Edward Escobar speaking at recent public safety rally promoting the use of Flock safety license plate Reader cameras at Oakland City hall. (Photo Edward Escobar)
Oakland’s Public Safety Crisis Is No Accident… It’s Dysfunction by Design
Oakland doesn’t need more ideology, it needs integrity
By Edward Escobar, December 5, 2025 2:55 am
Oakland is bleeding. Businesses are shuttered, families are fleeing, and violent crime is surging in neighborhoods that can least afford it. The city’s flatlands—home to working-class Black and Brown families—have become ground zero for a public safety collapse that is anything but accidental.
I’ve spent years on the front lines of this fight. As a coalition builder and public safety advocate, I’ve helped lead successful recall efforts against Mayor Sheng Thao and District Attorney Pamela Price. Not because of politics, but because of principle. Under their watch, Oakland has become a case study in what happens when ideology replaces accountability.
But the rot goes deeper than City Hall.
Behind the scenes, a network of nonprofit operatives has seized control of Oakland’s public safety narrative. Groups like the Anti Police-Terror Project, led by Cat Brooks, and Oakland Rising, fronted by Chaney Turner, have built careers on defunding the police and dismantling enforcement. They claim to speak for the marginalized—yet their policies have devastated the very communities they pretend to protect.
This is the bait-and-switch: policies sold as protections for communities of color have instead unleashed a crimewave that disproportionately harms them. The dysfunction is not a glitch—it’s the goal. And the echo chamber that sustains it is powered by nonprofit grifters who exploit human suffering while perpetuating the same.
At the center of this machine is Councilmember Carroll Fife, the ideological architect of Oakland’s defund movement. Her husband, Earl Harper—also known as Tur-Ha Ak—lurks at City Hall as a political enforcer. As a leader of Community Ready Corps, Harper’s menacing physical presence and open intimidation tactics have become a fixture at public meetings. His role is clear: to reinforce Fife’s power through fear.
I experienced this firsthand.
At a recent Public Safety Committee meeting, I was assaulted—twice. Once in an overflow room. Once at the entrance to City Council chambers. Both times in full view of the public. Second time, occurred in front of City Hall’s own security guards, who stood by and did nothing. I was there to speak out against the crime wave and advocate for real safety reforms. Instead, I became a victim of the very violence I came to condemn.
This is the state of civic life in Oakland: if you challenge the status quo, you’re silenced. If you speak up, you’re targeted. And if you dare to demand accountability, you’re met with fists instead of facts.
The people of Oakland deserve better. They deserve leaders who protect them—not perform for cameras while their neighborhoods burn. They deserve policies that reduce crime—not slogans that excuse it. And they deserve a City Hall where public safety isn’t just a talking point, but a lived reality.
It’s time to end the charade. The nonprofit-political complex that has hijacked Oakland’s future must be exposed and dismantled. The city’s residents—especially those in the flatlands—deserve more than broken promises and broken windows.
Oakland doesn’t need more ideology. It needs integrity. And I intend to continue fighting for it.
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February 18, 2022
Edward this breaks my heart to read this. Oakland has the potential to be a great city, but is in the thrall of special interests- much like our state. It starts with the police, who are pulled away from their jobs and constrained in their attempts to stop crime. Leadership from City Hall has been embarrassing. Graft, corruption, public grandstanding and waste of taxpayer money has been a disaster for the residents. The shooting of Coach Beam, who helped so many young men, seemed to sum up the hopelessness that so many feel.
Thank you for your efforts to restore sanity. Just remember that a majority of the people support you.
What in this country makes an intellectually challenged population fall under the reign of thugs? Corrupt elections, that’s what. You do not have to be a genius to vote against crooks. You vote just has to count.
This has been the pattern of California since democrats took over.
In the 1990’s, drug dealers armed with automatic weapons controlled the streets of the small, poverty-stricken community of East Palo Alto. Police there were hamstrung by constant claims of police brutality. Never ending crime poured over into adjacent communities. In a much needed intervention, a police crackdown using officers donated by Palo Alto, Menlo Park, San Mateo County and the California Highway Patrol cut the homicide rate in East Palo Alto by 86%. Something similar will be necessary in the hellhole known as Oakland.
The “working-class Black and Brown families” could try voting differently, particularly in local and state elections, and presuring their elected representative. Until they and other Democrats do so, there is not a lot we can do to help them.
The caveat on the above is how corrupt are Oakland and CA elections? 3%? 5%? 10? Corrupt elections, also created by the Democratic Party, make their hill taller and steeper to climb.
If the rally shown in the picture was 100X larger and followed up with letters, emails, telephone calls, office visits, and speaking at city council meetings, the Dem politicians may take notice.
Notwithstanding the vote fraud, if the citizens of Oakland really want to control THEIR government, they can, at least for now. (If the Dem Party has its way, they and we will not be able to control our government, but, for now, they and we can.)
Cameras might be a useful tool, but they are not the answer if the Soros DA doesn’t prosecute, or downgrades the charges, or gives lenient plea bargains and/or if the Dem judges dismiss charges and give lenient sentences, cameras will do little good.
One more comment, who do the “working-class Black and Brown families” align with? Black and Brown criminals and Black and Brown politicians or other law-abiding Americans who also want safe streets, good schools so their children have the opportunity to do better than their parents, abundant water and energy for lower prices, etc?
The choice is theirs.
Exactly, Gregory. They voted themselves into poverty.
Whenever I see people on TV complain that they have been victimized my criminals, I am waiting for the TV host to ask them (which they never do), “Did you vote for Democrats?” If the answer is “yes”, then you got what you voted for. If you are too stupid or stubborn to vote for Republicans, then tough luck.
I always hear, “I’m a life long Democrat.” Good for you. Your life may be shortened considerably with the way you are voting.
Voting for Democrats is irresponsible.