In July 2019, a video on Twitter showed Black community leaders in Oakland, California at a joint event with members of the police department. In the wake of the George Floyd/Black Lives Matter/Antifa protests (and riots), and the accompanying Defund the Police campaign, violent crime and homicides were engulfing Oakland. In the video, community elders are seen arguing with young White activists who had come to protest the gathering. They were holding signs reading F*CK OPD and QUIT YOUR JOB KKKOP!
One of the Black women pleaded with the uninvited, arrogant guests, “Our Black children are dying in the streets every day…”
“Yeah! By the hands of the police!” one girl interrupted in response.
“NO!” the elders said as they tried in vain to explain reality to the indoctrinated youth.
The incident received no national or even local media attention. Other than those elders trying to save their neighborhood and their grandchildren, nobody cared.
Fast forward two years later, Thursday, July 27, 2023, the Oakland branch of the NAACP released a two-page open letter to the City Council entitled End Oakland’s Public Safety Crisis.
Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis.
The letter goes on to state:
Women are targeted by young mobs and viciously beaten…Asians are assaulted in Chinatown…News crews have their cameras stolen while they report on crime. PG&E workers are robbed and now require private security when they are out working. Everyone is in danger.
Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police, our District Attorney’s unwillingness to charge and prosecute people who murder and commit life threatening serious crimes, and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals. If there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime will continue to soar.
The Oakland NAACP also addressed economic concerns:
Oakland should focus on creating skilled industrial and logistics jobs that pay family sustaining wages, and vocational training so Oakland residents can perform those jobs. With this focus we can produce hundreds, if not thousands, of the types of jobs desperately needed to stem economic despair. Unfortunately, progressive policies and failed leadership have chased away or delayed significant blue collar job development in the city,
As a former Bay Area resident from the late 1960s, one of the most heartbreaking portions of the NAACP open letter was this: “We urge African Americans to speak out and demand improved public safety.” How broken must a people be to be “urged” to “speak out” on their own behalf as violence destroys their home?
Unlike the park incident of 2019, the NAACP open letter did receive some media attention. Most notably, CNN did a 5-minute, on-the-scene report, interviewing several community leaders and members including Bishop Bob Jackson, Senior Pastor of Acts Full Gospel Church, and Interim Police Chief Darren Allison. One person who declined to be interviewed is Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price. Ms. Price’s response to the NAACP? She’s, “disappointed” that they “would take a false narrative on such an important matter. We would expect more from" them. In other words, nobody cares.
How is the Alameda County DA’s response to the Black Oakland residents crying out for help any different than those brash kids who attempted to scold community elders trying to save their city? Accusing the victims of violent crime of spreading “false narratives” about the conditions under which they live is the epitome of elitism.
Oakland is not the only post-BLM city in these types of dire straights. Washington, D.C. Councilman Trayon White is calling for the National Guard to help quell the violence. Chicago pastor and IBSI coalition partner, Corey Brooks recently stated that the violence is “rapid and unharnessed.” After the recent shooting death of her 16-year-old son, Katika Travis described Baltimore as, “a city where you always have to look over your shoulder.” Minneapolis, San Francisco, Sacramento, Memphis, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles…the list goes on. It would appear that the millions in donations to BLM and painting BLACK LIVES MATTER on the streets in big bold yellow letters was all political theater. The problem is that people, especially young people, are dying as a result of this political theater — this political horror movie. Clearly, the Black lives suffering as a result of the Marxist policies groups like BLM and Jewish Voice for Peace fought for don’t matter.
Along with others who were willing, IBSI raised its voice to denounce the riots, looting, violence, and mayhem that distracted from legitimate protests after the death of George Floyd. IBSI’s position was based on reason, logic, and my formative childhood experience.
When I was a young child during the 1970s, my mother showed me pictures of burned-out buildings in Watts. “These were destroyed during the (1960s) riots,” Mama said. “Most of those businesses will never return. Those jobs are lost. And the tax revenue that the schools receive from those businesses will never be replaced. They destroyed their own community.” Being around 8 or 9 years old I didn’t fully understand what my mother meant. As I got older I did understand and saw the cycle multiple times, starting with the 1992 Rodney King riots in L.A.
In 2020, seeing eyewitness reports of people from out of town descending on cities like Minneapolis and Atlanta in order to riot and destroy property, I understood on another level. There are evil people invested in disenfranchising others for political purposes. Like Hamas uses the people of Gaza, so these evil people are willing to help destroy homes, families, businesses, and schools in Oakland and beyond if it means furthering their oppression narrative. And when the results of the lawlessness and chaos set in — as it is now — those evil people are nowhere to be found. Because they couldn’t care less.
The subtitle of this piece, Nobody Cares is not literal or definitive. The Nobody refers to the countless social justice warriors who posted Black squares on their social media accounts and hashtagged #BlackLivesMatter all while endorsing the “burn baby burn” mentality — as long as it wasn’t in their neighborhood. The next time you hear someone encourage violence and destruction as a means of protest, tell them to start with their house.
Meanwhile, real warriors and seekers of justice are in Oakland, Chicago, Atlanta, L.A….all over the country doing the work of restoration. Again, Chicago Pastor Corey Brooks of Project H.O.O.D. is but one example. It is tragic that these true warriors’ jobs are made more difficult by the evil people who are trying to tear everything down, but — with God’s help — the true warriors always prevail.
I live near both DC and Baltimore and have seen these consequences first hand. There is nothing more infuriating than people who sit in their nice homes and hide behind keyboards thoughtlessly calling for the defunding of police. They are not even seeking reforms which are needed (but usually in the form of more funding, not less). I often wish people would open their eyes to the agendas behind this indoctrination. If it is well-funded and promoted, then there are powers that will benefit from destroying communities and dividing people further.
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant and I pray that I will live long enough to vote for Tim Scott and see him inaugurated as the next US president. Lucky people in his state.