Oakland Hosts Town Halls on Public Safety to Discuss Concerns with Residents
“We’re saving lives in Oakland. What we are doing works,” said Mayor Thao
She said the FBI told her attorney she is not the target of an investigation but is so far unwilling to make a public statement.
By Ken Epstein
Self-assured and defiant, Mayor Sheng Thao strongly defended her achievements during her first two years as mayor and went on the offensive against the billionaires who are funding the recall campaign, speaking at a rally this week backed by about 100 supporters in Oakland Chinatown.
Local community and business leaders supporting Thao spoke at the Tuesday morning rally, which was held in the courtyard of the Pacific Renaissance Plaza in Chinatown, providing an unspoken rebuttal to corporate media portrayals of Chinatown residents as living in fear of rampant crime and united in opposition to Mayor Thao.
Oakland has seen unprecedented challenges during and since the pandemic, Thao said. “But I stand with you today to tell you that “Oakland has seen 14,000 less crimes this year than last year. This year, we’re headed on the right track,” with fewer homicides than in 2019. “We are saving lives in Oakland. What we are doing work,” she said.
“The billionaires, the millionaires are going to want to tell you that it’s not working and that somehow you shouldn’t believe the data,” Mayor Thao continued. “(However) the data shows that we are saving lives. That is a huge win. It’s not good enough. But it’s a place where we’re proud to start from.”
“You know who is behind this recall. It is majority funded by one executive (of a) hedge fund who doesn’t even live in Oakland. He does not care if this brings Oakland into chaos, because that’s exactly what his recall will do. Imagine a city with no leadership (for many months).
Another speaker, Stewart Chen, owner of a small business in Chinatown and a prominent political leader, has taken a strong stand against the recall.
“Mayor Thao (was) in office for less than two months before the recall started. I think it’s unfair. She hasn’t had time to prove her policies and her leadership,” Chen said.
“(Only) two months. That is not democratic. She campaigned hard and was duly elected, -justly, legally, democratically,” he said.
“The Chinatown community, we’re all here, (because) we want to see Mayor Thao (here) for the next two years” to complete her term, Chen said.
Other speakers included Kenneth Tang, organizing director of Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Action – who said he and other APEN Action members came to the rally because, “We support Mayor Thao.”
Elaine Peng, president of Asian Americans for Progressive Alameda, (AAPA) brought out people to the rally. Her organization is also actively working to elect U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mariano Contreras of the Latino Task Force and a leader of the “Respect Our Vote – No Recalls!” coalition, said, “There was a time when African Americans could not vote. There was a time when Asians could not vote. There was a time when Latinos could not vote. That was called voter suppression. This is another form of voter suppression. We already cast our ballot for Mayor Sheng Thao. Please, vote ‘no’ on the recall.”
A half-dozen hecklers, part of the usual handful who come out to disrupt the mayor’s public appearances, showed up with a bull horn and a sound system to denounce Thao and her supporters. They made noise but failed to disrupt the event, though they did attract corporate media representatives who featured the hecklers in their news reports.
In a recent video interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, the mayor challenged the FBI to say publicly what they told her, that she was not the target of an investigation when they staged a widely publicized raid of her home in June.
“(After) the FBI came to my house, I haven’t opened up about what took place, but I think now is the time to open up,” Mayor Thao said. “When they came to my house at about 6 a.m. that morning, they came in with long guns, they came in with Glocks, they came in with the battering ram, ready to break down the doors of a sitting mayor’s house.”
“I am innocent,” she continued “I don’t have a criminal record. I don’t even own any guns or anything like that. When they rushed me out of the house, I (originally) thought they were there to protect me from the many threats I’ve been getting against my life and my family’s lives.”
The FBI had a search warrant, “(but) I have not received the affidavit of probable cause for them to come into my home – to this day. It was a complete overreach.”
She said she was not allowed to dress herself completely, and agents ran their fingers through her clothes before she was allowed to put them on.
“The FBI agents actually told my attorney that I am not the target of the investigation,” she said.
Her attorney sent the FBI a letter stating that “it’s been months, and we need you to come out and actually tell the public yourself that I am not the target of this investigation. And to this day, nothing, I ‘ve heard nothing from them.”
She concluded, “This raid was done two days after the recall qualified (for the ballot) … so it is not appropriate to hear nothing from them, when we know, this is going to weigh a lot on our voters’ minds when they get to the polling booth, when they mark their ballots.”
