From Defund the Police to Help Us!
The irony of it all.
The Oakland, Calif., chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which once chanted in the chorus of “Defund the Police,” is now gnashing its teeth as they stare down the barrel of a crime-ridden society.
NAACP’s president, Cynthia Adams, is seeing the consequences of the disastrous Defund the Police movement as she and Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church cry out for help over the city’s skyrocketing crime rate.
“There’s nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to fester,” they wrote in a letter to city officials. Evidently, it only applies after the policy you’ve been championing spectacularly backfires.
“It’s not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime,” they added. “No one should live in fear in our city.”
They’re right, of course. Because fear is what Oakland citizens are living in.
The city has seen a whopping 22 percent increase in robberies and an 18 percent rise in violent crimes this year. Murder levels spiked from 78 in 2019 to 109 in 2020 – the same years when the Defund the Police slogan, the brainchild of Black Lives Matter, was touted as the mantra of a progressive society.
Let’s not forget the cherry on top: Carjackings in the city are up by 24 percent compared to two years ago.
The reason for all this crime? In 2021, the city council reduced the police budget by $17 million despite a 90 percent increase in murders.
Adams’ and Jackson’s letter to city officials blames Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and the anti-police rhetoric for the city’s rapidly spiraling descent into anarchy.
“Failed leadership and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals and created a doom-loop as the city continues to spiral downward,” they wrote.
Hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?
If only they’d had this clear vision when they hopped on the Defund the Police bandwagon.
To put it plainly, the citizens of Oakland have been betrayed.
This is the bitter harvest of a movement sown with grand words but reaped in violence, theft, and terror. The very voices that once called for police reform are now demanding protection from the chaos they helped unleash.
Seventy-four-year-old Barbara Hoffer said a recent attack has changed how she goes about her daily life.
“I can’t carry a purse anymore. I’m not ever going to carry a purse.”
Recently, a couple of teenagers purse-snatched Hoffer as she was with a friend at a busy intersection. “One kid grabbed my friend’s long hair and pulled her across the sidewalk. The other one beat me on my head, grabbed my purse, dropped me to my knees,” Hoffer recounted.
Miles Armstead, a family man, was murdered by an abusive squatter after pleading in vain for police assistance. And the list goes on.
Lives are being destroyed, and the city’s fabric is being torn apart. Yet, the response from DA Price’s office is a dismissive remark of disappointment toward those sounding the alarm, calling their concern for safety and well-being a “false narrative.”
Meanwhile, the police, in a tragic twist of irony, urge residents to hunker down and secure their homes as they grapple with a rise in brazen burglaries and home invasions. Since they’ve been defunded, that’s about all the police can do.
So, dear NAACP, welcome to the progressive society you once championed.
The call by Adams and Bishop Jackson for a state of emergency is indeed warranted. But it comes too late to help the citizens of Oakland. The real emergency is the blatant hypocrisy and failure of leadership that led to this point.
Oakland’s descent into chaos is a testament to the dangers of playing politics with public safety.
And it’s a warning that the very voices calling for change can quickly become the ones crying out for help when reality sets in.
