The Oakland chapter of the NAACP penned an open letter condemning the city’s “intolerable public safety crisis.” The letter blames “the movement to defund the police,” the “District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people,” and “anti-police rhetoric” for “creat[ing] a heyday for Oakland criminals.”
We are in a 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.
“Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland,” according to the letter.
The letter calls on residents of all races “to speak out against crime and stop allowing themselves to be shamed into silence.”
“It is not racist or unkind to want to be safe from crime,” the letter continues.
The letter warns that “[i]f there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime will continue to soar.” The “public safety crisis” has led “residents from all parts of the city [to] 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.
“People are moving out of Oakland in droves,” and residents “are afraid to venture out of their homes,” with devastating consequences for local businesses and the crime rate, according to the letter:
They are afraid to venture out of their homes to go to work, shop, or dine in Oakland and this is destroying economic activity. Businesses, small and large, struggle and close, tax revenues vanish, and we are creating the notorious doom-loop where life in our city continues to spiral downward. As economic pain increases, the conditions that help create crime and criminals are exacerbated by desperate people with no employment opportunities.
The letter calls for a state of emergency declaration, an “end [to] the proliferation of crime,” and “provid[ing] jobs, training, and mentorship so our youth have alternatives to crime.”
“Do it for the love of all Oakland residents. Each and every one of us has the right to live peacefully and safely,” the letter concludes.
UPDATE (7/28/23): The NAACP California Hawaii State Conference responded to Legal Insurrection‘s request for comment with an official statement attributed to the group’s president, Rick Callender:
The NAACP California Hawaii State Conference stands by and doubles down on NAACP Oakland Branch’s request for a call for a state of emergency in the city of Oakland. Our community members are in danger and elected officials are turning their heads away. Crime is at an all time high in Oakland and we are calling on the mayor to step up and work with the Oakland Branch to address this critical issue and call for a state of emergency. We cannot sit around and do nothing when people are in danger doing daily activities, trying to survive.
The NAACP California Hawaii State Conference declined to comment further on whether the defund the police movement, “anti-police rhetoric,” and the “District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people” were the root causes of high crime in Oakland.
The Oakland NAACP letter:
The NAACP California Hawaii State Conference’s official statement:
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