Newsom Deals New Blow to Oakland’s Woke Prosecutor

A huge announcement was made on Monday, just months after the California Highway Patrol expanded its work to Oakland in an effort to assist with the overwhelming crime rates. Alameda County’s district attorney, Pamela Price, was in charge of overseeing the changes.

Since 2011, Oakland has been the victim of a widespread progressive movement, shifting the city from a family-friendly locale to a city with rising costs, budgeting issues, and rising crime.

After Newsome made the announcement on Monday, he noted that the National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force had finally reached an agreement with the California Department of Justice.

During his speech to the residents of Oakland, Newsome remarked, ‘I am grateful for the quick work here by the Attorney General and the California National Guard to swiftly finalize this agreement so these talented attorneys can soon help secure justice for the people of the Bay Area.’

Newsom stated that Price’s office was not included in the deal because it missed the application deadline.

Earlier this year, Gavin Newsom deployed hundreds of California Highway Patrol officers to the streets of Oakland in the hopes of cracking down on criminal activity.

Price issued a statement following the governor’s remarks about the changes being made in California.

Many of Price’s critics point out the fact that the district attorney ran on a platform of offender rehabilitation and police accountability as a method of reducing the crime rate in the Bay area.

Due to the ineffectual nature of her office, Price is now facing a recall just two years after being elected in November 2022.

Before moving into the elected office, Price worked as a civil rights attorney. She was known as a champion for women’s rights, victims of domestic violence, and youth caught up in the predatory criminal justice system.

Her major opponents have said that this method of dealing with criminals only emboldens them to participate in accelerating crimes.

Price has plenty of support in the left-leaning district of Oakland. They say that she has been targeted by wealthy conservatives who do want the justice system to be reformed in the state.

Tension between Newsom and Price has been growing for some time. In July, a letter accused Price of effectively refusing the state’s help to prosecute drug crimes in Oakland. In response, Newsome rescinded an offer to dispatch attorneys to assist the city.

In a press conference the next day, Price pushed back against this accusation, stating that Newsom was “misinformed” about her office’s staffing and asserting that she had made efforts to accept the governor’s offer.

The reversal is another blow to Price as she fights a recall election. Newsom’s intervention also opens an unusually public rift between a publicly elected prosecutor and state governor.

Public safety has caused strain on Oakland’s politicians, with Price and the city’s Mayor Sheng Thao facing recall votes in November, as crime rates create whiplash for residents. In 2023, the crime rates in the city reached new highs, prompting Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta to intervene.

Police statistics showed that Oakland’s public safety was improving significantly earlier this year. Despite recent media reports that cast doubt, the data shows that crime is down by 33% when compared to the same period last year.

At the beginning of 2023, City Hall officials conducted an audit funded by Kaiser Permanente and the Department of Justice and carried out by the nonprofit California Partnership of Safe Communities after homicide numbers in Oakland failed to decrease compared to other cities in the Golden State.

Ceasefire is a violence interruption strategy that identifies individuals most likely to become perpetrators or victims of violent crime and connects them with experienced police officers, mentors, and community members to prevent violence before it occurs.

“Oakland is turning the corner and the public safety investments we have made are paying off,” Mayor Thao said in a statement.

David Muhammad, executive director of the Oakland-based National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, said the city has a lot of work ahead to get back to the low numbers of the pre-pandemic era.

But recent incidents in the city by the bay have painted a different picture in the last month. A spike in carjackings and a recent shooting at a popular lake have changed the perspective on the decline in crime.

Like Boudin, Price upset the political establishment when she won office with a vow to reduce sentencing and prosecute more police officers.

Another similarity Price shares with her predecessor is that she is confronting a recall campaign funded by deep-pocketed interest groups, which include real estate firms.