Oakland just gave us a Hillary Clinton 'super predator' moment
Published by the San Francisco Chronicle on July 29, 2021
By Cat Brooks
On Monday, Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley stood with Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, Oakland’s police chief LeRonne Armstrong, and representatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to announce a “tougher on crime” approach in response to two recent robberies that took place in Chinatown.
During the news conference, O’Malley promised to charge enhancements, fight the release of people from pretrial detention and increase militarized police presence on Oakland’s streets. In what I can only describe as a Hillary Clinton “super predator” moment, O’Malley said: “These perpetrators are ruthless and they are aggressive…”
That’s code for: “They aren’t human. Engage as such.”
That kind of talk shouldn’t make any of us feel safe. That kind of talk leads to racial profiling, harassment of Black and brown people, and police use of force. That kind of talk also isn’t helpful in addressing the egregious race-based violence our Asian community members are facing.
That kind of talk is about using fear to justify a city-wide crackdown on Black and brown children.
You know who is ruthless and aggressive? The Oakland Police Department. In 2019, The Community Police Review Agency received 500 complaints of misconduct by sworn members of the Oakland Police Department. After 21 years, the department remains in federal receivership.
Also ruthless and aggressive? The FBI. Particularly when it comes to Black bodies. Oakland is the birthplace of the Black Panther Party. When the Party fought to feed, heal and liberate the Black community in the 1960s, the FBI launched a ruthless campaign called COINTELPRO to destroy their efforts, resulting in dead and incarcerated Party members.
And they’re still at it.
The FBI has been aggressively surveilling Black Lives Matter activists for years, including an intelligence operation called “Iron Fist” that was prioritized over the effort to fight white supremacist violence.
Nope, them boys don’t make me feel safe either.
“At the end of the day, we can’t send a message to those that want to commit violence that it’s OK,” Chief Armstrong said. “Our community can no longer stand to be victimized this way.”
There we agree.
I want our relatives in Chinatown to feel and be safe. The uptick in violence against Asian bodies is scary and unacceptable and it is up to all of us to confront and end this rise in violence.
This is the point of the community ambassador program, funded in the Oakland budget, which employs community members to keep eyes on Asian businesses and walk elders and other vulnerable community members to their destination.
We all want safe streets. I am raising a teenage daughter in this city. I want to not be terrified every time that she walks out the door. Which I am. Bullets fly with abandon on Oakland streets.
But if we are not safe with a police budget of $350 million a year, what is the magic number that will make a militarized police department and violent carceral state work to create safe communities?
Newsflash. There isn’t one.
One last time for the people in the back who are intentionally and willfully repeating this lie: There was no reduction in the police budget. Zero. Zip. The Oakland Police Department received an increase of $38 million dollars this budget cycle. It is beyond disturbing that elected officials like Mayor Libby Schaaf, appointed officials like Chief Armstrong and community leaders like Carl Chan continue to push an agenda of fear-mongering that is incredibly effective in manipulating pain and trauma, but sadly will not produce the results Oaklanders so desperately desire.
Black communities are no strangers to racialized violence and I deeply understand the fear driving the calls for more law enforcement. But the truth is, you can’t police your way out of hate either. Black, brown and other communities are ready and willing to stand in solidarity with and defend our Asian relatives. But an increased militarized police and federal presence will not remain boxed in Chinatown. It will impact all marginalized Oakland communities.
Amid the violence of the 1990s, politicians ran a similar tape. The result was Black people literally begging for a three strikes sentencing law. What we got instead was continued gunfire, nonstop funerals and the added bonus of thousands of Black people being funneled into American concentration camps (prisons). And just like the three strikes law, the rhetoric we heard from that Chinatown news conference protends an approach that will only serve to rip families apart, criminalize children and funnel even more Black bodies into jails and prisons.
America’s “justice” system is supposed to mean innocent until proven guilty. Leaving people to languish inside of jails because they cannot afford bail is unconstitutional at best.
Nancy O’Malley is stepping down from office at the end of her term. She remains ever tone deaf to the Alameda County voter base who have been supporting alternatives to incarceration for decades.
If the voters change their mind about criminal justice reform and an end to militarized policing when her term ends in 2022 — well, I guess we can cross that bridge then. In the meantime, O’Malley is a lame duck who is fighting for reactionary crackdowns that fly in the face of the will of voters. Her efforts should offend all of us who will be here cleaning up her mess long after she retires.
The only way to end crime is to prevent it in the first place. Cops don’t do that. Federal policing agencies don’t do that. Racist tough-on-crime practices and policies certainly don’t do that either. Investment in people and communities is the only pathway to safety.
We can’t allow fear to sell us our own destruction.
Cat Brooks is an award-winning actress, playwright, the executive director of the Justice Teams Network, the co-founder of the Anti Police-Terror Project and the co-host of UpFront on KPFA.