Pamela Price has at least two mouths, depending on whom she’s talking to. Her public mouth issues reassuring platitudes about how committed she is to public safety. But the real Price speaks quite a different language—one that shows just how radical and hateful she is to White people.
For example, Price—who’s fighting the Recall we’ve launched—recently sent out a fundraising email with a photograph showing her standing with a group of supporters in front of a large poster. Most of the poster is obscured, but not this part, which reads:
5. We want education for our people that exposes the true nature of this decadent American society.
Those words troubled and puzzled me, so I Googled them. Lo and behold: They’re Point #5 verbatim from the Black Panthers’ 1966 ten-point program, issued by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, pictured in full Panther regalia including bandoliers strapped across their chests and military-style assault weapons. This is not just an implication of violence; it’s a virtual guarantee.
Now, think about that message. First, there’s the phrase “our people,” meaning, obviously, Black people. The Panthers and Price could have said “All people” but they didn’t. Instead, they separated out Black people from everybody else. Surely this identity politics wasn’t healthy in 1966 and it’s even unhealthier in 2023. If you read the other points in the Panther statement, it could easily be Price’s campaign platform when she ran for District Attorney: decarceration (“We Want Freedom For All Black Men Held in Federal, State, County and City Prisons and Jails”), juries composed solely of Black people for Black defendants, “Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace” for Black people (for free, of course), Black men to be exempt from military service, seizure of property from “White landlords” that can be converted to “cooperatives,” and other absurdities rich in racism and hatred.
Then there’s the accusation that American society is “decadent.” Now, I agree with that to some extent; I deplore the commercialism that makes each of us merely mindless vehicles for funneling money to corporations. But I don’t think that’s quite what the Panthers or Price meant by “decadent.” I think it’s their way of signaling that America is going down (the roots of “decadent” and “decay” are the same), and America’s ultimate failure is something the Panthers and Price ardently desire.
It’s so important to always remember that Pamela Price is an unrepentant Black Panther. Her hatred of America—in particular, White America—is evident. She conceives it her role to “expose” America’s decadence, which means, of course, that there must be an active conspiracy to conceal it. Pamela Price is on a mission: She’s Madame Super-DA, the new incarnation of late Sixties Black Panther, but no less radical, violent, ignorant and dangerous, bent on destroying our institutions and allowing “her people” the freedom to break the law and to violate public order and safety.
This is the essence of Pamela Price, and she can’t hide it or put lipstick on it, despite her recent attempts to do so. People know what she’s up to. We’ve seen her type before. This is why the law-respecting citizens of Alameda County are eagerly lining up to sign Recall petitions; it’s why they’ll vote to throw her out of office when the Recall qualifies for the ballot. We do not want a vengeful Black Panther to have any power at all in Alameda County. Like her predecessors of the 1960s, Price resents White people, and believes that criminal behavior is not a choice, but the inevitable result of centuries of White oppression. She’s determined to tear down America and replace it with—what? Price has no answer. She’s here to destroy, and then to lead “her people” to build their new world order on the ruins of the old.
Steve Heimoff