I for one wasn’t surprised when Thao rejected all three candidates for Police Chief the Police Commission had recommended to her. Thao had her reasons. One, none of the candidates was woke enough. Thao is looking for someone who’s as committed to “social justice” as she claims to be. She’s not interested in a good cop who fights crime; she wants a sort of Nikki Bas in blue uniform, someone obsessed with racial grievance and leftist ideology.
Another reason Thao rejected the list was because LeRonne Armstrong was on it. Thao had previously said she would not under any circumstances choose Armstrong if the Commission recommended him. Surprisingly, they did—a sort of middle finger to Thao from the Commission, although the precise politics involved have yet to be assessed. There’s a lot of mystery here (so much for “transparency”). But we can perhaps unravel it a bit by recurring to a rumor that surfaced after Thao fired Armstrong last January. According to what I heard, Thao was acting at the behest of Robert Warshaw, the federal monitor for OPD for the last 14 years. Warshaw, it was said, was upset that Armstrong was making such good progress on the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA). In fact, OPD looked to be freed from the NSA’s shackles early next year, a likelihood Warshaw dreaded since his hefty salary would end with the NSA’s demise. So Warshaw put the pressure on Thao, using as an excuse that Armstrong had unjustly criticized him.
Another thing we don’t know is precisely what leverage Warshaw had, or has, on Thao. Why should she have knuckled under to him? But we know Thao is an unscrupulous pol, in the bag of the big unions. She’s also secretive, vengeful, angry and stubborn. We may never fully understand everything that’s going on in the back rooms where deals are hatched and conspiracies planned. But we can smell rotting fish when we encounter them. Something’s rotten here, and it will take journalists with more resources than I have to get to the bottom of it.
Meanwhile, Oakland still has no Police Chief, after more than a year, and we have no idea when we’re likely to get one. The reality is, the people of Oakland want LeRonne Armstrong back. People of color in Oakland want him back. The Oakland chapter of the NAACP wants him back. His popularity in East Oakland was legendary. But Warshaw doesn’t want him back. Neither do the professional race hustlers, who hated Armstrong because he was actually making OPD stronger. The race hustlers want a weakened, depleted OPD, or a non-existent one. People like Carroll Fife have never cared for a crime-free Oakland; instead, they want empowerment for themselves and their cronies, and if that means hobbling OPD and letting crime flourish in Oakland (as it is now), then so be it. You can’t make an omelet without cracking a few eggs.
I’ve been saying all year that the worst thing I’ve ever seen an Oakland mayor do in my 37 years living here was when Thao fired Armstrong. Well, throwing out the Police Commission’s list is a close second. Thao had the opportunity to eat a little crow and do the right thing. She spat on that opportunity, further dividing our city and imperiling our future. I hope the voters of Oakland are finally perceiving Thao’s spitefulness and incompetence, traits that are putting our beloved city in more peril than ever.
Steve Heimoff