NAACP leaders in Oakland have called for a state of emergency over rising crime in the area, blaming the police movement and the George Soros-backed district attorney for the rising violence.
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People president Cynthia Adams called on local officials to come together with local and federal resources to address the growing public safety issues in the district.
She co-wrote a letter with Bishop Bob Jackson of the Acts Full Gospel Church to sound the alarm about the shootings, robberies and murders that have become rampant in the district.
“There is nothing compassionate or progressive about allowing criminal behavior to fester and rob Oakland residents of their basic rights to public safety,” they wrote.
It’s not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime. In our city no one should live in fear.’
Cynthia Adams, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Oakland, has called for a state of emergency due to rising crime in the area
Community leaders identified George Soros-backed District Attorney Pamela Price over the escalating violence
The Black Advocacy Group’s letter targets Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price and anti-police rhetoric such as defunding the police movement, which they say has created “a heyday for Oakland criminals” and created a “doom loop” as the city “goes further down.”
The NAACP wrote, “Failed leadership, including the movement to abolish the police force, the unwillingness of our district attorney to charge and prosecute people who commit murders and life-threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals.
“If there are no consequences for crime in Oakland, crime will continue to rise.”
Price’s office responded to the allegations by saying the district attorney is “disappointed that a major African-American pastor and a major African-American organization would run a false story on such an important issue.”
“We would expect more from Bishop Bob Jackson and the Oakland Chapter of the NAACP,” Price’s office said.
Adams told the San Francisco Chronicle that “everyone was quiet” about the escalating crisis in Oakland and said NAACP leaders were frustrated by officials’ claims that crime would “improve.”
“Everything broke the camel’s back,” she claimed. “Lifetime members – seniors – said, ‘Why isn’t anyone saying anything?’ They are afraid.’
The NAACP letter comes as North Oakland has seen a 22 percent increase in robberies and 18 percent in violent crimes this year.
Last month, Oakland police urged residents to secure their homes — including trimming hedges and shrubs so thieves have nowhere to hide — amid an increase in brutal burglaries while residents are in their homes.
Police warned of an “increase in home robberies,” including cases of gun-wielding robbers breaking down doors before threatening homeowners and stealing their belongings.
The Oakland Police Department (OPD) said some of the hardest hit areas include Laurel, North Hills, Joaquin Miller and the Greater San Antonio region.
Last year, then-Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf admitted efforts to defund her city’s police department went “too far” after seeing violent crime rise to levels seen 15 years after the movement’s introduction to the community. summer of 2020 had not happened again.
Her comments came after the city council passed a resolution that would have saved $18.5 million from the Oakland Police Department’s budget, a move criticized by Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who said at the time that “crime in the city is no longer under control’. .
“It was particularly heartbreaking in Oakland because we just made national headlines for cutting gun violence in half and sticking to those lower rates for five years,” said Schaaf, who was elected in 2015. She was referring to the city’s high homicide rate, which reached a level not seen since 2006, when the city recorded a then-abnormal homicide count of 148.
Levels then fluctuated in the double digits for the next decade and a half, before abruptly increasing from 78 in 2019 to 109 in 2020 – in the same years calls for the abolition of the police, spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, were heard. seriously introduced.
“When we saw this wave emerge during the pandemic — and, let’s also be honest, after George Floyd, after this country just eroded its faith in government justice — we were just heartbroken,” Schaaf added.
Last month, Oakland police urged residents to secure their homes amid an increase in brutal burglaries while residents are in their homes
Satyan Dave was shot dead near a park as he returned to his ship after a night out
The Oakland Police Department was charged over claims that they allowed an abusive squatter to launch a campaign of terror against his neighbor, which culminated in the shooting of the victim. Jamal Thomas in the photo
Last week, a British maritime guard, 49, was shot dead near an Oakland park as he was returning to his ship after a night out.
Satyan Dave, from London, had arrived in the city just hours earlier aboard a container ship that had traveled close to Somalia.
Police in the violence-ravaged city said he was shot dead at 5:15 a.m. near International Boulevard, one of East Oakland’s main thoroughfares.
Meanwhile, the department has been charged with allegations that they had an abusive squatter carry out a terror campaign against his neighbour, which culminated in the victim being shot dead as he fled his home with his pregnant wife and three children.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed in federal court on behalf of the family of slain Miles Armstead, who had moved his family out of their home on Ney Avenue in May 2020 when he was shot in the back of the head by now-imprisoned Jamal Thomas.
On the day of his murder, Amstead and his wife Melina had decided to cut their losses on the house they had been hard pressed to buy, only for Thomas to ambush them and kill Amstead as they tried to flee.
They had previously called the Oakland Police Department 23 times begging for help, only to turn a blind eye to the police there. Officers also reportedly mocked Amstead’s plight by dismissing him and Thomas as “like two 12-year-old girls.”
The fatal act of aggression, police said at the time, served as the culmination of a month-long confrontation between the two men, which reportedly began after 46-year-old Thomas illegally occupied the house next door after being evicted months earlier.