‘The cops catch and Price releases’: Swalwell deals a blow to DA Price, endorses her recall from office
Price says Swalwell is pledging allegiance to Republicans; SD7: Beckles wields 'corporate-free candidate' hammer; Poll shows tight Alameda council race
ELECTION 2024
33 days to Election Day
PRICE RECALL
—THE HEAT IS ON—On an unseasonably warm, 97-degree day in Hayward, Rep. Eric Swalwell turned up the heat further on Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price by calling for her recall from office.
—“District Attorney Pam Price has failed the people of the East Bay and we are uniting to seek her recall from office,” Swalwell said, flanked by the families of victims of violent crime on Wednesday afternoon. “That is not something any of us take lightly, but a responsibility that we all carry so we can all feel safe.”
—“When crime goes up, everything else we value goes down,” Swalwell said.
—Swalwell eviscerated Price’s short tenure as district attorney with attack lines few would have ever expected only a few years ago with the nationwide focus on police accountability and reforms.
—But the pendulum has quickly flipped as many in the East Bay have a sense that lawlessness abounds and consequences for wrongdoing is lacking.
—Among Swalwell’s notable soundbites:
“There is a straight line between somebody who came into one of the highest regarded District Attorney’s offices in the country and brought a pro-criminal approach to law enforcement.”
“The district attorney of the county is the highest law enforcement officer in the county, but Pam Price doesn’t act that way,” Swalwell said. “The cops catch and Price releases.”
Swalwell slammed Price’s light sentences for violent crimes and avoiding gun enhancements. Judges, he said, “are, across the board, ridiculing these sentences.”
Price has prosecuted her political opponents. “She’s either fired or run out of the office dozens of the most talented, diverse attorneys any district attorney’s office can enjoy.”
On potential backlash from local Democratic Party leaders: “I know that Ms. Price and I are in the same political party, but this is about the safety of the community.”
Swalwell said the nature of being a prosecutor is adversarial. “But what we have right now is two defense tables in every Alameda County courtroom and there’s no prosecutor.”
—Although Swalwell’s endorsement was a surprise, in hindsight, a number of his posts on X over the past few months expressed criticism of Price and her policies, suggesting his formal support for the recall was a possibility.
—Last May, for example, after a mail carrier was robbed in Dublin, Swalwell posted on X, “People of the East Bay have never felt as unsafe as they do today and are leaving our community in droves. We need a rule of law.”
—411 ON THE 510—There’s much more inside! Become an East Bay Insiders subscriber today and get full access to the inside scoop every weekday morning at 6 a.m. It’s what the insiders read.
MORE INSIDE:
ELECTION 2024: Full video of Swalwell’s endorsement announcement
Price says Swalwell “declared his allegiance to the Alameda County Republican Party”
Price recall campaign releases first ad
SD7: Beckles questions Arreguín’s commitment to fighting corporate interests
Alameda poll shows a top-to-bottom tight council race
Campaign finance data
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