Kudos to Oaklandside’s reporter, Eli Wolfe, for writing this lengthy analysis of why fighting crime in Oakland is so hard. It makes for fascinating reading, but it’s also frustrating, because, as Eli notes, every time there’s a common sense solution for a problem, there emerge multiple reasons why that solution can’t be deployed.
Here are a couple examples: When local Oakland residents wanted to fence off an area where drug addicts were shooting up, Nikki Bas replied that the cost--$20,000—was prohibitive. When other residents asked the city to ban motorcycles from ripping through a park and destroying the grass, Bas said that doing so would also restrict the ability of people in wheelchairs or bicyclists to use the park. When residents begged Bas to do something about sideshows, Bas “said disrupting sideshows would take more than an enforcement-based approach, and that her office is prepared to work on messaging to reduce interest in these gatherings.”
I’ve cited Bas in these instances because she’s the council member the Oaklandside article featured, but really, all the other council members are just as guilty of this sort of obfuscation and excuse mongering. Let’s get this clear: there are no issues that an adequately-funded and empowered police department couldn’t solve. Oakland doesn’t have to build a fence to keep junkies from shooting up behind a restroom: OPD could solve the problem in 5 minutes by raiding a shooting party and making arrests. Oakland doesn’t have to ban baby carriages and bicycles from using parks to get rid of motorcycles; OPD could easily ticket or arrest motorcyclists who are destroying public property. Oakland doesn’t have to allow sideshow freaks to endanger our streets. OPD could easily stop vehicles by a variety of interventions and arrest drivers as well as onlookers who goad them on.
But a strong, empowered OPD is exactly what Nikki Bas and her friends don’t want. They have been captured and are controlled by a resurgent “Black Liberation” movement that detests law enforcement and sees cops as their eternal enemy. Bas can aver, as she often does, that MACRO and the Department of Violence Prevention are better investments of the taxpayers’ dollars than OPD, but this is a massive, deliberate fraud. I defy anyone to offer any convincing evidence that MACRO or DVP are doing anything worthwhile. Their woke defenders say, “Oh, we have to give them time, and also increase their budgets,” at the cost, obviously, of decreasing OPD’s budget. I say that we taxpayers need to insist on concrete evidence that MACRO and DVP (which together suck up tens of millions of dollars a year) work, and we want that evidence NOW, not five years from now; and we want the evidence to be compiled, not by self-serving bureaucrats who run DVP and MACRO, but by independent auditors. If Oakland can afford to have police haters like Warshaw running our Police Department, at a cost of $1 million or $5 million a year or whatever it is, then we can afford to hire an outside agency to analyze DVP and MACRO. Both programs, I solemnly predict, will be found to be useless.
By the way, good luck to Bas’s idea of “messaging to reduce interest” in sideshows. Messaging! Who woulda thunk? While she’s at it, maybe she can reduce interest in fentanyl by addicts, and reduce interest in guns and crime by thugs, through “messaging.” Talk about distractions. No, Nikki Bas, the way to end sideshows isn’t by “messaging,” it’s by enforcing the law. Puncture sideshow car tires. Seize vehicles. Fine participants. Throw them in jail for a couple days, notify their employers, publish their names, make them think twice about being repeat offenders and, if necessary, hold their parents responsible. One of these days, Oakland is going to hire a lot more cops—we all know it--and is going to have to get rid of ridiculous wastes of money, like DVP and MACRO. But first we have to change the political culture that foists these charades on us. We can start by recalling Pamela Price. As for the Recall Price Rally that was postponed earlier this week, I’m expecting it to be rescheduled within the next 10 days, and will announce the date when I know. Stay tuned.
Have a wonderful, safe weekend!
Steve Heimoff