This is my reply to a letter-writer in the Chronicle yesterday who argued that Pamela Price should not be recalled. His only argument was that “We do not need the cost or the ramifications of recalling Pamela Price.”
The cost of recalling Price? How can you put a price on restoring justice to the District Attorney’s office, which should be the front line of defense for the innocent citizens of Alameda County but instead has turned into a game of letting violent Black felons off the hook? As for the “ramifications,” the letter writer didn’t explain what they are, except to forecast that, if Price is recalled, the result “almost certainly” will be “a new chief prosecutor chosen by moneyed interests.”
How’s that again? Price’s election campaign was paid for by the multi-billionaire George Soros. If anyone ever qualified to be a “moneyed interest,” it is Mr. Soros. This is not to attack him—I actually have a lot of respect--only to point out the deception involved in saying that “moneyed interests” are behind Price’s recall. That is a lie. I live in Oakland; I know many of the people who are calling for the recall of Pamela Price. They are not “moneyed interests.” They’re middle-class residents, including many of color, and small business owners in Oakland who take seriously Price’s threats to “decarcerate” our prisons and release known thugs back to the streets, where they will again prey on us.
The letter writer claims that Price possesses the “compassion, integrity, strength of character and purpose” required in a D.A. What a farce. Tell that to Jasper Wu’s parents, who are waiting to see how their toddler’s killers are let off the hook by Price because they’re Black. Tell that to the victims of Delonzo Logwood, who murdered three innocent people but to whom Price offered a soft plea deal. Tell that to the victims of Luracious Wilkerson, to whom Price also gave a cushy deal after he tried to kill police officers responding to his looting at Bayfair Mall. Tell that to the widow of Kevin Nishita, who was brutally murdered in Oakland but for whose killer Price is “pursuing alternatives to prison time.” There is no compassion in Price, no integrity, no strength of character and purpose. All there is, is a mindless excusing of Black criminality. I’m sorry if this sounds racist, but it’s really crazy to have a D.A. who’s such a race ideologue that she’s eager to let Black killers off the hook because she thinks they’re the victims, rather than the people they murdered.
In whatever time I have left in my life, I would love to see Pamela Price recalled. The noble voters of San Francisco recalled their woke District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, in a story that garnered international attention. Price is much further to the left than Boudin ever dared to be. This maniac wants to shut down the prisons and free all the criminals. How in God’s name did Alameda County elect her? If we can recall her, it will be the shot heard everywhere: Even progressive Oakland has had it with this apologist for crime. Please join us in this growing movement. It’s the decent thing to do. If you don’t—if you continue to defend Price’s racist politics—them don’t bother calling on the cops to help you if you’re attacked or robbed, for you will have no right to do so.
And while we’re on the subject of crime, a related issue: the closure of the Whole Foods on Market Street in San Francisco. The company decided to pull the plug on the store, which has only been open for a year, due to overwhelming crime, shoplifting and drug taking. The S.F. Chronicle, reporting the story, described some truly shocking instances: “About a month ago…a man began urinating in the store [and when a staff member] asked him to leave, the man replied that he wasn’t finished.” Another time, “a woman was walking barefoot around the store…she told the security guards, ‘If you touch me, I’ll sue you.’” Another security guard “saw people using their hands to grab from the prepared food stations.”
I ask in all seriousness: In what other country would these sociopaths be allowed to roam free? Why don’t store managers have the right to make citizen’s arrests on these people? For that matter, why don’t normal people—the 99.9% of the rest of us—surround these misfits and keep them under control until police arrive? Why do we not prosecute these sickos to the maximum extent of the law? If you want an honest answer to these questions, it’s this: We’ve let a progressive concern for “civil rights” triumph over the rights of everybody else. It has to end.
Steve Heimoff