We managed to persuade Mayor Schaaf to issue a proclamation next month for National Police Week, which this year is May 11-17. I’m told she would not have done this had it not been for our lobbying. I got the idea for it when I saw an older proclamation issued by former mayor Elihu Harris, back in the 1990s, which is on display at Oakland Police Headquarters, on Seventh Street (yes, the same building Carroll Fife and Rebecca Kaplan want to kick OPD out of and turn into low-cost housing). I had thought, “Why don’t Oakland mayors do these proclamations anymore?” and I asked the Mayor’s office to do it.
We had wanted Mayor Schaaf to issue her proclamation in a public ceremony, perhaps with Chief Armstrong by her side. But she doesn’t want to. The proclamation itself, which her office says will be published on social media, is as far as she’ll go. I’m not sure why. It seems to me that a public event, covered by the media, would be a spectacular gesture of gratitude for OPD. After all, Libby Schaaf has been far more courteous toward and supportive of the police than the majority of the City Council, who have consistently voted to defund the department, and who routinely say nasty things about Oakland cops. With morale within OPD as low as it is, a public ceremony honoring our cops would be a fitting, overdue mark of respect for a beleaguered department. But it is not to be…
I really don’t quite understand why politicians are so afraid of openly supporting cops. I remember back last summer or fall, we—the Coalition—interviewed City Council member Treva Reid, who was considering running for mayor. I asked her if she would accept police money for her campaign, and she said no. On that basis alone, the Coalition could not support her. Reid, regardless of whatever good qualities she has, knuckled under to the cop-haters; her insinuation is that cops are bad people and their money is tainted. That is a lie, and an insult to the brave women and men who every day put their lives on the line to protect people like Treva Reid and her family. I don’t believe that Reid actually thinks cops are bad, or that their money is tainted. But I do believe she’s afraid of the torrents of abuse that cop-haters like Cat Brooks would hurl on her, were she to accept a cop campaign contribution. That makes Reid, in my opinion, feckless—not a leader of a great city.
Anyhow, in the event there is a ceremony of some kind, I’ll let you know. As far as I can tell, the Mayor will publish her proclamation on Sunday, May 15.
Steve Heimoff