Lord knows it never takes me long to find something dumb and untrue when I read my morning S.F. Chronicle. On Sunday it took all of two minutes. I had turned to the “Insight” section where the political gadfly, Joe Matthews, said Gov. Newsom sent Oakland the California Highway Patrol (one of the Governor’s wisest decisions) because “Oakland police have failed to act.”
I want to get rid of this leftwing canard once and for all. Oakland police have not failed to act. To the extent they’ve been unable to make all the arrests we wish they would, it’s because they have been and continue to be prevented from doing their jobs. At least four separate but related phenomena—all created by progressive politicians—contribute to this sad fact. (1) Oversight agencies, including the Federal monitor (Oakland is the most regulated police department in America), create conditions that make it difficult, and sometimes impossible, for cops to do their jobs. (2) Oakland cops stand a greater than average chance of getting sued, either criminally or civilly or both, for doing their jobs, and this makes them, in many cases, risk averse. (3) Cops know that if they’re sued, demoted, put on leave or otherwise penalized for doing their jobs, nobody will come to their aid—and that local media will depict them as racist, violent monsters. Finally, and most importantly, (4) OPD is horribly understaffed. By every objective measure, the department should employ at least 1,100 full-time officers. The current number is 687. That’s simply not enough to do the job. And this is by design: The City Council could, any time they wanted, increase OPD’s budget. But this is something they’ll never do, because most of them fundamentally want an emasculated police force and don’t believe in arresting most criminals in the first place.
The collective result is a police department that is operating at only a fraction (I’d estimate 50%) of what they could accomplish if they were better supported by this city.
It’s unconscionable for Joe Matthews to repeat this lie, which comes straight out of Cat Brooks’ mouth. Her argument against funding the police has for years been “Why bother giving them more money when they’re wasting what we already give them?” An eight-year old child could see the speciousness of this illogic. It’s like telling the Fire Department, “We’re not going to give you more water to put out this wildfire because you haven’t succeeded with what we’re already given you.” We expect such nonsense from Cat Brooks and her stooge, Carroll Fife, because that’s what they do: spout progressive propaganda in order to brainwash the public. But Joe Matthews is supposed to be a journalist working for a (once) great newspaper.
Concerning (1), the oversight agencies, they hover over OPD like vultures. I’ve said before I would entirely eliminate the Oakland Police Commission and its various investigatory limbs. At every meeting, the atmosphere is like, “Has anyone discovered any dirt on OPD this week and what new restrictions can we put on them?” The Police Commission is, of course, overseen by the City Council—the very government body that has repeatedly tried to defund OPD and remains committed to reducing its effectiveness.
Concerning (2), cops’ legitimate fear of getting sued or fired, this directly impacts their ability to fight crime. The so-called Ferguson Effect “is a reality” (the Pew Research Center finds), “with three-quarters of officers surveyed saying they are hesitant to use force, even when appropriate, and are less willing to stop and question suspicious people.” With everyone brandishing a smart phone these days, fewer officers are willing to engage in the use of force to stop criminals, afraid of appearing on a 5 o’clock news video that goes viral. This leads directly to (3), cops’ fear of being criminally or civilly sued by the likes of lawyer John Burris. Even if the Police Commission exonerates a cop, that doesn’t stop ambulance-chasing lawyers from pursuing civil charges that—in a cop-hating city like Oakland—are likely to result in juries that find the cop guilty. (This is why the City almost always settles these civil cases out of court.)
The point I repeat is that Oakland police have not failed to act. They are among the best trained, most professional police officers in America. If they were unshackled, Oakland would see its crime rate drop dramatically. If you’ve had the privilege of serving on OPD, most other police departments across the country would snap you up with pleasure. We really need to educate the voting public on this very important issue: Don’t ever blame crime on the cops. Crime is entirely the fault of criminals, and the City Councils and District Attorneys that empower them.
Steve Heimoff