While we’re all thrilled that Gov. Newsom is sending lawyers, guns and money to help Oakland fight crime, I find somewhat puzzling his depiction of this as “a partnership” between the California Department of Justice and D.A. Pamela Price, which is what it says in the Governor’s official press release.
Any way you interpret it, it’s a clear reprimand to Price for her failure to do her job as District Attorney and prosecute crime, rather than substituting her racialized “social justice” nonsense. Newsom has, in effect, told Price, “You’re not doing your job. Therefore, I’m sending CHP and CADOJ to do it for you.”
Let me tell you how I believe this “partnership” language came about. Keep in mind, I possess no special knowledge. What I’m laying out is strictly conjecture. It is, however, informed conjecture which I believe to be true.
Newsom is not by nature a divisive or vindictive politician. Quite the opposite; he is a very kind man. He seeks congeniality in everything he does. Even when he has confronted Donald Trump, he has done so with grace and without rancor. In addition to being polite, he understands the importance, in politics, of not burning your bridges. The person you alienate today may turn out to be a needed ally tomorrow. Thus, in this case, although we all understand that Newsom’s actions are a direct, hard-hitting indictment of Price’s abject failures, at the same time Newsom is letting Price save face by portraying this embarrassment as a “partnership.” But, as Seneca Scott retweeted, “The CA Governor and Attorney General ha[ve] placed the Alameda County DA into a de facto receivership due to the incompetence and pro-criminal policies” of Pamela Price.
Price can spin this any way she wants—and so can her enablers, like Sheng Thao, who also is implicated—but the Governor’s admonition is clear: Price has utterly failed, and in doing so has brought Oakland to the brink of disaster. Just as President Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne Division to Arkansas to protect the Little Rock Nine from Gov. Faubus’s goons, so Newsom is sending in the troops to protect us citizens of Oakland from the grievous crime wave enabled by Pamela Price, who now will answer to her new boss, California Attorney-General Rob Bonta.
My surmisal is that negotiations between Price and Newsom resulted in this “partnership” language. Probably Newsom told her, “I don’t necessarily want to embarrass you, Madame District Attorney, but you’re not up for the job, so I have to step in.”
“Well, Governor, thank you for the heads-up. Let me ask one favor: just call it a partnership instead of a takeover.”
“I’ll willing to do that.”
“Thank you, Governor Newsom.”
Newsom knows that people will read the room and understand exactly what’s happening. Although he insisted to KTVU that “I’m not interested in who’s to blame [in Oakland], I want to solve this problem,” he knows it’s not necessary to bludgeon a political opponent; all you have to do is let the facts be known, and the public will draw the necessary conclusions. Those conclusions are that Newsom has no faith in the ability of this District Attorney to do her job (if indeed he ever had any to begin with). His action also signals yet another cleavage with progressive or “woke” politics, which has marked his political evolution over the years.
There will be even more to come from Newsom in the coming days in protecting Oakland, in addition to sending in those 120 CHP officers and this latest venture. Something is likely to happen as early as next week. It may have to do with the Federal monitor, Robert Warshaw, who has long overstayed his welcome in torturing OPD and raking in millions of dollars for his personal profit. It may involve official state audits of how Oakland spends all those millions of dollars for anti-crime efforts—money that seems to vanish into a black hole with no accountability. It may be a close judicial examination of Sheng Thao. It may be—and Newsom hinted at this in his press release—an indictment of soft-on-crime judges who keep returning career criminals to the streets. Wouldn’t it be great if he named names and kicked ass?
Whatever it is, we can be thankful that Gov. Newsom has Oakland very much on his mind and in his heart. He didn’t really have to do anything for us; he could have pleaded that every city in California is clamoring for help, so he can’t favor just one over all the others. (He’s made that case in the past.) Instead, he has taken this bold series of unprecedented steps and, as I said, there are more to come.
Steve Heimoff