I attended last night a homeowners meeting up in the hills. It had been called by neighbors concerned about a shocking increase in crime in the once-safe area. They invited Sheng Thao, the new Police Chief Floyd Mitchell and their district city councilman Kevin Jenkins. Mitchell brought along three members of his command staff. About 100 people came, a good showing for such an event.
It was clear the attendees are angry about crime and looking for someone to blame. Thao was that person. True, the atmosphere was polite, with scattered applause for Thao from these well-educated, wealthy voters, but there was no escaping the feeling that the person at the top carries the responsibility, and that person is Sheng Thao.
She probably did herself some good, despite the many lies she lobbed. She’s more articulate than I thought. She ad libs well. She’s on top of her statistics. But her presentation was blatantly self-serving, and you could tell from her body language she’s obsessed with the impending Recall and was clearly campaigning against it.
Well might she be obsessed! This morning’s edition of Steven Tavares’ East Bay Insider newsletter reports on a just-released poll indicating very bad news for Thao. It found that a resounding 69% of respondents view her unfavorably, and 56% currently plan to vote to recall her. Meanwhile, 65% disapprove of the Oakland City Council.
For me a really interesting thing was the interaction between Thao and the four cops at the meeting—Chief Mitchell and his three deputies. As I mentioned, Thao told a lot of lies and made a of misrepresentations and excuses for her ineptitude. Just for one example, when she bragged about bolstering the city’s 9-1-1 call system, I knew she was lying because I’ve read her budget line by line and it calls for freezing a number of staff positions in Oakland’s telecommunications department, which is responsible for 9-1-1 calls. I doubt if anyone in the audience knew that, but the four cops certainly did, as did Thao’s chief aide, Brandon Harami, as well as Kevin Jenkins. I had the powerful impression that the cops, at least (including Chief Mitchell), wished they could point out that freezing employee positions is no different from firing them; either way, the job goes unfilled. But the cops didn’t dare say anything. On this occasion, and on so many others when Thao lied or misrepresented, you could see the cops wrestling with their consciences. If they spoke out, they’d be placed on administrative leave by day’s end. But they couldn’t speak out, not with their boss, Chief Mitchell, right next to them, and his boss, Sheng Thao, listening hawklike to every word.
My heart went out to those cops. They’re caught between Scylla and Charybdis, to use an old metaphor. Poor cops: all they want to do is do their jobs. But they can’t, and then there’s the awful Police Commission that hobbles them at every turn, and that miserable old greedhead Robert Warshaw, the Federal monitor, anxious to preserve his $1 million salary, looming over OPD like a vulture. The cops are damned if they do, damned if they don’t, and they dare not speak a word if they want to keep their jobs.
We as a city have to figure out a better way for cops to communicate with the public. Currently, there is no way, except through OPD’s Communications Department and the Oakland Police Officer’s Association, both of which have to watch their step. Chief Mitchell seems like a sincere, good man, but as he himself pointed out, he’s still on his “100 day listening tour” and is anxious to prove himself to Thao, who hired him, as well as to the Police Commission and Warshaw.
A final interesting thing is that several times Thao distanced herself from Pamela Price. She didn’t come right out and say “Recall her!” but she did make references to “if the District Attorney chooses to indict them” regarding criminals arrested by OPD. The rats are all running away from a sinking ship and in the process turning on each other, a good sign that the woke progressive stranglehold over Alameda County is beginning to loosen.
Steve Heimoff