Written by Delency Parham
From where I stand, it seems that Oakland has found itself in the midst of the tough-on-crime resurgence. Just a few years after calls to abolish and defund the police swept not only this city but the nation, as a result of the deaths of Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and George Floyd, the police state has seemed to gather its footing and is looking to come back even stronger. Here in The Town and in the broader Bay Area, that looks like California Highway Patrols’(CHP) jurisdiction being expanded into neighborhoods, the Oakland NAACP chapter calling for increased police spending, and “progressive” District Attorneys being recalled. Across the country, the pro-pig agenda is reaching a new height by way of Atlanta’s 171-acre cop city military base.
To overstand how Oakland went from a place that in 2020 abolished its public school district’s police department in the name of community safety, to a place where community members now find themselves pleading for more police on the streets, we simply need to look at the propaganda that has influenced community thought and action. Propaganda that has many of us taking on the ideals of the racist fat-rat elites who see Oakland as nothing more than a place for their super profits to be manifested. This piece is a response to that propaganda. In the pages to follow I seek to provide an analysis that examines the historical development of the material conditions of poor and working-class people in Oakland, as well as the institutions and organizations that govern the city. This is all done in an attempt to make clear the “causes and effects.” I’m of the belief that if we can gain some overstanding of how particular ideologies and the subsequent systems and institutions got us to this point, we can make sense of what ideological and systemic changes we need to make to get us where we’d like to be as a community.
I recognize the calls for increased police spending and presence as the result of a sort of desperation from community members. As the old saying goes, “desperate times call for desperate measures,” and without question, we find ourselves in dire times — i.e., homelessness, poverty, mass incarceration, food deserts, toxic air and water, rising rent prices — the list goes on. Yet and still, we must not let our frustrations and pain guide us towards our own demise (supporting the expansion of the police state). We have to slow down, center ourselves, analyze the terrain, and make calculated and educated decisions.
So what’s to follow is an offering of education and analysis so that we, the people who truly love Oakland and want to set an example for the rest of the world of what a liberated zone can look like, can collectively work together to heal and rebuild!
As someone whose family has been in Oakland since the 1940s and has served this community via the Black Panther Party, The ILWU Local 10, Oakland Unified School District, and a host of other grassroots community organizations and initiatives, what I’ve inherited is a deep bond and care for The Town. The love I have for Oakland is at the foundation of what I do every day. It’s why I'm a member of People’s Programs and have dedicated the past 7 years to organizing my community around free food, healthcare, and quality political education – because I wanted to do my part to contribute something positive to the place I’ve been fortunate enough to call home for 31 years.
With that said, I’d be lying if I told you that I wasn’t saddened, angered, and depressed about the current state of Oakland: people sleeping on the streets, forced to steal basic essential needs from grocery stores, folks risking their lives and the lives of others in robberies, and over 120 homicides (a few months ago, I attended the funeral of a friend who was shot and killed in West Oakland, in a community we take groceries to every other Friday) in 2023. My grandparents, siblings, and friends live in this town. Hell, I live here. I want us to be safe and live a life of quality. But what I can’t do, what I won’t do, is join the train of misleading the people around the causes of today’s current conditions. I also refuse to join the calls for more police, or to put reactionary racists and capitalists into government on the local or national level. And I for damn sure won’t berate Black youth by presenting them as a masochistic element of our city.
Instead, I’ll present some facts and connect dots to this material reality being the result of fascism (racist-capitalist imperialism). If I am to give myself a true chance at doing this effectively, I’ll first need to give a quick briefing on the history and methods of fascism and then I’ll need to acknowledge the objective reality of our (Oaklanders) situation.
When many people hear the word “fascism” they’re likely to see the images of Mussolini or Adolf Hitler. White men pushing overt racist rhetoric followed by their huge death squads of army men. Like all things in nature, fascism progresses and develops in efforts to sustain life. If fascist continued to push overt racism and military domination it would lead to mass discontent and protest (see the current response to the so-called state of israel’s occupation of Palestine). Knowing this, the powers that be in Amerikkka had to advance their practice of domination and control of New Afrikans, the folks indigenous to this land, and the land itself. Thus we might say we live in a time of “Neo-fascism.” Whereas as a fascist you must diversify your approach to ensuring the same inequities of capitalism/racism and the same power and domination over a people and land as if they were under the constant threat of being shot down by the military (see increased police presence). This is the ideology and method we are seeing come to life here in present day Oakland. Fascism as a European project is a phenomenon that could be traced back to the 15th century, thus there is a lot of history attached to it. For the sake of time that brief overview will have to suffice, but I recommend George Jackson’s Blood in My Eye and Soledad Brother for those looking for texts to help them understand it further. Now I’d like to transition into some of the stats regarding crime here in The Town.
The fact remains: crime is up in Oakland (see the image below). In June of 2023, there had been a reported 1,699 robberies. That’s an increase from the 1,434 robberies in 2022 and the 1,411 in 2021 in that respective [Jan-Jun] time period. From 2022 to 2023, according to data from the Oakland Police Department (for the sake of this paper we’ll assume they’re telling the truth), violent crime, which includes homicide, assault, robbery, and rape, increased by 12%. Property crime, which includes burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft, increased by 28%. Homicides, on the other hand, decreased by 13%. In addition, Oakland has the highest violent crime rate of all the major cities in California and the highest property crime rate of any of the state's 10 largest cities.
Despite these statistics, it's important to acknowledge that these current stats are lower than what Oakland experienced in 2012, where there were a reported 4,338 robberies, 6,976 cases of auto theft, and 127 homicides. I don’t draw this comparison as a means to downplay the present conditions. Based on the numbers shown, one could not deny that course correcting is of the utmost importance, and it’s clear we have no time to waste as it pertains to creating a safer city. I just want to remind all of us that have been here for at least the last decade that we’ve been in this position before, and that we can prevail. We can transform Oakland into a town where we can have our basic human needs met, each individual can contribute to the development of society, and folks can walk around with their heads held high and feel proud and welcome throughout the community.
Many people have unfortunately begun to believe that in order for this to happen, we need to put more police on the streets and see an increase in their budget. This couldn’t be further from the truth and it misses the bullseye in our attempt to identify the actual casualties!
As it stands, Oakland has over 700 police officers in their department, with an allocated annual budget of $360 million dollars from 2021-2025. If you refer to the previous paragraph and see the increases in crime from 2021-2023, we can also compare this to the increase in money spent on OPD, i.e., $317 million for 2020-2021, $330 for 2021-2022, and $358 million for 2022-2023. All this money goes towards OPD. They have 1500 people on payroll and they still haven’t figured out how to decrease crime? Lest we mention the very racist and corrupt history of OPD. From the Second Great Migration were Black Southerners en masse came to Oakland, only to be followed by racists from the south recruited by the pig department, or the “Rider’s Scandal” of 2001 that led to a host of lawsuits and decades of federal oversight (whatever that’s worth). The police in Oakland and anywhere else cause problems, and they’re definitely not the answer to the socioeconomic and political inequalities of capitalism! A system that exploits the natural resources of the planet, then exploits the labor of the people via the wage, did not create the police as a means to help develop society. The police were created to protect property and keep the masses in check when they began to step outside the confines structured by the elites who govern. In addition, police forces across this so-called nation serve as a vessel to contain rebellions by the masses once the conditions of our exploitation and subjugation reaches a tipping point (see the uprisings of 2020, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power Movement). The people of Oakland should recognize pigs as nothing more than pawns of the elites whose dialogue and policy making concerning our home is all in effort to design and develop The Town into a place that ensures their super profits.
To get clarity on what could make a person risk their life or the lives of others in a carjacking or home invasion, we need not look any further than desperation, than the need to survive that the masses of the people experience living under the system of capitalism. And if you ask me, what’s a more extreme circumstance than the cost of basic goods such as eggs, bread, meat, and toilet paper being up 76% since 2020? What’s a more critical position than 53% of people sleeping in shelters being employed?
By no means do I see these stats as a justification for inhumane actions against fellow human beings; I’m just trying to get us to push our thinking. To remove the veil imposed upon us by racist and classist news outlets, and people who take on these racist and classist ideals. If safety is our true desire, will it really come from more police on the streets? I find that hard to believe with the police killing 1,176 people (100 per month) in 2022, and a record high 1,243 people in 2023. Will more police eradicate the anti-community ideology that leads to people committing egregious acts against each other? Will more police remove the economic conditions that cause people to rob, or to have baby formula, toothpaste, and deodorant be locked up in grocery stores? And what is our obsession as citizens with protecting basic essentials for these corporations that do nothing to support our communities? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard community members use retail theft as a means to explain the need for more police. Ask yourself, when’s the last time Target, Gucci, or Apple did a free clothes and shoes giveaway at the schools? When was the last time Safeway gave free food by the bundles to working class families? Yet they’ll tell us that the closing of stores is about “community safety.” How much money have they put into our schools and homes? Into our park and recreation centers? They make billions off working class people buying food and essential items and make small donations to nonprofits as tax right-offs. Let’s be real, they don’t protect you and they for damn sure don’t care about your well-being, so why are you so concerned with their profits?
One of the most gut-wrenching aspects of this whole ordeal (the reports & discourse on crime and community safety) is the recent attack on the youth of Oakland (ages 15-24), specifically the Black youth. Now, I’d be lying if I said some of the young ones ain’t out here wildin’, but like Frantz Fanon told us in The Wretched of The Earth, it’s impossible for one to be of society and not become it. Are the youth not feeling the unemployment rates and the exploitation of wage labor (wages in the U.S. have been stagnant since the 1970s)? Are they not impacted by the food deserts? Are they not victims of schools being shut down, of families being put out on the streets? Maybe my bias forces me to look at this thing in its full scope?
Growing up on welfare and Section 8 in North and East Oakland, I can relate to these feelings of desperation and some of the things I had to do to take care of myself. As an adult, I am no longer frustrated with my response as a youth to the conditions presented to me via the backward and racist economic and political system that capitalism is. Now, I can place blame where it correctly belongs: on a society that refuses to give its people the means for sustenance, while simultaneously refusing to provide its youth positive outlets en masse and instill in them a proper ideology based in communalism.>>
After all, we are dealing with children, and children learn from what they see. So, if the country they live in consistently treats them as outcasts, and then goes around the world exhibiting a complete disregard for human life by taking what they want, whether it be Cobalt in the Congo, Bauxite in Guyana, or Tantalum in Rwanda—or if they allow over 580,000 people to sleep on the streets every night (nearly 5,000 in Oakland), while sending billions of dollars to israel to support the genocide of Palestinian people—why should they respect the lives of their fellow people when the government and its systems and institutions don’t? We need to do better by our youth by way of institutional change and shifts in the ideologies and practices that govern our society. Simply put: we need to set better examples!
It’s clear this city isn’t prioritizing the youth of poor and working-class families. The city’s budget for Parks, Recreation, and Youth Development averages about $40M from 2023-2025. In comparison to the police budget for just the year of 2023-2024 ($358 million), that really is just a drop in the bucket. I mean, the affluent school Head Royce in the Oakland Hills spent more than that ($41.9M to be exact) on their 900 students in 2022 alone. It seems the City of Oakland is more invested in the carceral system than providing Black youth with resources for education and personal development.
Oakland’s history has shown us what happens when its’ Black youth have positive outlets and people who seek to relate to them, rather than treating them as social pariahs. The Black Panther Party, Oakland’s most relevant and important creation to date, was a youth organization. For instance, Lil Bobby Hutton, the Panther’s first treasurer, was 16 years old when he joined. He stands as a prime example of what happens when our children receive mentorship, education, and a revolutionary humanist ideology. They take heed and get involved!
The Panthers invested in the youth in tangible ways: from the Free Breakfast Program and efforts to install a stoplight at the corner of 55th & Market (to ensure kids’ safety on their way to school) to protecting kids (and everyone else) from police brutality through community patrols. However, in the afterlife of The Panthers, we find ourselves detached from that communal spirit and youth-centered focus. Instead, we've become entrenched in the ideals and morals of capitalism, which promote individuality and criminalize our youth as a method of community sabotage.
The Black Panther Party established an intergenerational community program and an ideal not just in Oakland but across the world. Their “Survival Programs pending revolution” were a response to the conditions of the masses of New Afrikans. They understood that they had to meet the contradictions of capitalism (unemployment, police violence, lack of healthcare, lack of food, selfishness, exploitation) head on with an undying love for the people. Their programs were a foundation for intergenerational bonding and healing. Ironically, what brought an end to the Black Panther Party was the intervention of the police at the city, state, and national levels! Rather than responding to The Panthers' survival programs with grants and funding, they countered them with COINTELPRO! From their inception (as slave patrols), the police have stood in contradiction to the revolutionary efforts of building Black communities.
I think it’s imperative to also point out that this recent media hysteria around crime in Oakland comes at a time where in nearby San Pablo, the 43-million dollar “Cop-Campus” was just announced. The broader Bay Area seems to be taking a unified step towards strengthening their repressive forces. I mean, if american police forces will travel all the way to so-called israel for training from the genocidal occupation forces, we’d have to assume that OPD, SFPD (San Francisco), BPD (Berkeley), RPD (Richmond), CHP, will all be meeting at the new Cop-Campus to exchange tactics. And it’ll be the reactionary community calls for more police spending and our taxpayer dollars that put them there. At this rate, we can expect another record-breaking year for police killings in 2024 and beyond.
We can also recognize all the propaganda (and the subsequent hysteria), the expansion of CHP jurisdiction, OPD super max budget, and the new Cop-Campus as part of the larger plan to remove Black people from Oakland and the broader Bay Area (see Berkeley, San Francisco, Richmond) by the methods of either gentrification or jail. When they can’t destroy our communities by way of rising rents they turn to incarceration. With Oakland’s Black population experiencing rapid decline over the last 40 years, how do we continue to make up the largest demographic of Alameda county jail (and guess which agency is making the most arrests)? This is all a collective effort to further oppress and marginalize the remaining New Afrikan population until we are obsolete. The racist elites are looking to make us “null & void” by any means necessary, and it will behoove us to get familiar with their not-so sleight of hand tactics. And although the pigs might not be able to prevent the crime, they’ll be able to use the incarceration stats as a means to lobby for increased budgets. Putting more of them on the streets and more New Afrikans in jail. The fascist cycle continues.
The point I’ve attempted to make very clear is that we, the people of Oakland, have to fully overstand how these inequitable systems and racist-classist institutions have created this dismal situation we find ourselves in. In recognizing this, we must next look at how historically our community has worked to solve these contradictions. We must divest from these state apparatuses and look towards the grassroots that have a true desire to see a communal and loving society built throughout the world.
I believe that through the building of our own organizations and community programs, we can develop the means to eradicate the conditions manifested by the status quo. In the process, we must reject the morals, values, and strategies of the fascist government on the city, state, and national level. We know that if they were truly concerned with the well-being of the people, their policies would reflect that. They put their money where their hearts are: the police and luxuries for the rich.
We find ourselves in the presence of a very historic time. The people of Oakland vs the racist, capitalist, pro-police government. What side of history will you be on? Let us all pledge to be on the side of critical thinking and positive action! Let us build programs that feed and clothe the people, that provide free healthcare like People’s Programs does. Let us build community centers that serve as safe havens and educational spaces for the youth like Fam First and the West Oakland Youth Center. Let us build strong workers' parties that can help challenge the national (and international) capitalist structure like the ILWU 10. These are but a few examples of the positive, communal work happening in Oakland, continuing in the legacy of community building that the Black community here has known since the early 1900s.
I have faith in the people of Oakland and our ability to get our minds right, put our heads together, and take control of our community and our collective destinies. We struggled through the 1st and 2nd Great Migrations and racists following us from the south (racists that went on to join OPD). We struggled in the Black Power Movement, fought back against COINTELPRO, we made it through the crack era, and we laid the foundation for the Black Lives Matter Movement (Rest in Peace, Oscar Grant)! The police didn’t save us, the government didn't GIVE us anything; we’ve fought for and demanded everything we’ve gotten in this town over the last 100 years, and we’re going to fight another 100 more. The questions we must ask ourselves are how are we as individuals, then as a community, going to contribute to rebuilding in a positive way? What programs are we going to build? How are we going to support the youth? How are we going to build a culture rooted in the principles and values of all life? And are we willing to demand and struggle for a truly communal and equitable Oakland?
Free The People!
Free The Land!
Re-Build!