OAKLAND, Calif. – It was a sunny day in the East Bay and there had already been multiple armed carjackings, two armed robberies, a handful of armed assaults and a fatal hit-and-run, and it was just after noon. For West Oakland, California, resident Seneca Scott, it was just another Wednesday morning.
“So the reason that Oakland is not safe and livable is because of the failed policies of our neo-progressives who have come to dominate our local government,” Scott, founder of the nonprofit Neighbors Together Oakland, told Fox News. “The defund movement was a dismal failure.”
California Highway Patrol officers respond to a call with a rifle drawn. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
“No one feels safe to go outside, businesses are failing, and we created a dangerous doom loop,” the safe neighborhood advocate continued. “The luxury politics of our elite who don’t live with the consequences of their policy is absolutely destroying our city.”
There were nearly 500 homicides in Oakland from 2018 to 2022, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, making the town the most dangerous city in the Bay Area. From July 6 to 12, Oakland police reported 251 larceny cases, 146 motor vehicle thefts, 43 robberies, 94 assaults and 50 burglaries, according to city data.
The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services’ standards mandate 90% of 911 calls should be answered in 15 seconds or less. Oakland police, in the first three months of 2023, answered only 55% of calls in 15 seconds or less.
Oakland police’s 911 average answer time during June was the worst in the state, taking callers over a minute to reach emergency dispatchers, an NBC Bay Area investigation found.
A robbery suspect is placed on a stretcher after a standoff with the Alameda County Sheriffs Office. (Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images)
CALIFORNIA YOUTHS LINKED TO AT LEAST 35 ROBBERIES IN OAKLAND AREA
When residents are afraid to go outside and walk around, local businesses begin to fail, further exasperating the plight of poor neighborhoods, the nonprofit founder told Fox News. The solution to Oakland’s persistent safety problems, Scott said, is to vote for new leadership who will crack down on crime.
Seneca Scott, founder of Neighbors Together Oakland, said the defund the police movement has caused a rise in crime in Oakland, California. (Jon Michael Raasch/Fox News Digital)
Oakland residents soon may have a chance to do just that.
Price’s critics claim her progressive reforms such as not charging kids under 18 as adults, leniency in using sentencing enhancements and handling of a high-profile murder case of a 2-year-old have set bad precedents and led to more crime.
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