I got a call last week from a woman who identified herself as a producer with a T.V. news crew from Sweden. They were working on a documentary about Oakland, and wished for my help. Evidently our troubled city has made international headlines for crime and murder, and the news has even reached far-away Sweden.
The lady wanted to know if I would meet with her news crew, who would be visiting Oakland, and take them around to some of our more troubled spots. What’s happening in Oakland is unheard of in Sweden, an orderly country that respects law and order, and Oakland has become, for better or worse, a symbol of the breakdown of law and culture in America.
I told I her I be happy to. I called my friend Seneca Scott and asked what he thought, and his immediate response was “That’s really dangerous.” I hadn’t through of it that way, but then I remembered the attacks on news crews in Oakland over the years, the thefts, even the deaths. Wow, I thought. Maybe I need to think this through a little further.
I called a friend, a highly-placed officer in the Oakland Police Department, and asked what he thought. “A kamikaze mission,” he replied. And that’s when I decided it simply wasn’t possible. I’d given the T.V. woman my word to help them, and now, I had to change my mind. I felt bad, but it was too dangerous for everyone. So I called the producer and gave her my opinion.
“Doesn’t Oakland have safe areas?” she asked.
“Well, yes, but you want to see the bad places.” In truth, no place in Oakland is safe, but I didn’t feel like arguing with her. She said she’d talk with her crew and let me know what they decided. That was on Saturday; I haven’t heard back from her yet.
So here we are, living in a city that’s become notorious around the world for crime, a sort of modern-day Sodom, where not even journalists are safe. Who will tell our story, if not ourselves? Beyond that, who cares about Oakland, beyond ourselves? For lots of Americans, Oakland is an example of I-told-you-so. “That’s what happens when radical leftists take over a city.” Well, we get what we elect: we placed ideological criminal-protectors like Carroll Fife, Pamela Price and Nikki Bas into high office, and we’re now paying the price.
As of now, early Monday morning, I haven’t heard back from the Swedes, but they’re well aware of my warnings. I won’t be assisting them (although I’ll provide information if they want it), and I truly hope they don’t decide to send their crew to International Boulevard, or West Oakland, or wherever. I can all too easily imagine what is likely to happen, and it isn’t pleasant.
Steve Heimoff