The mayor of Oakland, California, said the push to defund the city’s police went “too far” after it took off in the summer of 2020 in the wake of Georgia Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.
Libby Schaaf, the mayor, described such rhetoric as unproductive as she talked Thursday about how her city needs to address the “root causes” of rising crime and homelessness rates.
“I think it was a correction to the ‘defund’ conversation, which I personally think went too far and got convoluted,” Schaaf told Politico.
OAKLAND POLICE CHIEF FUMES AFTER CITY SLASHES LAW ENFORCEMENT FUNDING AMID CRIME SURGE
“I think everyone agrees we need to invest far more into prevention, into the root causes of crime, and particularly into our mental health system, which is completely failing us, both when you look at crime as well as homelessness,” Schaaf said.
The Oakland City Council voted 6-2 in June to slash $18.5 million from a proposed increase to the Oakland Police Department’s budget, a move criticized by Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who said at the time that “crime is out of control” in the city.
“It’s been particularly heart-wrenching in Oakland because we had just made national headlines for cutting gun violence in half and sustaining those lower rates for five years,” Schaaf said about the high homicide rates in 2021. “When we saw this surge come up during the pandemic — and, let’s also be honest, after George Floyd, after this country just saw its faith in government justice compromised — we were just heartbroken.”
Oakland experienced the deadliest year of homicides in more than a decade in 2021. Police investigated the killings of 134 people last year, according to the Mercury News, marking the highest homicide rate since 2006, when the number was 148.
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“When we listen to the communities that have been most impacted, and when you look at gun violence, the communities that are paying the highest price are the communities that are paying the highest price in all areas, whether it’s income inequality, food insecurity, [or] housing insecurity. And so we are hearing loud and clear that justice is something that they want,” Schaaf said.
Schaaf announced last November that she wanted to reverse plans to defund law enforcement and instead hire additional officers after the city experienced its 127th homicide of the year.
