For the most part, arguments about policing are based on statistics of crime rising or waning, punctuated by stories of horrific police abuse or horrific crimes. But the view from 30 thousand feet often bears little relation to the view from street level. Statistics don’t change the sense of fear on the street that crime is pervasive, or the loathing on the streets of cops treating human beings like scum. While progressive and conservative views have largely moved in tribal circles, the Oakland NAACP has broken from the fold in an open letter with a plea. They want the cops to protect them.
Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis.
African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city. But residents from all parts of the city report that they do not feel safe. Women are targeted by young mobs and viciously beaten and robbed in downtown and uptown neighborhoods. Asians are assaulted in Chinatown. Street vendors are robbed in Fruitvale. News crews have their cameras stolen while they report on crime. PG&E workers are robbed and now require private security when they are out working. Everyone is in danger.
This open letter has, as expected, drawn harsh criticism from its putative progressive allies, as it stands in stunning contrast to the dual claims that crime is down and the reforms of reducing (if not eliminating) police are working, ending prosecution of a laundry list of offenses is working and eliminating bail is working. And Oakland is not arguing whether it’s working in San Francisco or anywhere else, but that it’s not working in Oakland.
But not everyone agrees that more policing is the solution to Oakland’s issues.
Cat Brooks, co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project, said she believes the people behind the NAACP and Acts Full letter are from an older generation who are “completely detached from what’s actually happening.”
“I take personal offense at them blaming Defund [the Police],” Brooks said. “It never happened in the city of Oakland. Not even once.”
She believes that the spike in crime is caused by socioeconomic problems that were exacerbated by the Covid pandemic.
“We lost social services, human services, housing services, people lost their jobs,” Brooks said. “If we want to pay for those things, we need to stop giving the Oakland PD half of our budget!”
In the letter, Oakland NAACP president Cynthia Adams makes her point plain.
We are in crisis and elected leaders must declare a state of emergency and bring resources together from the city, the county, and the state to end the crisis. We are 500 police officers short of the number that experts say Oakland needs. Our 911 system does not work. Residents now know that help will not come when danger confronts them. Worse, criminals know that too.
Calls for love and unity are nice, but aren’t making the mean streets of Oakland any safer for the primary victims of crime, African Americans. She doesn’t want sweet words. She wants cops on the street, manning the 911 switchboard and responding to calls of crimes.
There is nothing inconsistent about wanting better cops, who treat citizens respectfully, don’t violate their constitutional rights and don’t resort to needless violence, and wanting police to do the job of protecting citizens. Nobody wants to be wrongfully beaten by a cop. Nobody wants to be beaten by a vicious criminal either. Nobody wants people who are inclined to commit crimes, whether because economic circumstances aren’t as wonderful as Bidenomics tells them or just because committing crimes is a quicker path to getting what they want than working for it, to believe they can do so with impunity.
Sure, we want to believe that people are inherently good, and if we give them the opportunity to succeed lawfully, they won’t choose instead to do so criminally. But the harsh reality is that while opportunity will dissuade some from doing bad things to others, it won’t stop all crime.
The secondary argument in Adams’ letter is that more cops means more crime prevention, which is itself a dubious proposition. As many have pointed out, real cops aren’t like TV cops. If they don’t trip over a crime, or create it themselves, their ability to investigate and find the perpetrator is slim at best. Cops are pretty poor at “solving” crime, even when they’re inclined to try.
But this neglects the reality that cops on the street have an impact on crime, even though it’s impossible to quantify what that impact is. Consider the cop on the street corner where some kids see a car ripe for jacking. Will they do it in front of the cop? Probably not, even if they aren’t particularly concerned that the cop will catch them. The point is why take the chance that the crime will go south and the cop will do his job. So they decide not to jack the car and move on. That’s one crime that didn’t happen, but it will never be shown in any statistic because nobody would know that there would have been a carjacking but for that cop on the corner.
When people on the street live in fear of crime, their lives are miserable and their participation in society limited. They don’t want to live that way, and the Oakland NAACP has stood up to speak for its constituency. This doesn’t make them cop lovers or reform haters, but human beings trying to survive together. Cops are part of that survival, and to accept this does not mean that cops can’t, and shouldn’t, do a whole lot better than they have in the past.
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I was betting on “Dancing in the Streets” or “Shakedown Street” and kinda hoping for the latter… “Don’t tell me this town and got no heart, when I can feel it beat out loud”.
I’m sure that, in the fullness of time, I’ll get over my disappointment…
Hal, are comments about Howl’s choice of music or the post. Will I get over my disappointment?
@ Dave,,
Now that’s what I’m talking about! Muchos gracias.
“…it stands in stunning contrast to the dual claims that crime is down and the reforms of reducing (if not eliminating) police are working, ending prosecution of a laundry list of offenses is working and eliminating bail is working.”
If you stop prosecuting shoplifting, for example, shoplifting reports and arrests go down. That does not mean shoplifting doesn’t still happen, but the experts are mystified when people still complain about shoplifters. “Shoplifting is down! We have the statistics to prove it!” Driving cops to be more reactive and less proactive also drives down crime statistics because there are fewer arrests. In this case, I’m with the NAACP
It is the duty of non-BIPOC to not question the Black person’s perspective on this subject. Advocating for the position of other side or even “just asking questions” is white supremacy.
#Allyship #DEISummerSavings
I take some small comfort in Cat Brooks only calling the NAACP old and out of touch rather than race traitors. The Progressive Utopia directed from the ivory towers of gated communities disdain the lived experience of the people actually affected by their policies. Perhaps if more Progressives got mugged, they would change their tune.
Some local officials relying on the DOJ “crime is down” statistics have been badly embarrassed by media inquiries which highlighted contrary local statistics. The FBI has made some public statements (and disclaimers) recognizing the lack of fit between their “statistics” and local statistics, but such statements have generally failed to rationally account for the discrepancies. They are essentially maintaining some system of counting that they know is inaccurate and unreliable, to enable this “crime is down” talking point for political purposes.
Having lived in NYC in the mid- to late-90s (I know, I know, pre-Rudy it was a lot worse) and, more recently, been a citizen of Oakland for the better part of the past 20+ years, I feel comfortable saying that the increase in violent crimes around The Town over the past few months is worse than it’s been in a long time. In the past month or so, we’ve had two judges robbed at gunpoint, one at the courthouse parking lot, the other was followed to a local ATM, where she was held up. Hot prowl burglaries are up. Carjackings are up. Shootings are up. People wait for 15+ minutes to get through on 9-1-1. (It’s not a great feeling when you call the cops about something and they show up 48 hours later.)
Oakland has had a chronically understaffed and underfunded police department. The police department has also had a significant history of malfeasance and, more recently, a majority of the county constituents elected a new prosecutor who ran on a progressive platform. So when calls go out from Oaklanders for “more” cops, it’s not necessarily about having a cop on every block or even that folks are convinced that more cops is always the solution. After all, what good is an arrest if charges are never filed?
I live in Oakland.
The crime and lack of effectiveness by OPD and the Alameda County Sheriff is being underreported. One thing you might notice immediately while driving here is the large number of vehicles with no license plates. Expired tags and blatantly insane traffic maneuvers.
I have countless dash cam videos which I no longer bother to save of OPD ignoring it all.
Anywhere else, no plate, or expired tags would get you pulled over. Especially for running a red light right in front of the cops. Not in Oakland. To me, this indicates a total lack of law enforcement effectiveness. What could make a pair of cops ignore a red light runner or someone who serves right in their lane to taunt them? We have hordes of guys on dirt bikes and quads roaring all over at will.
I have the max in uninsured motorist coverage my carrier will provide.
Groups of individuals fearlessly stop in the middle of traffic to commit smash and grabs. Meanwhile OPD has about six to ten police cars parked unoccupied over a short strip of street in Little Saigon for a reason I cannot fathom.
If I see cars with four fully masked guys baklava style every time I drive, it seems the cops could see them too, but let’s just park these empty police cars here with the engines running all day.
Last week at the intersection down the block. Four guys in a small sedan collided with a woman. It was her fault but the guys, all in masks rapidly piled out and ran. The woman wasn’t seriously injured. I checked on her. She said she was on hold with 911 . Ten minutes later she was still on hold. It was more than an hour before an ambulance came and half a day before the abandoned sedan was removed from the middle of the street.
When I leave the house I am armed with various non- lethal protective measures. Road rage incidents are frequent here along with strong arm and armed robberies. I don’t honk my horn or use hand gestures to indicate other drivers are idiots, yet I have had to deploy my measures at least twice in the last couple of years.
Maybe the conditions here are underreported because many local TV news crews have been robbed in broad daylight in very public places and they don’t want to risk that.
Whatever the reason I’m here and reporting that it’s definitely more chaotic and dangerous than is indicated in even the local news.
Why don’t I leave? I wish I could. I was priced out in other parts of the bay. I live in a small rear apartment with bars on all the windows. It costs $2500 a month. Luckily, I have a small but hidden, fenced in back yard and I don’t attract much attention. I drive a heavily fortified SUV with strong metal plates to protect my catalytic converter. I never leave anything in my car and have a double club on the steering wheel and a heavy duty brake lock. I even secure these on a quick trip to the store. It only takes a few extra seconds. Sure, they could still steal it but it’s probably not that attractive when there are so many Hyundai and Kia models which are easy to take.
I don’t own a home, so I could easily get priced out of this place. I think it’s happening here at a rapid pace, leaving people with no where to go and no hope. There is some affordable housing being built. But these units will go to seniors and single moms on the waiting list for years. Young people don’t have anywhere to go. They’re everywhere in tents and makeshift shelters. Not a day goes by where one of these clusters doesn’t goes up in flames. You really have to see it yourself. I wonder if the local leaders are completely incompetent or if the situation is so out of hand that no one can contain it.
But I’m definitely keeping my eye out for an opportunity elsewhere.