DA Price to Oakland Police: 'Don’t tell me you’re going to get paid but you’re not going to do your job'
DA Price to Oakland Police: 'Don’t tell me you’re going to get paid but you’re not going to do your job'
On former ALCO prosecutor: 'We charged Butch Ford. Anybody that tells me that I am soft on crime, you ask Butch Ford'
ELECTION 2024
—PRICELESS—Defiant, combative, and, at times, slinging trash talk at her opponents, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price illuminated her adversarial relationship with Alameda County police chiefs, including Oakland’s acting chief and its police union; issued a smackdown of former Alameda County prosecutor and critic Butch Ford, while sidestepping accountability for hiring her partner (Don’t call him her boyfriend!).
—The highlights below are from a panel discussion on Thursday night about progressive DAs, hosted by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club in Oakland. Recalled San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin was also part of the panel.
—PRICE ON POLICE—Price suggested Oakland Police is not doing its job, suggesting it is part of an overall strategy to undermine public safety and the DA’s office.
—When a fellow panelists asserted that cities in Alameda County may be pulling back on law enforcement in order to create demand for tough-on-crime policing, Price responded, “I hate to tell you, though, it’s not happening in most parts of the county, it’s happening in Oakland, and it is a strategy.
—“It has been reported to me over and over again by elected officials in Oakland that OPD are saying, officers are saying, we can’t arrest anybody because that DA is not going to do anything. But you all know when you call 9-1-1, I’m not rolling out, okay. I’m not the police. I’m not the mayor. Hello! I’m a district attorney which means in Alameda County I have 14 cities and justice should not look different in Oakland than it does in Fremont or Newark or Union City or Castro Valley, or anywhere in this county. My job is to make sure there is fair and just prosecution, if there’s going to be prosecution.”
—On police chiefs in Alameda County: “I am not here to tell you how to do your job and I do not expect you to tell me how to do mine. Okay? Let’s be very clear, and I have had wonderful, direct conversations with many of the chiefs. Some have taken it better than others, but it’s okay. Because I’m still going to do what you elected me to do.”
—On Oakland Police Officers Association: “Don’t tell me you’re going to get paid but you’re not going to do your job? I don’t have the luxury of saying that? So how dare you have the luxury of saying that? What I’ve also said to the Oakland Police Association and the leadership of that department, telling people that you are not going to do your job for any reason creates a danger to public safety because you are encouraging vigilantism and we are not having that in Alameda County. So you all need to get it together.”
—On hiring more police: “I have said to every police group that I have met with, it does us no good to point fingers. You all should not point fingers at me. I’m not going to point fingers at you. As I said, I can’t tell them how to do their job. I think at some point they have to understand and come to the realization that they are not ever going to be able to hire enough police to do the job the way they think they should be doing it. But they have to come to that realization, okay.”
—FORD TOUGH—Last month, Price charged former Alameda County prosecutor Butch Ford for allegedly offering information to defense attorneys for a San Leandro police officer charged with involuntary manslaughter.
—“He threatened the integrity of our ability to prosecute that case and of the judicial system. Then we did something equally unprecedented that we have not seen in this country: We charged Butch Ford. And anybody that tells me that I am soft on crime, you ask Butch Ford.”
—ON THE RECALL— “I liken it to the battle where you have a horror movie, right, and you know you killed a monster once and you think you won, and people are celebrating, and you look up and the monster came back alive again. Oh, my God.
—“We cannot let people divide us because that’s what they want to do. Use fear and racism and hatred to divide and we as a county know we are divided.”
—“Yes, there has been a surge in crime, but it has nothing to do with my election. I have not been able to destroy the entire criminal justice system in eight months.”
—ON SF/BOUDIN: “They were so busy going after my brother,” said Price, who reached out to grasp Boudin’s hand. “They were so busy looking at what was going on over there, attacking him, that they didn’t see what was happening over here,” Price said of last year’s election. “They missed it! But Alameda [County] is not San Francisco. We don’t look like San Francisco. I don’t look like Chesa, okay. We are much more stronger, and I love San Francisco, but I love Alameda [County] more and I know we can defeat this if we do the work.”
—ON NEPOSTISM: Earlier this month, the East Bay Times reported that Price hired her partner, Antwon Cloird, to work at the DA’s office, raising concerns about nepotism. Price took exception with people calling him her boyfriend, and added she did not violate any county rules.
—“I do not think that it is okay, or it should be normalized, for us to refer to a 64-year-old man as a boy under any circumstances. That part was offensive to me. “
—“There is a double-standard here. The County of Alameda does not have a nepotism policy. It does not have an anti-fraternization policy and I can tell you that my predecessor hired numerous members of her family—her sister, two nieces, and a nephew were there. They are still there because I have no reason to remove them from their position. And there’s probably some other O’Malley’s there that I don’t know about.”
“The person they are attacking is my partner and is someone who is deeply committed to this movement, has been deeply committed to this community, and is a big reason why we are all sitting here.”
—CHRISTIE ON PROGRESSIVE DAs—If you were like me, watching Wednesday night’s Republican Presidential Primary Debate to count how many references were made to progressive cities like San Francisco and Oakland and rising crime, were let down. There were none.
—But Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, a former U.S attorney, made remarks about progressive district attorney’s that could easily include Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price.
—Christie said, if elected president, he would direct federal U.S. attorney’s to take over violent crime cases in cities where progressive DAs are not sufficiently charging such crimes.
—The good thing for progressive DAs like Price is that Christie has no chance of becoming president.
OAKLAND
—FIEFDOM CHALLENGE—An early opponent has emerged to challenge West Oakland Councilmember Carroll Fife’s re-election next year.
Warren Logan, who worked in former Mayor Libby Schaaf’s administration, filed paperwork last week for the District 3 council seat.
—PARKER’S PICK—Earlier this month, long-time Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker announce she will not run for a fourth term in office next year.
—Parker named her desired successor on Wednesday after endorsing Oakland Assistant City Attorney Ryan Richardson.
ALAMEDA
—RCV PETITION—As I walked into the Marketplace on Park Street in Alameda yesterday, I was greeted by a woman wearing a League of Women Voters button. She asked my to sign a petition to place a measure on the ballot in Alameda next year to allow the use of ranked choice voting.
—Oakland, Berkeley, San Leandro, and more recently, Albany approved the use of ranked choice voting in municipal elections. Now there’s a push to bring it to Alameda.
—It was notable that the signature-gatherer did not refer to the petition as having anything to do with ranked choice voting. Instead, it was described as a ballot measure to ensure Alameda elections are won with a simple majority of the vote.
—The characterization of the petition is not a lie, but it’s deceptive, and likely influenced by the bad press that ranked choice voting received last year in Oakland’s 2022 elections.
