The article by Thomas Hawk via X.
Tonight I went to an event titled “Know Your District Attorney,” featuring the current embattled Alameda County District Attorney, Pamela Price. Price is currently facing a formal recall by the citizens of Alameda county.
The event was held at the Huey P. Newton Center in Oakland, California. Pam Price of course was the main attraction. The event was not well publicized and was sparsely attended (maybe 50 people?).
Although the event promised “meaningful dialogue” none was to be had.
The event started out with a cultural dance presentation and then a prayer to our ancestors where for some reason a Poinsettia plant was watered in front of the crowd while we bowed our heads in prayer.
I was looking forward to hearing Pam answer some hard-hitting questions about her upcoming recall, but all questions were required to be submitted in writing ahead of time and we were told that there would be no questions taken from the audience — and if anyone from the audience interrupted with a question they would escort out of the building. Of course, the recall did not come up.
Instead of “meaningful dialogue” Pam took three softball prescreened questions mostly complementing her and asking her how she planned to address the over incarceration problem as district attorney.
After this we got to see a video that seemed to be about going back and resentencing people already in prison and letting them out early.
Then we got a panel lecture from some of the non-profits advocating for her brand of progressiveness while complaining about more moderate district attorneys in the past. One of the panelists gave his reason for supporting Price.
“The DAs over prosecute us and get a successful sentence and just send us away. When you have a progressive DA who understands what their job really is, because that’s not what your job is, your job is supposed to be equality, your job is supposed to be justice, the scales of justice, just because you are a person of color doesn’t need to be excessively sentenced. Having a more moderate or conservative DA is really an attack on black and brown communities.”
Crime is out of control in Oakland, but this did not seem to matter to Pam or her friends who were rolled out to support her tonight, nor was our crime problem really addressed in any meaningful way. I came away from the event believing more than ever that Price needs to be recalled.
The evening would not be complete, of course, without walking out of the event and seeing a car that had just had its window smashed in, fortunately this time it wasn’t mine. I put an album of photos up of tonight’s event on Flickr here: https://flickr.com/photos/thomashawk/albums/72177720312929640… Thanks to
@RecallPPrice for the heads up tonight about the event.
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