“Violence prevention” has become almost a religious mantra in Oakland. Politicians speak of it as a holy grail that will solve all our problems, if only it is properly funded. In fact, for professional pols such as Nikki Bas, Carroll Fife and Sheng Thao, talking about “violence prevention” has become their standard excuse for weakening the Oakland Police Department, while still pretending to care about the crime wave that is killing our city.
The only problem is that “violence prevention” is a myth. There’s an extensive body of research across the country that proves this. So-called violence interrupters tend to “lapse into drug dealing or other illegal activity.” Interrupters “avoid cooperating with cops,” and since so many interrupters are themselves former convicts, cops are wary of cooperating with them. But in the post-George Floyd world, violence prevention programs “are being showered with unprecedented resources.” Due to this influx of funding, “Everybody’s an intervention specialist now,” says a violence prevention leader in Louisville KY.
You can say that again. Here in Oakland, it seems that anyone and everyone can set himself up in the violence prevention business and get paid. Nobody knows exactly how much money is being poured into the Department of Violence Prevention. Tens of millions of dollars come from the General Fund, but violence prevention budgets also are swelled by grants and private donations. What we get is a bloated bureaucracy that can give an impressive presentation, complete with flow charts and inspiring rhetoric about “a healthy, safe and thriving Oakland.” But this bureaucracy seems to exist by and for itself. As Ronald Reagan once noted, the nearest thing to eternal life is a government bureaucracy; once created, it proves impossible to end, and is constantly clamoring for more money. Despite a lack of evidence that Oakland’s Department of Violence Prevention has accomplished anything, the politicians who benefit from its existence will continue to fund it, so they can claim on the campaign trail that they’re doing something about crime.
The actual guidelines of the Department of Violence Prevention are vague to the point of oblivious. So-called “primary prevention strategies” are followed by “secondary” and then “tertiary interventions” that make it sound like violence prevention is an exact science when it is anything but. The money that DVP doles out to sketchy grassroots organizations adds up to millions, with virtually no accountability or followup. When DVP gives $3.1 million to “Youth Drop-In Neighborhood Centers,” does anyone know what that means? Have you ever heard of a “youth drop-in neighborhood center”? Surely this is worth looking into: are such places efficacious? Do they work over extended periods of time? What credentials do their leaders have? But these are questions our City Council never asks, because they would prefer not to know the answers. Operating in total ignorance, someone like Nikki Bas can say, with a straight face, “If not now, when? We can’t keep funding a broken system. We must invest in preventing violence now.” She’s correct that we have a “broken system” but what “system” is she talking about? I would argue that what is “broken” isn’t the Oakland Police Department, but a community that values guns, violence and anti-social activity as its highest priorities. That is what is “broken,” and throwing tax dollars at dubious schemes will not fix it. The communities in which crime arises and thrives must fix themselves.
But this is impossible as long as we keep electing grifters who convince these violent communities that their problem comes from outside themselves. According to them, crime doesn’t happen because of an absence of moral values and a celebration of violence; it happens because of “white supremacy” or “structural racism.” If you’re a young criminal, just getting started in the dark arts of breaking into cars and stealing packages from doorsteps, it must come as a relief to hear great leaders like Bas reassure you that you’re okay. It’s not your fault you’ve decided to become a hoodlum. No, it’s the fault of “the system” which must, of course, be toppled. So when you break into a car, you’re not committing theft, you’re fighting racism.
Well, it’s all dangerous nonsense. But then, that’s what “social justice” has devolved into: an excuse for misconduct. If I could have one wish, it would be for these scandalously ineffective “violence prevention” programs to be revealed as the con they are. Let’s take all that money and give it to OPD, the real experts in violence prevention!
Steve Heimoff