Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price pushed back on Saturday against criticisms of her “soft on crime” approach in Oakland, California, claiming that anyone who questioned her response to crime was racist, CBS News Bay Area News reported.
Oakland citizens met with elected officials to discuss the rising crime in the city and to request more safety measures, according to CBS News. Price argued that critics of her approach toward crime are racist, even as locals argued that crime has worsened in Oakland as political leaders have gutted the criminal justice system and removed penalties for crimes.
“That’s racism. I’m calling it for what it is,” Price said, according to CBS News. “If you believe the media hype, I went from a well-respected lawyer and businesswoman with 40 years of experience in this community to a bumbling, incompetent idiot who knew nothing about the law or the criminal justice system.”
Ski-masked riders terrorize the park at Lake Merritt, Oakland, CA.
Just days ago a woman was strafed by errant gunfire near here and is in critical condition.
By decree, police are forbidden from doing anything about this type of crime.
Thank your D6 rep @nikki4oakland pic.twitter.com/o2RJLaxqPp
— Johnny Astroturf
(@johnnyastroturf) September 8, 2023
Price, whose campaign was funded by George Soros, ran in 2022 on a political platform that presented a 10-point plan to change Oakland’s justice system, according to her campaign website. She vowed to find “alternatives to incarceration,” reduce “over-criminalizing” youth, “address ineffective and inequitable” crime-related fees and reduce “mass incarceration.”
“I am in the middle of justice,” Price said, according to NBC Bay Area. “I can not ignore one community or one person in the system in favor of another person, that’s not what we’re doing.”
Residents expressed concern at the meeting over the escalating crime that they claim has gotten “out of control” over the past year, according to CBS News.
“We’re very worried about where Oakland is and we’re scared,” Gina Rivera, an Oakland resident, told CBS. “Some of us are scared to go to the lake or just go shopping. You have to think twice about it when you go to the grocery store.”
“Customers are not even coming,” Kay Kay Anandu, a business owner in Oakland, told NBC Bay Area News. “They’re not able to feel comfortable parking their cars, because they park their car for five minutes and their stuff is going to get stolen from the car.”
Price faced a recall in July over her response to crime in the city, but argued at the time that her job has “no impact” on crime rates. Democratic Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao rejected residents’ demands to declare a state of emergency in the area because of the escalating crime, and argued that the city is already doing everything it can to improve safety, according to CBS.
“There is no single solution but not enforcing the laws we have and removing consequences for breaking laws is no way to ensure the safety of a community,” Lynne Cooper, an Oakland resident, told CBS News.
The District Attorney’s Office and the Oakland Mayor’s Office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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