In the first 260 days of 2023, the Oakland Police received 10,547 stolen vehicle reports. That’s 40.56 reports every day (Jan 1-Sep 17). If that trend continues, assuming it does not trend up, that would be 14,806 motor vehicle thefts in one year. Go Democrats!
Nothing says we suck on crime like murder and violent crime, but without looking, I think Oakland has claimed the crown when it comes to vehicle break-ins and author theft.
“It’s astounding, it’s really hard to believe,” said Lori Chudacoff, whose husband was carjacked in Oakland this weekend.
“That’s insane. I didn’t realize it was that bad,” said Oakland resident Jennifer Prakit, who had her car stolen Saturday morning.
“While the number is pretty staggering, I wish I could say that I was truly surprised or am truly surprised for that matter because of the lack of leadership in Oakland city government and the lack of accountability,” said Oakland resident Eugene Kopman. “My car was parked at the Coliseum BART. I took my son to a baseball game last Sunday and I came back — the car was gone.”
Officers say there are more stolen vehicles than reported car break-ins, which number 10,335 to date. Officers said most people don’t report break-ins any more.
The other city by the bay is like a giant Carvana Vending Machine, except the car owners and insurance companies pay, and the vehicle “recipient” gets a free ride, and there’s lots of broken glass.
“It’s astounding, it’s really hard to believe,” said Lori Chudacoff, whose husband was carjacked in Oakland this weekend.
“That’s insane. I didn’t realize it was that bad,” said Oakland resident Jennifer Prakit, who had her car stolen Saturday morning.
What seems harder to believe is that while folks seem disenfranchised with Oakland’s “leadership,” they don’t seem inclined to do anything about it. The city’s last Republican mayor served in the 1960s. The City Council is all Demcorats, and that appears to have been the trend for decades as well.
You voted for this, even after the BLM/Antifa riots.
In 2021, Oakland Democrats cut the city police budget by 18 million, redirecting the spending (they’d never dream of giving that back) to “The Department of Violence Prevention with the intention of improving public safety.” I’m guessing they weren’t focused on auto hijacking, break-ins, or theft, or those should have declined.
It also looks like the police budget had already grown significantly since 2019 before they cut the 18 million, meaning they still had more money, so what’s the problem? Perception.
Democrats quickly embraced the police brutality narratives peddled by Black Lives Matter. They put targets on every cop’s back while making it clear they didn’t have their back. Following the Summer of Love, 83 officers left Oakland City service, and they continue to shed officers.
According to OPD’s latest staffing report, of the 83 officers who left last year, 45 resigned and 35 of those went to work for another police agency, while 18 officers retired and seven took a disability retirement.
And despite the eighteen-million dollar Department of Violence Prevention budget, homicides continue to climb.
“Killings on Monday and Tuesday represented the 100th and 101st deaths investigated as homicides by Oakland police this year (2023).”
“..in 2020, amid the coronavirus pandemic, homicides investigated by Oakland police jumped to 109 — part of a national trend that saw a spike in violent crime in cities across the country. That trend continued in 2021, when police responded to 134 homicides in Oakland — the most since 2006, when 148 people died here.
Every life lost is tragic, but what I find curious is how no one seems to know why. The Mercury News headline linked above 9/27/23 is “Oakland hits triple-digit homicides for third straight year, leaving officials grasping for answers” (emphasis, mine).
The usual suspects are blaming gun violence. “California Attorney General Rob Bonta — a former Alameda County state assembly member — called the killings “unacceptable” and decried gun violence as “a disease unique in the world to America.”
Really? California has some of the strictest anti-gun laws in the nation, which, as Hoodline.com notes, “Fail to Curb Firearm Violence in Oakland and Stockton: Study“
Despite possessing some of the strictest gun laws in the United States, California’s Legislature continues to propose and approve multiple bills aimed at addressing the prevalence of guns. In June, Governor Gavin Newsom proposed a constitutional amendment to enshrine gun safety measures nationally; however, the persistence of gun violence in the state raises questions about their implementation and enforcement, as reported by CBS Bay Area.
California has taken various steps to combat gun violence, such as restricting minors from buying and possessing firearms, prohibiting the possession or transfer of ghost guns, and launching the California Firearm Violence Research Center and the Office of Gun Violence Prevention to study the nature of gun violence and devise prevention strategies.
The problem with violence isn’t guns. It’s the same problem with robbery, rape, burglary, and auto theft. It is decades of derelict Democrat rule. If you want to be anti-crime, you have to be anti-Democrat, and there’s no way around that.
