Oakland city leaders reject additional police department cuts: mayor casts tie-breaking vote

Elissa Harrington
KTVU
Wed, 22 Jul 2020 19:13 UTC

© Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times Via Getty Images

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf

Oakland City Council rejects proposal for deeper police budget cuts

The Oakland city council rejected deeper cuts to the police department, where Mayor Libby Schaaf cast the deciding vote - only hours after her home was vandalized.

"Any further cuts, real cuts will require significant reductions to our widely recognized inadequate 911 response, elimination of current police service as well as further strain of what is a well-documented understaffed police force," Schaaf said.

The Tuesday night meeting included hours of public comment with many supporting cuts to the police department.

Some residents shouted out: "You have blood on your hands. How dare you."

Another person said: "I think that if anywhere, Oakland is the city that can show America that we can be safer without police."

City council members were deadlocked on a proposal that would slash more than $2 million from the police budget. Earlier in the night, the city council rejected another proposal that wanted to take $11 million dollars from OPD's budget.

Schaaf said she had concerns over how this would impact response times in an emergency. In an email sent out before the meeting, she called the proposed amendment dangerous and irresponsible. The city already took more than $14 million from the police department last month.

Many residents are demanding cuts - and there are nationwide calls to defund police following the in-custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Councilmembers also discussed launching a task force with a goal or reducing OPD's budget by 50%. Money would be invested in other community needs, including mental health issues and youth violence prevention.

Comment: You don't suppose this little incident reported by RT had anything to do with her vote maybe? The 'woke' continue to turn on their 'allies'.

Protesters have vandalized the home of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, splattering it with red paint and graffiti while pelting the house with fireworks. The mayor's office said the attack was meant to "terrorize" and "intimidate."

"An attack at the home of a publicly elected official does not advance democracy," the mayor's office said in a statement, noting that "vandals shot projectiles at the mayor's home, set off fireworks and graffitied her home with paint."

This attack, designed to intimidate the mayor and strike fear into her family, will not stop her from advocating for the policies she believes are in the best long-term interests of her beloved hometown. Like all Oaklanders, she supports passionate protest but does not support tactics meant to harm and terrorize others.

Oakland Police are now investigating the incident, the aftermath of which was seen in photos shared on social media.

Though the mayor has come out in favor of the BLM movement - approving of a massive street mural created to celebrate the group and forcefully speaking out against police brutality on a number of occasions in recent weeks - her not-radical-enough stance on police funding is at odds with activists' growing calls to slash department budgets or abolish them outright.

The city voted to divert more than $14 million from the Oakland Police Department budget last month, however activists and some city council members have demanded more, with two local lawmakers proposing a whopping $150 million cut in a recent budget amendment.

Schaaf ultimately provided the tie-breaking vote to shoot down the larger cut on Tuesday night, arguing it would "further impair what is already sub-standard police 911 response" and "strain Oakland's under-staffed police force."

It is not the first time anti-police brutality demonstrators descended on Schaaf's private residence. In June, some 1,000 marchers staged a protest in her Fruitvale neighborhood, calling on the mayor to defund the OPD, among other things. Following the action, the mayor's office issued a statement in support of the protesters, arguing that the "outrage across America right now needs to be heard."

It's not like Schaaf hasn't tried hard to establish her liberal cred:

• 'Outsider' Anne Kirkpatrick appointed to reform Oakland police is department's first woman chief
• Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf hit with lawsuit for tipping off illegal immigrants to ICE sweep
• Oakland Mayor, Libby Schaaf, says she's willing to be jailed to defend sanctuary city