Last week, the head of the Oakland, California branch of the NAACP and a local black Bishop sent a scathing letter to city officials accusing them of creating a “heyday” for criminals with their lenient crime policies and anti-police rhetoric, Fox News reported.
In the letter posted online and signed by Oakland NAACP President Cynthia Adams and Acts Full Gospel Church Bishop Bob Jackson, city officials were urged to end the “public safety crisis” by declaring a state of emergency on crime.
The letter asserted that Oakland residents have grown “sick and tired” of the “intolerable public safety crisis” that primarily impacts minority communities and called on elected officials to declare an emergency to bring the “massive resources” needed to address the crisis in which residents, businesses, and workers are regularly being assaulted and robbed.
In decrying the “failed leadership” of the city, the letter specifically cited the District Attorney’s unwillingness to prosecute serious crimes as well as the “defund the police” movement, saying they have created “a heyday for Oakland criminals.”
The letter warned that if criminals face no consequences for committing crimes in the city, “crime will continue to soar.”
In their letter, Adams and Jackson cited the people fleeing Oakland over the rising crime and called for an increase in police officers and improved emergency response times.
They also blasted the city for the lack of blue-collar job development, which they say has been “chased away or delayed” by Oakland’s “progressive policies.”
The letter concluded with a plea for all Oakland residents to speak up about the crisis and not allow the city to shame them into silence. They note that allowing the crisis to continue is neither “compassionate” nor “progressive,” nor is it “unkind” or “racist” to expect to be safe from crime.
“No one should live in fear in our city,” they wrote.
