When I heard about Saturday’s police killing of a violent carjacker in Rockridge, a shudder went down my spine. “Here we go again,” I thought. “Now the defund-the-police types will riot downtown, wreck storefronts, cause more businesses to board up or leave town, and further inflame tensions in Oakland.”
After all, if you look at it historically, when an Oakland cop shoots and kills someone—even a pathological criminal—the anti-cop brigade somehow manages to trash downtown, as if that does anyone any good.
We haven’t had any riots lately (mainly because Oakland cops haven’t been forced to kill anyone for a couple years). But the mindset for riots is always there, brewing away like dry rot that can bring down the house at any moment. We unfortunately have a demographic of unstable, angry people (not all of them from Oakland by any means) whose dreary lives are given sparkle by a few hours of vandalizing and looting downtown. When they learn of a police shooting, they start salivating; grabbing their crowbars and bandannas, they organize through social media, await nightfall, and then spread their mayhem under cover of darkness.
But so far, mercifully, we’ve seen no riots, no protests, not even any murmuring on Twitter. It’s like this latest incident never happened.
Maybe it’s because even the most rabid of police haters understands that the deceased perp was an atrocious guy who more or less brought his fate upon himself. He carjacked a car (no word yet on the victim/s), and when police tracked him down using helicopters, he rammed the stolen vehicle into police cars and fired his gun at cops. “At that point,” reports the East Bay Times, “officers fired shots and struck the suspect. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.”
I don’t celebrate anyone’s death. But surely, we can agree that this guy—whoever he was (and we know almost nothing about him)—was not an ideal citizen. It’s a good thing he’s off the streets and no longer able to menace the rest of us.
I wonder if there are actually cop haters out there who gave serious thought to rioting. They detest the police so much that, if an OPD officer shot Attila the Hun while he was impaling people in Frank Ogawa Plaza, they’d protest that. But there may be another reason why things are quiet this time. The tide may be turning. By that, I mean public opinion has swung decisively against the defund-the-police types, and in favor of a stronger, more protective police force. People are freaked out, not just by the soaring murder rate, but by these store invasions. Spend a little time on nextdoor and all you hear about are break-ins, muggings, weirdos following little children, stolen cars and other affronts to public dignity and safety. It may be that even some of the misguided people who rioted in past years have come to realize that Oakland requires a strong police force in order to combat the creeps.
I’ll close with this email sent to me by our Recording Secretary, Jack Saunders. It’s from someone he met on nextdoor.com. As depressing as the first paragraph is, the second is hopeful:
Hi new neighbors. I just moved to the Oakland area from Sonoma County not knowing what I was getting myself into, and I’m actually fearful for my life. I cannot believe how dirty, destructive, dangerous, and neglected this city is. It is such a shame reading every single day about the shootings, rapes, murders, homelessness, potholes, trash, etc. I cannot grasp why the city does the bare minimum but it’s so sad and wrong. What can be done about this? Seriously. Nobody should have to fear driving on the freeway, walking to work, going on a hike, walking home from school. This is so so terrible. Breaks my heart.
On the other end of this move, I’ve learned that Oakland has some of the most genuine and caring individuals I’ve ever came across. "The diversity and love among all sorts of people is truly the best thing that I’ve seen. I’ve been loving taking my walks around Lake Merritt and seeing this with my own eyes. My mother came to visit and left a market covered in chills, because she just could not believe the kindness she ran into. It really is beautiful. I’ve had more bump ins of kindness out here than I ever have anywhere else. That is something to be proud of, if you are an Oakland Native. This city is filled with very loving, intelligent, powerful, and strong individuals. That is the truth. This city deserves to feel safe."
Steve Heimoff
NUMBER OF DAYS SINCE I INVITED CARROLL FIFE TO HAVE TEA WITH ME, WITH NO REPLY: 10