The Coalition for a Better Oakland congratulates the graduates of the 193rd Oakland Police Department Academy. These young women and men will join a force dedicated to protecting the peace and harmony of our beloved city.

Resentment oozes from every word in Ibram X. Kendi’s 2019 book, “How To Be An Antiracist.” He finds racism literally everywhere: Biological racism. Ethnic racism. Bodily racism. Cultural racism. Behavioral racism. Colorism. Class racism. Space racism. Gender racism. Queer racism. (These terms are all Kendi’s, not mine.) There is not a space, interstice, corner or nook of American life where Kendi does not see the ugly face of racism leering.

Next time Sheng Thao boasts about being personally responsible for decreasing crime in Oakland during the first quarter of 2024, ask her if she also takes credit for lower crime in San Francisco.

I thought MACRO was a scam from the moment I learned about it. I based this on my experience as a journalist in Oakland for 30 years, including investigative reporting I did in the 1990s on Oakland anti-violence programs. I saw shockingly fraudulent, near-criminal stuff that seemed wired into the DNA of Oakland social services; and the intervening years since have only strengthened this impression. In Oakland, if it smells like BS, it usually is. And MACRO smelled like BS.

Sheng Thao, in the fight of her political life due to the recall, is taking credit for the reported fall in Oakland crime in the first four months of 2024.