD are crazy and potentially very dangerous, we hope you’ll join us.
Steve Heimoff