The Call That Stopped Everything

In March 2020, I was working at home preparing for an arbitration against Tesla. My sister called and said, “they just locked down Mama.” Those words were my first real clue that COVID-19 was about to change all of our lives.

“They” were the owners of the live-in care facility that provided a safe place for my mother. In 2014, at age 82, Mildred was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. My sister and I had spent the last six years in “the long goodbye,” taking charge of Mom’s life and care.

“They” were European immigrants who owned and operated a lovely house in Scottsdale that my sister had found for Mom. They knew more about COVID-19 than we did. And “they” locked my mother down early, before it could invade their space of elderly Alzheimer’s patients.

I share this personal note because I am and always will be grateful that “they” - Janine and Adrian - locked my Mom down before the horror of COVID-19 touched her. As someone whose elderly loved one survived COVID, I will be eternally grateful to Dr. Fauci for everything he did to sound the alarm WHEN he did.

European countries shut down weeks before America did. By March 15th, in a single 24-hour period in Italy, 250 people died. Dr. Fauci sounded the alarm on media shows that weekend and was already consulting with health professionals around the world on what to expect.

When Dr. Fauci issued his “mitigation recommendations” in March 2020, he saved millions of lives. Without masks, social distancing and shelter-in-place measures, many more people would have died in America.

Sacrificing the Lives of the Elderly and Healthcare Workers

The pandemic was particularly devastating to our elders. According to one source, 122,707 elders 85 years and older died in America in 2020 because of COVID-19. The hospital and nursing home crisis in the state of New York was horrifying in how badly Governor Cuomo responded to the pandemic.

In my age group at the time, in comparison, it is reported that 45,377 succumbed to COVID-19 in that first year. The rate of death for my age group was 107; the rate of death for those 85 years and older was 1,842.90. Had my 88-year-old Mom contracted COVID-19 in that first year, it very likely would have been a death sentence.

For the families, health care workers and caregivers who lost a beloved elder, I can only imagine the level of helplessness they felt as the disease ravaged our country. Many healthcare workers sacrificed their lives to save their patients, with higher mortality rates among Black and Asian healthcare workers over 50 years old. Their sacrifices still have not been appropriately appreciated, and their stories have not been adequately told as we moved on from the pandemic.

Why Do I Salute Dr. Fauci?

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for 36 years, since 1984, was the best person in 2020 to create a strategy to minimize the loss of life. He joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1968. He was the longest serving director of the NIAID when the pandemic hit us in 2020.

Obviously, the COVID-19 pandemic was not his first rodeo. He dealt with the AIDS epidemic. While taking criticism for the slow response of the Reagan administration, he was later credited with developing the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief which saved millions of lives around the world. Then, there was Ebola, when he personally treated patients in the United States while championing the deployment of resources into West Africa to fight that disease.

Dr. Fauci’s greatest challenge was dealing with COVID-19 under Chief Crazy Trump for three years. As his diary shows, he knew that Trump was a total nut job. Dr. Fauci had to navigate not getting fired by Chief Crazy while maintaining a level of integrity and credibility with the public. Given his successful survival of Trump Part 1, it is unbelievable that people are challenging him about decisions he made six years ago.

Rand Paul’s Crusade to Prosecute Dr. Fauci

To understand the current controversy is to acknowledge that Senator Rand Paul targeted and started harassing Dr. Fauci in 2020. Senator Paul has challenged Dr. Fauci on everything from

• masks,

• risk of reinfection,

• the state of the pandemic and

• the origin of the coronavirus.

From 2020 to 2026, Paul’s attacks on Dr. Fauci have continued unabated and escalated.

In 2022, Dr. Fauci attributed a documented assassination attempt on his life to Paul’s attacks against him and testified before Congress that:

“What happens when he [Sen. Rand Paul] gets out and accuses me of things that are completely untrue is that all of a sudden that kindles the crazies out there and I have threats upon my life, harassment of my family and my children with obscene phone calls, because people are lying about me.”

Paul wanted Dr. Fauci fired in 2022. Paul had a website which included the message “Fire Fauci” that he used to raise money for his cause. He has also been on a mission to have Dr. Fauci criminally prosecuted for years. Paul has made multiple referrals for prosecution of Dr. Fauci to the Department of Justice.

In July 2023, Paul announced an “official criminal referral” to the Department of Justice seeking to have Dr. Fauci prosecuted.

In July 2025, Paul announced that he “renewed his referral” for criminal prosecution of Dr. Fauci to the Department of Justice because President Joe Biden pardoned Dr. Fauci.

SIDENOTE: Why Dr. Fauci should be prosecuted for something Joe Biden’s staff allegedly did is beyond logic and truly nonsense.

Why Did Dr. Fauci “Take the Fifth”

On July 29, 2026, Dr. Fauci appeared before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and invoked his Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. While some folks were shocked or outraged by this, there are multiple good reasons for Dr. Fauci to invoke his constitutional right not to say anything that might support a criminal prosecution against him.

“Taking the Fifth” is a bedrock principle in our legal system that any lawyer will tell you is always the wisest choice whether you are in court, on the street with an inquiring police officer, or surrounded by ravenous wolves in the halls of Congress.

Calling Dr. Fauci to testify under oath yet again before Congress about a pandemic that happened six years ago that we survived is clearly a ploy by Sen. Paul to create grounds for prosecution for perjury.

Not only is Dr. Fauci at risk of being prosecuted for perjury by Trump’s men at the Department of Justice, there are also no less than seventeen (17) state attorneys general “investigating” his role for “mismanagement” in the pandemic. He is under subpoena in three states for investigation whether he personally profited from his health guidance during the pandemic.

In the words of one commentator, “the political debate about COVID-19 has evolved into a bitter culture war” and Dr. Fauci has become a lightning rod for right-wing politicians. The level of disrespect in the debate toward him reflects the Republicans’ extreme desire to persecute political enemies in a season of lawlessness throughout the federal government.

Under these circumstances, Dr. Fauci’s only option is to rely on his constitutional right to remain silent. It is crystal clear that anything he says can and will be used against him.

The Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Backlash

What is also really important, and offensive, is that within months of seizing control of the federal government in 2025, Trump and his henchmen RFK and Elon Musk cut more than $500 million in funding from the NIAID’s budget for research on allergies and diseases. The deep cuts in funding impacts research on infectious diseases, mental health conditions, and disparities in health conditions for communities of color. They cancelled research grants for cancer, dementia, Alzheimer’s, contamination of public drinking water, reproductive healthcare, HIV, and of course, vaccines.

These massive and unprecedented cuts have created the backdrop for the destruction of public health in America. A report by Protect Our Care finds that RFK’s decisions have wreaked havoc on America’s public health system. Measle outbreaks are back, participants in clinical trials have been left hanging and tens of thousands of federal employees have been on a roller-coaster ride for their employment.

Scapegoating Dr. Fauci will not make us safer when the next pandemic hits or when there is another public health crisis. In fact, persecuting Dr. Fauci is a publicity stunt to distract Americans from the real consequences of Trump’s Project 2025 agenda to

• restrict access to healthcare for adults and children,

• eliminate vaccines

• end early childhood development programs and

• expand children’s access to guns.

In the words of one Bay Area activist, “evil is winning” in America.

NOTES:

https://www.axios.com/2020/03/15/fauci-coronavirus-overreaction

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1382342/number-covid-deaths-us-by-age/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1382357/covid-death-rates-us-by-age/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Institutes-of-Health

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Anthony-Fauci

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Presidents-Emergency-Plan-for-AIDS-Relief

https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2014/10/fauci-quelling-ebolas-perfect-storm-in-west-africa-requires-global-mobilization

https://www.science.org/content/article/why-nihs-anthony-fauci-treating-ebola-patients-himself

https://www.propublica.org/article/cuomo-undercounted-nursing-home-deaths-by-as-much-as-50-report-finds

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/23/you-are-not-listening-fauci-tells-rand-paul-during-senate-hearing.html

https://www.newsnationnow.com/health/coronavirus/sen-rand-paul-files-criminal-referral-fauci-covid-origins/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8776280/

https://nypost.com/2026/08/06/us-news/dr-anthony-fauci-subpoenaed-by-three-gop-state-ags-for-allegedly-profiting-off-covid-19-guidance/

https://www.scag.gov/about-the-office/news/attorney-general-alan-wilson-leads-coalition-of-ags-investigating-dr-anthony-fauci-s-covid-19-response/

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/cost-trump-administrations-attacks-research-funding

https://projects.propublica.org/nih-cuts-research-lost-trump/

https://projects.propublica.org/federal-health-worker-cuts-rfk-trump-administration/

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/general/scapegoating-fauci-won-t-protect-us-from-the-next-pandemic/ar-AA2akzy7?ocid=msedgntp&pc=DCTS&cvid=6a83b6a93a1841298ee887b3c40dc632&ei=17

https://time.com/7014947/project-2025-health-trump/

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/what-project-2025-would-mean-health-and-healthcare-2024a1000eke?form=fpf

Have you seen the TV and digital ads attacking California State Senator Aisha Wahab? The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is spending more than $5 million dollars to defeat State Senator Wahab in the 14th Congressional District race.

This used to be Eric Swalwell’s seat in Congress. He had a lock on it and lost it all when he was exposed for who he really is.

Two Elections for One Seat

Because Swalwell was exposed as a sexual predator, there are 2 elections to fill his seat:

• one on August 18th to finish his term through December, and

• a second election in November to send a representative to Congress for a regular 2-year term.

Thank God Swalwell he didn’t become our Governor. In 2024, the People’s Tribunal Against Eric Swalwell, a coalition of over 100 citizens unanimously found Swalwell “guilty of complicity in the Palestinian genocide” and a failure to represent his constituency. The evidence presented at the tribunal showed that Swalwell has accepted thousands of dollars from pro-Israel groups, defunded humanitarian aid to Gaza, supported resolutions and legislation to protect Israel and ignored constituent concerns.

Clearly, AIPAC was going to be happy with Eric Swalwell as California’s next Governor. In February 2026, at the Jewish California Governor’s forum, Swalwell pledged to increase collaboration between Israel and California. Both of California’s Senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla are also strong advocates for military funding for Israel. Not surprisingly, they both have received significant funding from AIPAC in their elections.

“Soft on Crime” Attacks Work

The main theme of AIPAC’s multi-million-dollar campaign against Senator Wahab is that she is “soft on crime.”

Why the soft on crime attacks? Because fear mongering works! Most of the time in politics, fear mongering works. And it does not have to be fact-based. It’s a cynical and gross manipulation of people’s emotions. Add a few grieving victims and some outraged business owners and you have a winning formula.

The problem for AIPAC is Senator Wahab is not a criminal justice reform advocate. In this season no Democratic politician is advocating for criminal justice reform. That issue is DOA - dead on arrival- for the Democrats and their donors. So, what is normally a winning formula sounds weak and contrived in this election.

Senator Wahab is actually endorsed by the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA), and the California Police Chiefs Association, two of the most reactionary police organizations in California. Both CCPOA and the police chiefs have been strong opponents of efforts to reform California’s outdated penal code, and our expensive and corrosive criminal-legal institutions. Wahab is also endorsed by the local Alameda County Sheriff, Yesenia Sanchez.

Nonetheless, powerful local police unions support her opponent, Melissa Hernandez. The Fremont Police Officers Association, Livermore Police Officers Association and the Alameda County Deputy Sheriffs PAC are backing Hernandez with their endorsements and campaign contributions. Their influence in this race is limited, however, because crime is not well publicized in the communities in the 14th Congressional District.

It is unlike crime reporting on Oakland where every purse snatching, car theft, robbery, neighbor dispute and business closing is amplified at the same level as every homicide and home invasion on NextDoor and in the right-wing San Francisco based media outlets.

Crime in Fremont, Hayward, Livermore, Dublin and Pleasanton rarely makes the nightly news. In fact, most Bay Area media outlets consider those cities “safe” in comparison to Oakland. Consequently, crime is not “a hot button” issue for most voters in the 14th Congressional District unless it involves bashing Oakland.

SIDENOTE: In the recall 2024 election, it was clear that disgraced Congressman Eric Swalwell’s support for the recall was a well-timed publicity stunt driven by his own personal animus and political ambitions vs. any actual fact-based assessment of the District Attorney’s impact on crime in his Congressional District or Alameda County.

Why is AIPAC in Alameda County?

The real issue that drives AIPAC’s interest in this Congressional race is support for military aid to Israel and Israel’s expansionist policies in the Middle East. Congress recently passed the United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative which provides billions of dollars for military assistance to Israel and expands coordination between the U.S. military and the Israeli military in every area of defense technology, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more.

Senator Wahab is an advocate for peace and justice in the Middle East. In 2025, she spearheaded the California State Senate resolution on Human Rights in Gaza, with the support of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus. While she has not been endorsed by TrackAIPAC , she is now well-known as one of AIPAC’s major targets.

AIPAC spending on congressional campaigns has become “a thing” in American politics. In 2024, AIPAC spent almost $15 million to unseat New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman, a staunch critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza and replace him with a staunch supporter of Israeli policies. At that time, it was the largest amount a single group had ever spent on a race for the House of Representatives.

Then, in 2026, AIPAC spent $30 million in Michigan against Dr. Abdul El-Sayed in a US Senate race. He won his primary election. If elected in November, he will be the first Muslim U.S. Senator. If State Senator Wahab is elected to Congress on August 18th, she would become only the fifth member of Congress who identifies as Muslim.

AIPAC spent $3 million in Missouri to support Congressman Wesley Bell in his 2026 campaign to defeat Cori Bush and he won. This was the rematch from 2024 when AIPAC spent $9 million to take out then-Congresswoman Cori Bush and elect Bell.

AIPAC definitely does not want peace in the Middle East, and they don’t want another advocate for peace in the United States Congress. AIPAC spending can make the difference as money always does in politics. We’ll see how far $5 million to push a false narrative goes in Alameda County.

NOTES:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/06/aipac-super-pacs-spend-millions-california

https://pamelapriceunfiltered.substack.com/p/eric-swalwell-needs-to-resign-now

https://eastbay4ceasefire.org/tribunal/

https://www.aishawahab.com/attackads

https://jewishcaucus.legislature.ca.gov/

https://www.trackaipac.com/contact

https://www.trackaipac.com/states/california?rq=adam%20schiff

https://www.anewpolicy.org/the-legislative-tracker/section-224-ndaa

https://factually.co/fact-checks/military/section-224-219-2027-ndaa-changes-us-israel-defense-cooperation-26684f

https://www.cjcj.org/media/import/documents/ccpoa_information_sheet.pdf

https://www.govgreed.com/aipac-targets

https://truthout.org/articles/jamaal-bowman-loses-primary-after-aipac-poured-record-14-5m-into-race/

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/aipac-michigan-senate-primary-stevens-abdul-el-sayed/

https://missouriindependent.com/2026/08/04/wesley-bell-beats-cori-bush-in-democratic-primary-for-st-louis-congressional-seat/

https://reference.org/facts/List_of_Muslim_members_of_the_United_States_Congress/mmkQ203u

Pastor Laurie Manning of Skyline Community Church speaking on the death of Maurice Monk and the criminal charges against his caretakers

On July 24, 2026, felony charges against three Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies charged in the horrific death of Maurice Monk were dismissed, leaving one misdemeanor charge against a single deputy. District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson says the dismissals are disappointing.

A Campaign to Dismiss the Sheriff’s Deputies

These latest dismissals mark the near end of a short and swift campaign by District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson to dismiss charges against all of the Sheriff’s deputies involved in two in-custody deaths inside Santa Rita County jail.

In 2023, my prosecutors charged two Sheriff’s deputies in connection with the death of Vinetta Martin inside Santa Rita County jail. Both deputies were accused of falsifying records to make it appear that they had provided appropriate care and supervision for Ms. Martin, a Black woman suffering with mental illness, who was found dead in her cell on April 3, 2021. Video footage from inside the jail contradicted the deputies’ claims that they had followed proper procedures and the truthfulness of the records they completed.

In September 2025, District Attorney Jones Dickson dismissed the charges against the two Sheriff’s deputies in the Vinetta Martin case, claiming “insufficient evidence.”

In 2024, my prosecutors charged nine deputy sheriffs, a nurse and a doctor in connection with the death of Maurice Monk in November 2021. Monk, a Black man diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, was arrested and jailed in 2021 after he allegedly threatened the bus driver, refused to get off the bus and missed a court date. His bail was set at $2500. He did not have the ability to post bail.

Maurice Monk lay in his jail cell for at least three (3) days before Sheriff’s deputies went into his cell and discovered he was dead. In circumstances almost identical to the death of Vinetta Martin, Sheriff’s deputies were accused of falsifying the jail’s records to make it appear that they had performed the mandatory safety checks on Mr. Monk. Video from inside the jail contradicted the self-serving documentation prepared by the deputies and the medical staff.

When a single deputy sounded the alarm and other deputies actually entered the cell, rotting food that had been thrown into the cell was found along with Mr. Monk’s medication in pill cups scattered about the cell. He was lying in a pool of urine and had obviously died days earlier. The medical staff were also accused of ignoring Mr. Monk’s medical needs.

In 2023, the County paid $7 million to his family. In 2024, Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez put out a memo criticizing the criminal charges and encouraging staff to support the accused deputies. She has never apologized to Mr. Monk’s family for his death.

In August 2025, District Attorney Jones Dickson dismissed six Sheriff’s deputies and all of the medical staff charged in connection with Mr. Monk’s death, claiming “insufficient evidence.”

Pay-to-Play in Plain Sight

The campaign to dismiss the sheriff’s deputies began shortly after Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez began raising campaign funds for the newly appointed District Attorney. On May 15, 2025, Sheriff Sanchez hosted her first fundraiser for District Attorney Jones Dickson. Within a week of this first fundraiser, campaign committee Friends of Ursula Jones Dickson received a whopping $79,050 in donations. On the day of the fundraiser alone, May 15th, the reported contributions were $52,950.

Three months later, on August 22, 2025, District Attorney Jones Dickson dismissed all of the criminal charges against six Sheriff’s deputies.

On September 4, 2025, Sheriff Sanchez hosted a second fundraiser for the new District Attorney. Within a month, on September 29, 2025, the District Attorney dismissed all criminal charges against the two Sheriff’s deputies charged in the death of Vinetta Martin.

While this pay-to-play scheme took place in plain sight, no media outlet covered it in 2025 or 2026. No inquiries or investigation have been publicly reported about the connection between the fundraisers hosted by the Sheriff and the dismissals of cases against Sheriff’s deputies. It certainly appears that the victims of the Sheriff’s deputies “got played” and the District Attorney got paid.

Legal Maneuvering to Kill the Case

The District Attorney’s office engaged in a strange legal maneuver setting the Monk case up for dismissal. In October 2025, after District Attorney Jones Dickson claimed there was “insufficient evidence” to prosecute six Sheriff’s deputies and the medical personnel, she convened a criminal grand jury to consider the charges against the three remaining defendants. This was an unusual and legally unnecessary move since all three were previously charged with the same charges under my administration.

An Alameda County judge ruled that the Deputy District Attorney in charge of the prosecution, Mark Bennett, a prosecutor with 14 years’ experience hired straight out of law school by former District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, misled the grand jury on the law, and therefore, the charges could not stand.

This legal ploy set the stage for Deputy DA Mark Bennett to present the case to the grand jury in a way that resulted in the dismissals of the entire case against two deputies and the felony charge against the lone remaining deputy sheriff.

What Are The Larger Issues in These Cases?

Aside from the blatant political corruption in Alameda County, the cases of Maurice Monk and Vinetta Martin reveal larger issues in our justice system. In Alameda County, the lack of appropriate care in Santa Rita Jail for persons suffering with mental health issues remains an unresolved problem. In 2022, a civil grand jury investigation issued a report expressing concerns for “serious safety violations, inadequate medical services and poor sanitation” that warranted “urgent attention.” In 2023, the District Attorney’s office received disturbing reports of fentanyl overdoses occurring with persons being transported between the court and the jail.

In 2019, an investigative reporter labeled Santa Rita jail “the most dangerous place in Alameda County” based on the high number of unexplained in-custody deaths.

In Alameda County, like most California Counties, the Sheriff is also the Coroner who determines the cause of death of people who die in the jail. This is an undeniable conflict of interest and often prevents families seeking the truth about how their loved one died from ever getting it.

Last but not least, the recurring theme of falsification of records by Alameda County Sheriff’s deputies with support from the Sheriff should trouble anyone concerned with public safety. In both the Maurice Monk and Vinetta Martin cases, the video evidence clearly contradicted the staff’s claim that they were actually checking on mental health patients.

The $36 Million Tran Cover-Up

Similar record falsification conduct was exposed in the September 2022 murder cases of Maria Tran and her husband, Benison Tran. The couple was murdered by Alameda County Deputy Sheriff Devin Williams, Jr. with a department-issued handgun. A month earlier Maria called Sheriff’s deputies to her home in August and asked for help to get a restraining order against Williams after he showed up at her house harassing her. Sheriff’s deputies lied and told her she could not get a TRO, then allegedly falsified the 911 call record, turned off their body cameras and did not file an incident report, all in violation of official policies. Williams was convicted for the double homicide in October 2024 and later sentenced to 50 years to life.

In May 2026, however, the Trans’ family attorney reported that evidence of the Sheriff’s deputies’ deadly misconduct was discovered in the civil case during “hours and days of depositions and demanding and pushing for documents.” The County settled the case in May 2026 for $36 million, the largest settlement in Alameda County’s history.

To date, while Sheriff Sanchez admits the amount of money the County has paid out in settlements for her agency “is a legitimate concern for the community,” she has not addressed the evidence in the Tran case or reported any disciplinary actions taken to address this deadly misconduct.

As long as District Attorneys and the California Attorney General turn a blind eye to Sheriff’s deputies who abuse people or manufacture evidence to cover themselves or their colleagues, the lack of accountability will persist.

We pay, they walk away.

NOTES:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/all-but-one-charge-now-dismissed-in-high-profile-santa-rita-jail-death/ar-AA28NlnF?ocid=socialshare

https://www.kqed.org/news/12053158/alameda-da-drops-charges-against-8-involved-in-maurice-monk-case

https://www.ktvu.com/news/death-rate-at-santa-rita-exceeds-nations-largest-jail-system-as-critics-call-for-reform

https://eastbayexpress.com/the-most-dangerous-place-in-alameda-county-1/

https://www.ktvu.com/news/alameda-county-pays-36m-following-murder-dublin-couple

https://www.ktvu.com/news/as-in-custody-deaths-rise-activists-demand-investigation-of-santa-rita-jail

https://www.ktvu.com/news/alameda-county-to-award-unprecedented-7m-to-family-of-oakland-man-left-for-dead-at-santa-rita-jail

https://davisvanguard.org/2025/12/alameda-county-deputies-indicted-monk-death/

https://www.corrections1.com/legal/3-calif-deputies-indicted-in-2021-in-custody-jail-death

https://www.kqed.org/news/11918230/grand-jury-major-health-and-safety-violations-at-santa-rita-jail-require-urgent-attention

https://www.courthousenews.com/push-on-to-separate-coroners-from-law-enforcement-in-california

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/starbucks-california-detain-aasylei-loggervale-award/

https://www.ktvu.com/news/alameda-countys-highest-payouts-settlements-since-2000

https://netfile.com/public/COA/campaign/filing/214609013

x.com/hyphy_republic/status/1958359090411020589

Congressman Ro Khanna represents Alameda County and Santa Clara County. On his webpage, Khanna describes his 17th Congressional District as “Silicon Valley”, but his district includes Fremont and Newark in Alameda County (which are not part of Silicon Valley).

Face-to-Face with Israeli Terrorists

On July 8, 2026, Congressman Ro Khanna confronted apartheid in Israel. An extremist Israeli settler group and Israeli security forces detained Khanna and his staff as they visited the demolished village of Zanuta in Israel’s West Bank. According to Khanna, a group of Israeli settlers with American-made M4 assault rifles menaced and harassed his party by brandishing their rifles, taunting them, and making threatening gestures. When Israeli soldiers arrived supposedly in response to calls for help from Khanna’s staff, the soldiers joined in laughing and smoking with the settlers.

Khanna described the incident as “the most arrogant and humiliating treatment of American citizens I have endured.”

One of Congressman Khanna’s staffers with him on the trip was Cameron Kasky, a survivor of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, who happens to be Jewish. Kasky recounted how he said to himself, “I’m a Jewish school shooting survivor, and I’m sitting here looking at Jewish kids who have the eyes of a school shooter.”

The settlers’ campaign to destroy the village of Zanuta has been ongoing and well-documented. The village has been targeted by Israeli settlers for decades. In 2012, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) destroyed water cisterns in the village as part of a coordinated effort to drive Palestinian residents out of the area. The crisis escalated in 2021 when Israeli settlers established the Havata Meitarim Farm, a settlement close to Zanuta. Israeli settlers demolished the village again in 2023, driving dozens of Palestinian residents from their homes.

In 2024, the international community, including the United States imposed sanctions against Yinon Levi, a founder of the Havata Meitarim Farm and a notorious leader of violent extremist Israeli settlers illegally destroying villages like Zanuta. According to reports at the time, the sanctions only emboldened the settlers who received support from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right settler leader.

The armed settlers who harassed Congressman Khanna’s party were identified as part of the Hilltop Youth, a violent extremist settler group. In 2024, the United States, the EU, the UK and Australia each sanctioned the group for its provocations and violent raids targeting Palestinians.

The Politics of Displacement for Palestinians

Israel seized the West Bank, Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. At least 750,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank and their government created apartheid conditions for Palestinians still living there. Despite overwhelming and persistent condemnation by the international community as an illegal occupation, Israeli governments have maintained control of the areas and settlers have engaged in unrestrained campaigns of terror against Palestinians.

The destruction of Zanuta is only one of many stories of apartheid terrorism against Palestinians in the Middle East. For more than a decade, East Bay activists have been sounding the alarm about the efforts to destroy the occupied Palestinian Village of Wadi Foquin, located in the Bethlehem District of the West Bank. As Khanna observed, life for Palestinians in the West Bank is constricted by blatant discrimination, random violence, Israeli military checkpoints and Israeli-only bypass roads which limit access to markets, jobs, schools, and healthcare facilities.

In 2009, the Buena Vista United Methodist Church in Alameda, California, started the Friends of Wadi Foquin, to support its Palestinian residents. Since then, San Francisco Bay Area churches, including Trinity United Methodist Church and Berkeley Methodist United Church and many community members have worked tirelessly to advocate against Israeli aggression and the settlements that now surround Wadi Foquin.

The Fight to Stop the Arming of Israel

The destruction of Gaza in 2025 and the accompanying havoc, including unprecedented killings of journalists covering Israel’s genocidal campaign, has captured the world’s attention. Congressman Khanna’s most recent trip to the West Bank may have brought him face-to-face with the privileges of apartheid terror, but it was not his first encounter with America’s role in supporting that terror.

Khanna is a co-sponsor of the Block the Bombs bill to prohibit the President from selling, transferring, or exporting some of the most destructive weapon systems we make to Israel, which are currently being used in the destruction of Gaza. Originally introduced in June 2025, the bill has slowly been gaining support from Democratic members of Congress.

Khanna is also a co-sponsor of the West Bank Violence Prevention Act which targets extremist Israeli settlers - like the Hilltop Youth and Yinon Levi - with sanctions, and he has introduced a resolution in Congress opposing the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank. Khanna has taken a firm position on the need for the United States to stop arming Israel, saying:

“We’re supplying them the M4s that they’re using to detain American citizens. We’re supplying them the weapons that they’re using to kill Palestinian Americans. We’re supplying them the weapons that they’re using to commit terror on the Palestinian population in the West Bank. It is simply inhumane, and the United States needs to not just sanction these extremist settlers — we need to demand that the IDF start to demolish the outposts in the West Bank.”

While Israeli settler violence in the West Bank has reached record levels, and the genocidal destruction of Gaza continues unabated, American sentiments (and sanctions) are clearly not having a significant impact. A 2025 Quinnipiac poll found that 75% of Democratic voters support the call to end military assistance to Israel. Still, we individually and collectively must do more to demand peace in the Middle East.

The 2027 National Defense Authorization Act

While Congressman Khanna remains steadfast in his opposition to arming Israel, the United States at this moment is on a different trajectory. On July 22, 2026, the House of Representatives passed the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It includes Section 219 - originally numbered as Section 224 - entitled “United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.”

Section 219 lays the groundwork for bilateral research and development, co-production of weapons, joint ventures, licensing agreements, and seemingly every manner of U.S.-Israeli military-industrial complex cooperation.

In addition to providing billions of dollars for military assistance to Israel, Section 219 mandates expanded coordination between the U.S. military and the Israeli military in every area of defense technology, including AI, quantum, autonomous systems, directed energy, cyber, biotech, and many more. In one commentator’s words, the U.S. military’s data could soon be the Israeli military’s data.

In a very disturbing sign of the times, the National Defense Authorization Act also approves changing the name of the Dept.of Defense to Department of War. The new reality is that we are hostage to war, working hand-in-hand with the genocidal machinations of Benjamin Netanyahu in the West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon and Iran.

So What Can We Do?

The few progressive Democrats still standing on the Alameda County Democratic Party Central Committee have introduced a resolution condemning Congressman Khanna’s detention. It will be debated at the Committee meeting on Wednesday, August 5, 2026 at 7:00 pm. You can watch the debate live on the Alameda County Democratic Party’s Facebook page or attend the meeting in person to show your support for the resolution at the City of Refuge Church at 8400 Enterprise Way in Oakland.

You can contact Congressman Khanna’s District office directly at (408) 436-2720 to express your support for him and his staff, and call other members of Congress representing the Bay Area.

You can join the Friends of Wadi Foquin or make a donation to their projects online.

You can make a donation to one of the many organizations supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza, including Project Hope, or the World Food Program USA or Doctors without Borders.

Locally, you can join or support the Oakland People’s Arms Embargo campaign.

Activists are demanding that Federal Express halt all military cargo shipments to Israel from US airports, including the Oakland Airport. Federal Express has weekly military shipments from the Oakland Airport directly to Israel’s main airbase, including F-35 fighter jet parts, bomb release units, and surveillance systems. I’m hoping for a national boycott of Federal Express.

Israeli Extremists Are the Threat to Peace

The quest for peace in the Middle East has been sabotaged many times by Israeli extremists, marked by the assassinations of UN envoy Count Folke Bernadotte in 1948, and Israeli President Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.

It has been more than 50 years since the U.N. first declared that Zionism is racism in 1975. The UN Secretary General at the time, Kurt Waldheim called for “urgent progress” in search of “a solution to the Middle East problems.”

For our part, the United States government has spent most of the past almost 80 years in denial, on the wrong side of history, ignoring the rights of the Palestinian people and feeding Israeli apartheid. The need for “urgent progress” is as great now as it ever was. It is also essential to recognize and call out the historic and dangerous role that Israeli extremists like Yinon Levi and Benjamin Netanyahu play in sabotaging peace efforts in the Middle East.

History teaches us that we can stop wars and end apartheid. I was at the Oakland Coliseum when Nelson Mandela addressed us as a free man after nearly twenty-seven years in South African prisons. It was the sustained attention of the world on South Africa apartheid and courageous members of Congress like Ron Dellums, that ended it.

It will require our sustained attention in this moment and in the years to come, and courageous members of Congress like Ro Khanna to stop our government from arming Israeli extremists, and free us, the Palestinian people and the people of Israel.

NOTES:

https://factually.co/fact-checks/military/section-224-219-2027-ndaa-changes-us-israel-defense-cooperation-26684f

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-west-bank-b426fa223791d88e97bcd48d3e618081

https://web.archive.org/web/20120830143036/http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/idf-razes-palestinian-infrastructure-in-west-bank-communities-1.461542

https://apnews.com/article/us-sanctions-israeli-settlers-west-bank-palestinians-354f8b0a44b70c25bf013614b4775900

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-netanyahu-smotrich-tensions-38150d2ba81f571b1d5333dd7b046af0

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20241119-hilltop-youth-israel-model-of-settler-ideology-rooted-in-violence-terror-against-palestinians/

https://www.friendsofwadifoquin.com/about-wadi-foquin.html

https://cpj.org/2023/10/journalist-casualties-in-the-israel-gaza-war/

https://progressives.house.gov/2025/9/block-the-bombs-act-h-r-3565

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/6/4/block-the-bombs-support-grows-for-us-bill-to-restrict-arms-for-israel

https://jstreet.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/WBVPA-Explainer-JSPC.pdf

https://factually.co/fact-checks/military/section-224-219-2027-ndaa-changes-us-israel-defense-cooperation-26684f

https://www.anewpolicy.org/the-legislative-tracker/section-224-ndaa

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/congress-quietly-moves-to-integrate-us-and-israeli-militaries/ar-AA24k4XA

https://armsembargonow.com/steering

https://www.juancole.com/2025/09/assassinating-bernadottes-palestine.html

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34712057

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/11/11/archives/un-votes-7235-to-term-zionism-form-of-racism.html

https://www.panarchy.org/palestine/bernadotte.html

https://www.commondreams.org/news/majority-oppose-israel-weapons

James Beere’s appointment as the Chief of Police for Oakland marks the end point of 10 years of drama inside the Oakland Police Department (OPD).

OPD has some unfinished business, however, that may impact Chief Beere’s tenure. The most serious threat with long-term consequences for the Department is the case of OPD Homicide Detective Phong Tran.

The Biggest Scandal since the Guap Sex Scandal

In 2021, it came to light that veteran OPD homicide Detective Phong Tran allegedly bribed a witness to finger two men, Giovante Douglas and Cartier Hunter as the murderers in an unsolved homicide. There was no direct physical evidence tying them to the 2011 murder of Charles Butler Jr., and both of them maintained their innocence. Both men were convicted in 2016, however, and served more than 10 years in prison.

In 2021, the sole witness recanted her testimony and spilled the beans on Detective Tran. It was also reported that Tran was giving the witness money years before he presented her as the sole witness to Mr. Butler’s murder. Giovante Douglas’ conviction was reversed in September 2022 and he was released. Cartier Hunter’s conviction was vacated in early 2023, and he was released. Both men sued OPD, Detective Tran and the City of Oakland in June 2023. The case is still pending.

In April 2023, while I was the District Attorney, we charged Detective Tran with felony perjury and bribery. At the time, I noted that we were required to review at least 125 cases as a result of Tran’s alleged misconduct. Almost every case Tran touched was vulnerable to challenge because of his lack of credibility. Eventually the number ballooned to 200 cases.

The Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) Defends Tran

The Oakland Police Officers’ Association (OPOA) expressed anger and strong indignation over what it called “baseless perjury charges against a seasoned Oakland Police homicide detective.” The OPOA correctly pointed out that concurrent prior investigations by OPD and the District Attorney’s office had cleared Officer Tran of any wrongdoing. Tran’s attorney called him “a real hero” while blasting the prosecution.

In 2024, however, the OPD investigation that “cleared” Tran of any wrongdoing was found to be a farce, resulting in disciplinary recommendations, including termination for some. Chiefs LeRonne Armstrong and Darren Allison, Deputy Chief Drennon Lindsay and five other officers were disciplined, including three who were found to have obstructed the investigation.

The evidence of OPD’s failure to properly investigate Tran was so damning that the federal court extended federal oversight of the department for another two years. In September 2024, civil rights attorneys John Burris and Jim Chanin wrote:

“This massive failure after over 20 YEARS of monitoring is intolerable.”

Apparently, federal Judge William Orrick agreed. Judge Orrick did not mince words during the September 2024 hearing, condemning the lack of accountability within the Oakland Police Department.

“These breakdowns in accountability are inexcusable failures,” reflecting frustration with the leadership’s attempts to “sweep these issues under the rug.”

Judge Orrick issued an order overhauling OPD’s protocols for internal affairs investigations. Judge Orrick reorganized OPD’s internal affairs reporting structure and placed responsibility for Internal Affairs investigations squarely on the shoulders of the Chief of Police. The Order requires daily oversight by the Chief, bi-weekly meetings and timely completion of internal affairs investigations.

The District Attorney’s investigation that “cleared” Tran was equally flawed and insufficient. The DA’s office at the time included Tran’s former partner, Caesar Basa and former Deputy District Attorney Amilcar “Butch” Ford as the prosecutor in the Butler case.

The O’Malley investigators ignored Tran’s own admissions that he had known the key witness for years prior to the murder and had been paying her for tips about what was happening in the neighborhood. Tran also claims his partner Basa knew about off-the-books cash payments to the witness and helped him get the cash.

Notably, Caesar Basa worked for the Alameda County District Attorney’s office from 2015 to 2021 after retiring from OPD, and he worked on the Butler prosecution in the DA’s office just before the DA’s office “cleared” Tran.

In June 2023, however, the key witness testified that Tran paid her $5,000 in cash within thirty minutes after she testified falsely at Douglas and Hunter’s preliminary hearing.

What is Happening with the Tran Prosecution?

When the District Attorney’s office under my leadership charged Tran in 2023, we believed that his misconduct had tainted dozens, if not hundreds of homicide cases that happened in Oakland for a full decade. In December 2025, Judge Charles Stevens granted a new trial to Steven Buggs citing multiple cases where Tran was accused of coercing witnesses and paying them “off the books.”

Buggs was convicted of the 2012 murder of Lester Young after Tran allegedly targeted him because of his race. During the investigation, Tran allegedly told Buggs that an all-white jury could see him as a “big scary Black guy,” and that Buggs “might as well squeeze that noose a little tighter” if he didn’t confess to the shooting.

Fast forward to 2026, under the new District Attorney who is well supported by the County’s law enforcement unions and their allies, the Tran prosecution is failing. In January 2026, the District Attorney’s office announced that they couldn’t find the key witness and planned to dismiss most of the charges against Tran. In March 2026, on the eve of trial, the prosecutor claimed they had “new evidence” that prevented the trial from going forward. The trial was continued until the fall of 2026.

Sidenote: Since March 2026 there has been total “crickets” in the media about this scandalous case. The fact that Bay Area media has essentially “gone silent” on the District Attorney’s office after media outlets spent two years covering every move I made is a story all by itself. But I digress.

The District Attorney’s claimed inability to prosecute Tran is part of a pattern of turning a blind eye to serious police misconduct. Starting in early 2025, the new administration acted quickly to dismiss nine police officers in three separate criminal cases involving wrongful deaths, claiming “insufficient evidence” to proceed.

Despite multiple convictions being overturned, the key witness testimony under oath, a federal court judge finding serious flaws in the internal OPD investigation, the City’s discipline recommendations against eight police officers, including two Chiefs of Police for trying to cover for Tran, and multiple lawsuits against Tran and OPD, the District Attorney claims she can’t find enough evidence to prosecute Tran.

Ending the Tran Prosecution May Give Chief Beere A Reprieve

Failing to effectively prosecute Tran will effectively close the books on the 200 cases allegedly infected by his misconduct. And we will never know where Tran got the money to allegedly bribe witnesses and who else was in on that scam?

Tran’s partner and former DA Inspector Basa died in December 2021. Despite the OPD finding in its initial investigation that it had been “an acceptable practice” for Oakland police investigators to make undocumented cash payments to witnesses, no one has ever fully explored how long paying witnesses “bag money” was “an acceptable practice” for OPD, who knew about the practice and what other cases were impacted by this “practice.”

If the District Attorney drops the case against Tran, Chief Beere may also be able to close that chapter in Oakland’s history and put the Tran scandal behind him without addressing the unethical and possibly illegal “practice” of paying witnesses for their testimony in Oakland.

If Tran ever goes to trial, it may open the door for more scandalous revelations about OPD and practices inside the DA’s office for getting convictions in Alameda County.

Then the question will be, how will Chief Beere respond and what will he do about it?

Stay tuned. “Sustained attention is a form of resistance.”

Notes:

https://www.ktvu.com/news/woman-says-oakland-homicide-investigator-coached-testimony-and-paid-her

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/2-men-wrongfully-convicted-of-oakland-murder-file-lawsuit/

https://oaklandside.org/2023/06/13/oakland-police-phong-tran-perjury-witness-intimidation-internal-affairs-investigation/

https://abc7news.com/post/oakland-police-officer-charged-opd-perjury-bribery-phong-tran/13187527/

https://www.facebook.com/OPOA.org/posts/very-sad-news-of-the-passing-of-sergeant-caesar-basa-jr-ret-who-served-the-resid/277356881103744/

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/star-witness-in-oakland-murder-trial-was-a-liar-da-says/

https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/judge-blasts-oakland-pd-for-ongoing-failure-to-police-itself/

https://www.mercurynews.com/2025/12/11/judge-orders-new-trial-in-decade-old-murder-case-as-scrutiny-of-opd-detective-grows/

https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/03/02/bribery-and-perjury-case-against-bay-area-detective-thrown-into-limbo-just-ahead-of-trial/

James Beere’s appointment as the Chief of Police for Oakland marks the end point of 10 years of drama inside the Oakland Police Department. This is a look-back of how we got here.

The Celeste Guap Sex Scandal

In June 2016, the Bay Area police sex scandal exploded inside the Oakland Police Department, the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, the Richmond Police Department and six other law enforcement agencies. A teenage victim identified as “Celeste Guap” claimed to have engaged in sex, sextexting and illegal information sharing with dozens of police officers.

That month, Oakland lost three police chiefs in eight days. On June 9, 2016, Chief Sean Whent, a 17-year veteran cop in OPD, was fired behind disclosures that he presided over a cover-up of the Guap sex scandal, including allegations that his wife was aware that Guap may have been having sex with Oakland police officers while she was still a minor. Mayor Libby Schaff appointed Ben Fairow to replace Whent as Interim Chief the night that Whent’s termination became public. She removed Fairow six days later on June 15, 2016, stating only that she had lost confidence in him. Schaff appointed Paul Figueroa as Acting Chief and he resigned after only two days on the job.

Mayor Libby Schaaf clearly did not have a clue what was going on inside OPD.

OPD’s extensive involvement in the police sex scandal was first reported to the City Administrator who reported directly to Mayor Schaaf in November 2015 by a union steward for Celeste Guap’s mother. Guap’s mother, an OPD dispatcher, was investigated in connection with her daughter’s victimization by multiple OPD officers. The investigation exonerated Guap’s mother, but exposed more sexual misconduct of OPD officers than they could easily hide. Among the many damning allegations was the claim that Guap had an affair with OPD officer Brendan O’Brien who committed suicide in September 2015. O’Brien’s suicide note implicated other officers of having sexual relationships with Guap while claiming his innocence.

The Guap investigation also threatened to expose the cover-up of the possible murder of Irma Huerta Lopez, the wife of Guap’s alleged lover, Brendan O’Brien two years earlier in June 2014. Lopez died under suspicious circumstances after having an argument with O’Brien because she suspected he was having an affair. Both OPD and the District Attorney’s office cleared O’Brien and ruled Lopez’ death a suicide, but her family and at least one veteran OPD homicide investigator never bought his story.

Mayor Schaaf and the City Administrator both denied receiving any information about the Guap scandal until March 2016, despite the series of emails to the City Administrator starting in November 2015. On June 10, 2016, Schaaf straight lied to the media and the public and said Chief Sean Whent resigned “for personal reasons” unrelated to the Guap scandal. Within hours, it was revealed that Whent was actually fired because he “mishandled” the largest police sex-crime scandal in Oakland’s history.

Post-Guap Drama Continues to Unfold with OPD

Between 2017 and 2026, Oakland had three more police Chiefs: Anne Kirkpatrick, LeRonne Armstrong and Floyd Mitchell.

In 2017, Mayor Schaaf hired Chief Anne Kirkpatrick as Oakland’s first female chief. A watershed glass ceiling breaking moment for Oakland. A huge red flag popped up, however, when Kirkpatrick admitted in her inaugural press conference that she was not familiar with the Negotiated Settlement Agreement (NSA), a Consent Decree that Oakland had been subject to for almost fifteen years since 2003. Apparently, she had not even read the document before accepting the job. Apparently, the hiring committee did not give much thought to her commitment to constitutional policing, or ending Court supervision over the department she was hired to lead.

Predictably, on Kirkpatrick’s watch in 2018, five officers shot and killed Joshua Pawlik, an armed homeless man under devastating circumstances. It appeared to be an unnecessary use of force that galvanized local activists. The incident called into question Kirkpatrick’s leadership, OPD’s use-of-force policies and whether Kirkpatrick was committed to enforcing the Consent Decree. When Kirkpatrick tried to essentially give the officers a slap on the wrist, the Monitor gasped and the Police Commission fired her. She left Oakland with “her hair on fire.”

In 2021, Mayor Schaaf appointed LeRonne Armstrong, a homegrown cop to lead OPD. He graduated from McClymonds High School, worked for OPD for 22 years and was well known in the community. He was the first Black police chief born and raised in Oakland. Hopes were high for his leadership and lots of folks trusted his judgment. No one batted an eye when his wife, Drennon Lindsay, became a Deputy Chief under his command.

Sidenote: “Pearl clutching” about nepotism in public employment was non-existent in Alameda County before I became the District Attorney in 2023. We had power couples like Armstong and Lindsay running OPD, Rob and Mia Bonta at the state level, Vinnie Bacon and Jenny Kassan in Fremont, and Oakland District 7 City Councilmember Larry Reid passing the baton to his daughter, Treva Reid. But I digress.

The LeRonne Armstrong Debacle

In early January 2023, the new Mayor Sheng Thao placed Chief Armstrong on leave, following the disclosure of allegations of an apparent cover-up involving Sgt. Michael Chung, a young Asian officer who was running high-profile operations in Chinatown. Chung earned nearly $500,000 in 2021, including overtime for special Chinatown patrols. Chung’s operations were critical to the support of the Asian community for OPD, especially the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, under the leadership of race-baiting Carl Chan at that time. Given the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes in Chinatown, Armstrong could ill afford to alienate Carl Chan by disciplining Sgt. Chung.

In February 2023, Mayor Thao fired Armstrong after he hired PR man, Sam Singer, and publicly attacked her and the Court-appointed Monitor. Oakland suffered through almost two years without a permanent police chief. Darren Allison, a longtime veteran of the department, served his second stint as the interim police chief. Allison kept a very low profile, counting down the days until his retirement. Ultimately, however, he was caught up in the biggest OPD scandal since the Guap scandal along with Armstrong and Lindsay

In March 2024, a pair of City investigations determined that 8 officers, including 4 commanders, committed a number of serious rule violations in order to obstruct an internal affairs case involving veteran homicide detective Phong Tran. Investigators concluded Chief Allison, Chief Armstrong and Deputy Chief Lindsay were part of a cover-up that allowed Detective Tran to return to work despite allegations of bribery and perjury that surfaced in 2022. Three officers were found to have obstructed the internal affairs case investigating the allegations against Tran.

The Strange Days of Chief Floyd Mitchell

In March 2024, Mayor Thao announced that she had hired Floyd Mitchell. He received a “relocation incentive” of $10,000 and $3,500 per month housing allowance for up to six months in addition to his annual compensation package of $365,100.

The only problem was that Mitchell was not fully “post-certified” in the State of California, meaning he did not have peace officer powers in California, he could not carry a gun or wear a uniform. He could not arrest anyone or carry out any official law enforcement duties.

Mitchell fully completed his re-certification through the Commission on Peace Officer Standards & Training (POST) in November 2024, a full 8 months after he was hired. During his tenure, OPD continued to flop along without any real focus. The Oakland Police Officers Association (OPOA) hired Sam Singer as its PR spokesperson and Singer shaped the doomloop narrative of crime that fed the 2024 recalls in Alameda County. Singer tweeted daily about crime in Oakland and his belief that the Mayor and the District Attorney were the ones responsible, manipulating the community’s fear, pain and trauma and effectively deflecting attention away from OPD.

Chief Mitchell quit in October 2025, less than a year after he got his full certification and popped up with a new job in Fremont in February 2026. It really seems like we helped Mitchell relocate from Texas to California on our dime, propped him up until he could get certified and acclimated to California, and then he moved on to a better paying job in Fremont.

The Hope of Chief Beere’s Tenure

James Beere is quite literally “the last man standing.” He was with Armstrong, he was with Allison, he worked under Mitchell and stood in for him constantly, and finally, he got the job.

Beere is an Oakland resident who enjoys a level of popularity and support simply because he has been here for almost 30 years. To his credit, Beere has actively engaged the community and stakeholders for years while working behind the scenes and standing in for Chief Mitchell.

The 2016 Guap scandal is so far behind us that it’s hard to determine exactly where Beere was assigned during that time, or what responsibility, if any, he had in supervising the numerous officers who were implicated in the scandal. At least for now, his secret is safe and Oakland has a chance to turn the page.

Stay tuned next week for Part 2: The Unfinished Business that threatens Chief James Beere’s success as Oakland’s newest Police Chief

NOTES:

https://www.oaklandca.gov/Public-Safety-Streets/Police/OPD-Executive-Staff

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2016/06/17/oakland-police-chief-steps-down-after-2-days-job/86074042/

https://www.kqed.org/news/10990066/oakland-mayor-fires-new-interim-police-chief-after-four-days-on-job

https://apnews.com/general-news-dbf94d967052461a868011c25bcab593

https://eastbayexpress.com/high-level-city-staff-knew-of-police-sex-crimes-months-before-oakland-mayor-says-she-was-informed-2-1/

https://eastbayexpress.com/did-an-oakland-cop-kill-his-wife-2-1/

https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/opd-officer-alleges-city-retaliated-against-him-for-suicide-probe/

https://www.kqed.org/news/11155559/legal-claim-opd-leadership-retaliated-against-sergeant-for-investigating-officer-in-murder-case

https://eastbayexpress.com/badge-of-dishonor-top-oakland-police-department-officials-looked-away-as-east-bay-cops-sexually-exploited-and-trafficked-a-teenager-2-1/

https://eastbayexpress.com/the-real-reason-why-oaklands-police-chief-was-fired-2-1/

https://oaklandside.org/2020/08/17/former-opd-chief-allowed-corrosive-police-culture-to-derail-shooting-investigation/

https://www.kalw.org/kalw-news/2023-02-09/confidential-files-show-new-details-about-troubled-opd-sergeant

https://oaklandside.org/2021/02/09/who-is-leronne-armstrong-oaklands-new-police-chief/

https://oaklandside.org/2023/02/08/confidential-files-oakland-police-chief-leronne-armstrong-leave-car-crash-gunshot-elevator-internal-affairs/

https://www.kqed.org/news/11871898/we-will-not-be-afraid-after-attack-president-of-oakland-chinatown-chamber-of-commerce-resolves-to-stay-strong

https://www.hstoday.us/featured/a-citys-journey-to-smart-solutions-how-hate-crimes-fueled-citizens-call-for-surveillance/

https://www.police1.com/officer-misconduct-internal-affairs/articles/oakland-police-chief-fired-for-alleged-misconduct-cover-up-Z21mfu1mzPskZ6t6/

https://oaklandside.org/2024/07/25/leronne-armstrong-investigated-disciplined-phong-tran-internal-affairs-case/

https://oaklandside.org/2024/04/30/oakland-police-officers-face-discipline-obstructing-internal-affairs-case-phong-tran/

https://oakland.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=6646856&GUID=9E1A78AB-B39A-4227-91BF-5EC3580CE997&Options=ID|Text|&Search=Floyd+mitchell

https://www.mercurynews.com/2024/10/17/opd-chief-floyd-mitchell-out-of-office-for-four-week-training-course-expected-back-nov-1/

https://oaklandside.org/2025/10/08/oakland-police-chief-resigns-floyd-mitchell/

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/oakland-recalls-sam-singer-pr-crime-fears/

Frederick Douglass (1818-1895)

July 4, 2026, has come and gone. It has to be remembered as the most ambivalent anniversary ever for America. We are caught in the grip of a madman and the whole world knows it. Trump’s birthday/Independence Day celebration was a fiasco. On this 4th of July, the Patriot Front, a white Nationalist hate group, marched to “reclaim America” in the nation’s capital, a city that used to be known as “Chocolate City.”

Videos of the group show a pack of roughly 150 masked men in uniforms carrying upside-down American flags (Rawsalerts screengrab)

On social media, those who expressed alarm at this display of racist patriotism were ridiculed and showered with a strident defense of the First Amendment. America is demonstrating fascism on steroids.

Mired in Division, Disinformation and Despair

The 250th Anniversary came at a time when the country is mired in division, disinformation and absolute despair in many places for what the future holds. While the Supreme Court did not disavow the birthright citizenship granted under the Fourteenth Amendment, it is steadily reshaping America’s legal architecture to enshrine white supremacy.

Any resident of America who ventures outside of the continental United States and its “territories” does so at his or her peril. Native-born residents are subject to ridicule, scorn and in some places, death, because of how America is viewed on her 250th birthday. Immigrants who dare to leave the country are not allowed to return to their homes, sometimes under a pretense that they have violated (or are suspected of violating) some innocuous law.

As New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani pointed out in his compelling 4th of July address to New Yorkers and the nation, “America has always been a nation of contradictions. The wealthiest country in history, yet millions of families struggle to afford housing, healthcare, childcare and food.” The divisions and contradictions that he acknowledged were there at the beginning and have persisted for all of these past 250 years.

The Historic Ambivalence of Black Americans

Congresswoman Lateefah Simon’s statement was inspiringly appropriate for the holiday.

Her tone reflects the ambivalence that Black people in America have held since the great Frederick Douglass delivered his Fourth of July speech, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” on July 5, 1852. Douglass pointed out that the Fourth of July was a day of mourning for enslaved people. The hypocrisy or what Douglass called “national inconsistencies” of white America’s celebration could not be hidden or camouflaged the way some try to do in 2026.

Frederick Douglass called out the slave traders, the politicians and the Christian Church saying:

“The existence of slavery in this country brands your republicanism as a sham, your humanity as a base pretense, and your Christianity as a lie. It destroys your moral power abroad, it corrupts your politicians at home.”

The celebration of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026 seems to similarly mock the challenges facing our communities and our world today. While Black people were declared “free” when the Civil War ended in 1865, over the next 100 years after Reconstruction ended in 1877, we moved from enslavement to Jim Crow to mass incarceration.

When Frederick Douglass passed in 1895, he was focused on anti-lynching, addressing the disenfranchisement of Black people after Reconstruction, advocating for women’s rights and condemning early efforts to glorify the Confederate “patriots” who fought to keep Black people enslaved in America’s bloodiest conflict.

I confess that as long as I have been “woke,” I have not adopted the 4th of July as a holiday to celebrate. I have not been ambivalent about the 4th of July since I was 13 years old. This year, as the nation celebrated Juneteenth, I even felt discouragingly ambivalent about Black Independence Day. It does not feel like we are “free” when the leaders of our country are proclaiming that immigrants from Black and Brown countries are “poisoning the blood of our country

How Can We Forget?

Are we to forget that the same Patriot Front militia that marched in Washington D.C. last weekend attacked and mercilessly beat a Black man unconscious during their Independence Day march in Boston in July 2022?

Charles Murrell III fends off a marcher from a group bearing insignias of the white supremacist group Patriot Front on Saturday, July 2, 2022, in Boston. (Credit: Michael Dwyer/ AP)

On the anniversary of America’s independence, do we not remember that Renee Nicole Good lost her life on January 7th of this year at the hands of a federal immigration agent? Are we to forget that on January 24th of this year, federal Border Patrol agents murdered Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse and American citizen, during the federal occupation of Minneapolis?

Alex Pretti (1988-2026)

How do we reconcile Congress’ complete capitulation to Benjamin Netanyanu’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people with the image of America’s “exceptionalism” as promoting freedom and democracy.

The truth is we cannot. And those who blindly hold fast to the mythology that America’s “independence” is cause for celebration in 2026 give aid and comfort to those racists who want to “reclaim America.” They betray the values that many of us still hold dear: that equal justice under law is a constitutional promise that must be honored in every community, and Americans should be resolute in resolving our contradictions.

In the famous words of Frederick Douglass, “if there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Free Palestine.

NOTES:

https://www.splcenter.org/resources/extremist-files/patriot-front/

https://www.history.com/articles/reconstruction-timeline-steps

https://historianspeaks.org/f/death-of-frederick-douglass-1895

https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-casualties

https://www.congress.gov/crs_external_products/R/PDF/R44865/R44865.31.pdf

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-says-immigrants-are-poisoning-blood-country-biden-campaign-liken-rcna130141

https://loveman.sdsu.edu/docs/1852FrederickDouglass.pdf

https://www.wbur.org/news/2025/01/13/patriot-front-attack-boston-lawsuit

https://www.cnn.com/2026/01/17/us/ice-shooting-minneapolis-renee-good

https://web.archive.org/web/20260126164959/https://www.startribune.com/fact-check-federal-officials-claims-about-fatal-minneapolis-shooting/601570444

https://www.military.com/israel-defense-provision-blocked-from-house-vote-despite-bipartisan-push

Parents arriving at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, 2/14/18, Parkland, Florida. (Credit: Joel Auerbach/AP Images)

June is known as National Gun Violence Awareness Month in America. In the closing days of Gun Violence Awareness Month, Alameda County witnessed a horrific act of violence in broad daylight in the center of its largest city. On June 24, 2026, killers ambushed a car and shot a man with a barrage of bullets in what appeared to be a targeted hit at Clay and 17th Streets, steps away from the office building I once owned in downtown Oakland.

What Were We Doing About Gun Violence Before Trump?

In December 2023, the US Dept. of Justice launched the Violent Crime Reduction Roadmap, a one-stop shop to support local jurisdictions in their effort to reduce and respond to acts of community gun violence. The Roadmap was part of a larger strategy that identified ten essential actions to reduce community gun violence.

These ten actions were developed by the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank for the criminal justice field. These strategies were identified by the Council on Criminal Justice’s (CCJ)’s Violent Crime Working Group, which included experts from community organizations, law enforcement, the public health sector, and academia.

In January 2025, the DOJ published its report on the implementation of its comprehensive strategy for reducing violent crime. It reported significant successes through enhanced law enforcement in various cities across the country between 2021 and 2024. Early policing initiatives focused on communities with the highest rates of violence and drug poisoning deaths. Efforts were ramping up in 2024, nearing the end of the Biden administration.

One strategy with limited success was the enhanced background check program: in a 14-month period with over 370,000 enhanced checks conducted, only 985 firearm purchases were denied solely because of information revealed in the enhanced background check.

Nonetheless, according to the DOJ report, the strategy prioritized locally designed strategies focusing on gun violence and repeat offenders, building trust in communities, and investing in community-based prevention and intervention programs. A review of the DOJ strategies suggests that they are focusing on the symptoms of community gun violence and not addressing the root causes.

How Effective are Community Violence Intervention Programs?

Before and after the pandemic, policymakers increasingly focused on community violence intervention (CVI) programs as a primary solution. Such programs were always limited in scope and impact because they never addressed suicide (the leading cause of gun deaths) or interpersonal/domestic violence, two of the major drivers of deadly gun violence in America.

CVIs also never focused on the random or mass shootings inspired by personal vendettas, racism or ideological goals. Nonetheless, CVIs have been promoted and touted as the best solution to gun violence in America. “Success” stories have been documented in communities across America, including CEASEFIRE in Oakland, READI in Chicago, violence intervention programs in Boston and Philadelphia, among the most notable. The most successful CVI programs are part of a larger ecosystem that identifies gun violence as a public health crisis.

CVIs were idealized as a counterpoint to the traditional strategies of policing, prosecution and prisons. These traditional strategies have also uniformly failed to deter the rise in violence in America. Mandatory minimum sentences for gun possession like the one recently adopted by the new District Attorney of Alameda County in the wake of a murder of a popular coach, John Beam, have long been deemed ineffective.

Now We Do What We Know Doesn’t Work

A 2013 study of gun violence in Illinois looked at the homicide decline rate in New York City over a 22-year period, Hawaii’s gun violence sanctions and the impact of mandatory gun possession laws in Florida, Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia. The study covered decades of research, including a meta-analysis of 29 studies, and concluded that mandatory minimum sentences for gun possession are ineffective.

The study points out that states like Colorado, Louisiana and Pennsylvania as well as federal courts have supported reducing or eliminating mandatory minimums for gun cases. It specifically cites a 2003 study of Virginia’s Project Exile program that “demonstrated fairly conclusively” that Project Exile had no impact and did not work.

Alameda County’s backward shift toward mandatory minimums is consistent with the national shift away from strategies that have been proven effective. Since Donald Trump came into power, Brady: United Against Gun Violence has issued ongoing alerts condemning the Trump administration for subverting safety regulations to prioritize the gun industry. In the words of Brady’s President, America’s “gun lobby has plainly captured the Trump-Vance administration.”

Trump’s Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said to Gun Talk Radio:

“Going back to the Reagan administration, the gun industry takes two steps forward. And then a Democrat comes in and takes us eight steps back. We’re not going to take two steps forward. We’re going to go forward a mile.”

As most communities struggled with the proliferation of guns during the pandemic, law enforcement took the lead in responding to the gun violence crisis. Their efforts are, ironically, being completely undermined since 2025 by the Trump administration’s approach to weaken firearms regulations and gun industry oversight and enforcement.

It is well known and long acknowledged that “culture eats policy for lunch.” As one commentator notes, the federal government’s enforcement culture for addressing gun violence is being fundamentally redirected. The stark difference between America and other comparatively-developed countries when it comes to gun violence is, in fact, the culture.

We Have Too Many Guns and a Gun Culture

America leads the world in mass shootings: despite making up less than 5 percent of the global population, the United States has experienced 31 percent of global public mass shootings. A Rockefeller Institute researcher even suggests that the relatively recent increase in mass shootings worldwide is connected to the export of American media and entertainment, and the idolization of American mass shooters, creating international contagion and copycat effects.

Credit: Rockefeller Institute of Government, Global Mass Shootings Factsheet

Ten years ago in June 2016, a maniac murdered 49 people at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Before that, in June 2015, a white supremacist killed nine Black people worshipping at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina. Before that, it was the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in 2012 where 27 people were killed in Newtown, Connecticut. After that, in October 2017, 60 people were gunned down on the Las Vegas strip and 546 people were injured. In November 2017, a gunman massacred 26 people at the Texas First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas. And on Valentine’s Day 2018, 17 young people were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida.

In comparison, in 2017, BBC reported how Japan has almost completely ended gun crimes:

Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world. In 2014 there were just six gun deaths, compared to 33,599 in the US.

What is the secret?

If you want to buy a gun in Japan you need patience and determination. You have to attend an all-day class, take a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%.

There are also mental health and drugs tests. Your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. Then they check your relatives too - and even your work colleagues. And as well as having the power to deny gun licences, police also have sweeping powers to search and seize weapons.

That’s not all. Handguns are banned outright. Only shotguns and air rifles are allowed.

Behind Japan’s strict gun laws, however, there is a cultural aversion to guns that has been a part of Japanese society for centuries. It makes sense that if you have fewer guns, you will have fewer gun fatalities. Japanese police are not militarized and typically respond to violent crime with their martial arts training. According to one observer, the response to violence is never more violence - it is always to de-escalate. Culturally, the use of a gun to harm yourself or anyone else is extremely taboo.

California leads the nation with a use of force law that requires police to de-escalate before using deadly force. Not only is the law not being enforced by County district attorneys, there is no cultural underpinning for the law or in most communities, no serious expectation that the law will be followed. America continues to be one of the most deadly countries in the world based on our “death by gun” ratio compared to the rest of the developed world.

A Public Health Emergency

The failure to recognize the epidemic of gun violence as a public health emergency leaves our entire country vulnerable to the influence of gun lobbyists on legislators and regulators. At the end of 2024, I issued a report derived from our collaboration with law enforcement, community groups and the Alameda County Dept. of Public Health with recommendations for tackling the gun violence epidemic in Alameda County. The data and recommendations were drowned out and ultimately discarded, however, by a toxic cultural backlash against progressive reform of our criminal-legal system.

Nonetheless, a public health framework has the greatest chance of changing behavior and cultural acceptance of death by gun in America. It was the public health framing that solidified public support against smoking on planes, in hotels, hospitals and other public places. The cultural shift to minimize exposure to deadly second hand smoke was driven by public health considerations more than any legal framework.

I am a living witness to the fact that “culture eats policy for lunch.” Unless we change our culture and our acceptance of guns as the leading cause of death by suicide, domestic violence, and random and targeted community violence, we will continue to see the heart-wrenching scenes captured after every mass shooting, like the one on February 14, 2018 in Parkland, Florida.

A Luta Continua.

Have you heard the story of Sharletta Evans, the Colorado Mom who forgave her son’s killer? Yes, you read that right. Ms. Evans’ three-year-old baby boy was murdered in a drive-by shooting. Sixteen-year-old Raymond Johnson was part of the gang that did the drive-by and a stray bullet from his gun killed 3-year-old Casson Xavier “Biscuit” Evans.

Instead of seeking vengeance, Ms. Evans chose healing. When she saw Raymond in court for the first time, she realized he was still a child. It was 1995. Raymond was sentenced to life in prison plus 50 years. “A life for a life.”

Seventeen years passed. In 2012, Ms. Evans and Raymond agreed to participate in a restorative justice pilot program. Over the next nine years, Ms. Evans advocated for Raymond’s release, as well as other minors serving mandatory life sentences for murder. Her compassion for Raymond changed the law in Colorado. In April 2016, the Colorado Supreme Court banned mandatory life sentences for juveniles.

Other states, including California were making the same rule: Iowa (2016), Massachusetts (2013), Massachusetts (2018). While the California Supreme Court ruled that life sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional in 2012, the ban did not become law until 2017.

The story of Sharletta Evans and Raymond Johnson defies the logic of the “law-and-order” approach to criminal justice. Raymond was released in 2021 after serving twenty-seven years. When Raymond was released, Ms. Evans adopted him as “her son.”

Her son Calvin, who was in the car when his baby brother Casson was killed, has also developed a strong relationship with Raymond. When I met Ms. Evans and Raymond in 2023, their genuine bond of healing and their story moved many of us to tears.

An Eye For an Eye, A Life for A Life

According to theology, the biblical statement of “an eye for an eye” is intended to preserve justice and protect against vengeance and excessive punishment. In the book of Exodus, 21:23, the Bible says, “But if there is serious injury, you must require a life for a life.” This admonition is found in many passages in the Bible.

These words reflect the very thin line between justice and vengeance. Too often, these words are used to justify vindictive justice and harshness in imposing accountability for harm.

The biblical foundation of justice is actually the underpinning of the modern-day justice system. Our justice system is based on the principle that if there is a serious injury, you are to take a life for a life.

In our modern-day criminal-legal system, there are two ways to “take a life for a life:” the death penalty, or life without the possibility of parole aka “death by incarceration.”

The great contradiction of the biblical approach to justice is that it leaves the victim out of the equation, apparently quite intentionally. Although the victim is the recipient of the harm, the victim is not the one who prosecutes the crime or decides the punishment.

That same contradiction is embedded in our criminal-legal system which allows victims to speak about their pain but does not give them the say to decide the charges or the punishment.

Theologians prescribe the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament as the solution for victims: forgiveness is the pathway to healing.

California In Transition to Healing

Crime survivors, particularly survivors of homicides, create tension in our approach to accountability and justice. Some are fixated on harsh punishment and vengeance for the harm they suffered. Others are focused on healing, and forgiveness is the path they take. The former demand recognition as “victims” while the latter identify themselves as “survivors.”

Survivors endure the emotional trauma caused by the harm but become more than what happened to them - these are the ones who turn their pain into healing power.

In 2026, California is caught between victims who seek vengeance and survivors who seek healing. In Alameda County, Lorrain Taylor leads an organization dedicated to healing victims of crime - 1000 Mothers to Prevent Violence. Like Ms. Martin, Lorrain suffered an unimaginable loss. On February 8, 2000, Lorrain’s 22-year-old twin sons, Albade and Obadiah, were brutally murdered in a senseless act of vengeance in East Oakland.

After emerging from years of depression, Lorrain created 1000 MPV, a community-based, faith-centered nonprofit supporting families grieving the loss of loved ones to violence. 1000 MPV has served over 1,000 victim-survivors in the San Francisco Bay Area, offering hope, resources, and connection, with referrals from community partners and local agencies, including the Oakland Police Department.

Lorrain’s organization is part of a broader network of advocates for crime survivors that recognize that the power of the State and its resources should be directed toward healing for crime survivors and preventing violence as the best form of justice.

Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ) is the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ)’s flagship state-based program in California. CSJ is a network of over 70,000 survivors, offering survivors of violence in our communities a safe, supportive place to heal, share stories, and change laws.

ASJ was founded in Oakland in 2016 and works to create networks of crime survivors and shift resources from incarceration to effective alternatives to incarceration. ASJ also advocates for governments to invest in programs that provide violence intervention and mental health support for communities.

Like Ms. Martin, Lorrain Taylor is an advocate for young people who have committed serious violent crimes and believes that compassion and forgiveness are the keys to preventing crime and healing our community.

When Vengeance Subverts Justice

On the other hand, victim advocates for vengeance and harsh punishments continue to manipulate public opinion by sensationalizing tragic cases. In Alameda County, the criers for vengeance gained ground in 2023 using the murder of Jasper Wu, a baby boy shot and killed by a stray bullet in November 2021 as two alleged gang members allegedly hunted and attacked a car on the 880 freeway.

The fact that there were 76 documented freeway shootings in Alameda County in the twelve months prior to Jasper Wu’s murder was lost in the law-and-order inspired attack on me as the newly elected progressive District Attorney.

For these vindictive victim advocates, charges in the Jasper Wu case, including gang and gun enhancements that caused one defendant to face 265 years to life in prison and another to face 175 years to life in prison were not enough - they demanded death by incarceration.

Their advocacy is the legacy of the opportunistic sensationalism of the kidnapping and murder of 12-year-old Polly Klaus which led to passage of California’s 3-Strikes law. To their credit, Polly Klass’ sisters have rejected that legacy, and recognized that prioritizing punishment over prevention does not make us safer.

Healing from Trauma Changes Everything

Despite the recent election of a law-and-order District Attorney in Alameda County signaling what some consider the end of criminal justice reform in California, the laws that formed the foundation for focusing on healing for survivors remain in place. In 2023, the California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 60, establishing a victim’s right to be informed of the availability and benefits of restorative justice programs. The law went into effect in 2024.

Based on empirical evidence, the Legislature found that restorative justice processes can result in reduced feelings of fear, anger, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and depression for people who have been harmed. Ironically, the findings were based in part on a 2015 study of restorative justice youth diversion programs in Alameda County by Community Works West which showed that restorative justice processes reduced future acts of harm and violence.

It was a restorative justice pilot program in Colorado that led to the healing relationship between Sharletta Evans and Raymond Johnson. In Alameda County, we created a Restorative Justice Unit inside the District Attorney’s office in 2023. The very existence of the unit was attacked by vindictive victim advocates and racist fearmongers; it was quickly disbanded by the appointed District Attorney in 2025.

Despite that setback, I believe that eventually, the story of survivors in Alameda County who experienced healing over trauma and prioritize preventing violence as much as punishment will capture the public’s attention and move us in the right direction. Stay tuned.

To donate to 1000 Mothers to Prevent Violence and support their healing sessions for victims of gun violence in Alameda County, go to their website.

To support the healing work of Community Works West in Alameda County, donate here.

A Luta Continua

The votes are in: Alameda County has elected a “law-and-order” District Attorney. The home of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense and the Berkeley Free-Speech movement, often referred to as “the most progressive County in the country” has placed our County justice system under the leadership of a DA who admits she is a “law-and-order DA” and not a progressive.

Voters elected a former judge who as a Deputy District Attorney defended the actions of the notorious “Rider” police officers that caused the Oakland police department to be under a federal Consent decree for 23 years. We now have a DA who believes that the death penalty is an appropriate punishment, perhaps even for youthful offenders under the age of 18.

On a personal note, I want to thank those who put in the hard work, the sweat-equity and sacrifice, and everyone who donated money to our campaign in the past six months.

Everyone who made a donation or a phone call, walked a precinct, showed up for an event, talked to their family, neighbors and friends, ventured into the dark racist recesses of NextDoor, or did anything to push back against the narrative of hate in our County made a difference in 2026.

I am eternally grateful to the 91,126 (so far) residents who did not “drink the Koolaid” looking past the unrelenting racist personal attacks on my character to see that what was at stake was so much bigger than me.

In a county with decades of tension over policing, race and prosecutorial power, I agree that this election was “a verdict on whether the county’s justice system will keep orbiting the same tight circle of power, punishment and political protection that has defined it for decades.”

This election was really a choice about money, power and prestige, and what kind of justice our children can expect to receive for decades to come.

So How Did This Happen?

It was a race to the finish but once again, money made the difference in the outcome.

Simply put, our corporate-free grassroots campaign was no match for the million-dollar ad campaign supporting the County Board of Supervisors appointed law-and-order District Attorney. In addition to spending almost a million dollars by her own campaign under the auspices of “Friends of Ursula Jones Dickson,” the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) spent thousands of dollars on a mailer attacking my leadership as the first Black woman elected to serve as District Attorney in 170 years, and the first and still the only non-appointed District Attorney in Alameda County in almost 100 years.

Timing was a factor. We started our campaign more than six months after former disgraced District Attorney Tom Orloff had funded “Friends of Ursula” with his $20,000 donation. Months after the Alameda County Sheriff had already seeded the DA’s campaign coffers with two “pay-to-play” fundraisers.

While we were just getting started in December 2025, they had already raised more than $423,000. That’s on top of the $3+ million dollars spent on the recall in 2024.

Local leaders who claim to be progressive, like Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, State Assemblywoman Liz Ortega and State Senator Aisha Wahab made early endorsements to join hands with the founders of the California MAGA Movement, the Republican Party and the Jewish Democratic Club to help elect the law-and-order DA.

Ironically, both Oakland Mayoral candidates, Hon. Barbara Lee and recall leader Brenda Grisham, came together to campaign for the law-and-order DA.

The shadow of Eric Swalwell was also a factor. As my friend and activist Jamilia Land pointed out in her brilliant analysis of the election:

The Eric Swalwell allegations have simply made visible what was already there: a system where friends vouch for friends, old-guard prosecutors bankroll the future and victims are asked to trust an office that keeps drifting back toward the harshest tools of the past.

Once Swalwell was forced to drop out of the California Governor’s race, his supporters were no doubt livid that I was right about him all along. Local Democrats were willing to excuse Swalwell’s racist misogynoir behavior toward me in supporting him for Governor. When it was revealed that he was a sexual predator who preyed on white women, that was a bridge too far for them to cross.

Even the law-and-order DA had to rescind her endorsement of Swalwell’s campaign for Governor while declining to return the large campaign contributions she received from him and his longtime donors.

Regrettably, the Alameda County Democratic Party’s support for Swalwell and Ursula Jones Dickson reveals how shallow the local Democratic Party really is, and where it actually stands on the question of race.

Where Do We Go From Here?

In 2018, we pulled back the dusty curtains of the status quo criminal justice system, never again to be closed to us, our community or anyone in search of fairness and justice and compassion.

We opened eyes, hearts and minds for the very first time in decades to the most important issues of our time - the urgent need to end mass incarceration, racially biased prosecutions, and to hold law enforcement accountable to us, the people who pay them and expect equal protection and fair treatment under the law.

In 2024, we exposed a scandal of serious prosecutorial misconduct that spanned thirty years of injustice in Alameda County. We are just beginning to see accountability for that prosecutorial misconduct with the filing of lawsuits by men allegedly wrongfully sent to death row. These lawsuits will cost our County millions of dollars.

In every campaign for Alameda County District Attorney since 2018, we have gone up against everything the political establishment could throw at us with its million-dollar juggernaut of corrupt leadership that does all it can to hold onto power. We beat them in 2022. Unfortunately, in 2024 and again in 2026, they prevailed.

I hope that my tenacity, resilience and courage will inspire another progressive lawyer to challenge the powers that be in Alameda County, just like civil rights attorney Bob Treuhaft who challenged the establishment when he ran for District Attorney in 1966. Fifty-two years later we followed in Attorney Treuhaft’s trailblazing footsteps.

I hope it does not take another 50 years for a champion of justice to emerge and win a DA election.

I read recently that “sustained attention is a form of resistance.” The tactic of Donald Trump and his horrible henchmen is to keep us so confused, overwhelmed and discouraged that we cannot see how to fight back. But someone also said that “some goals are so worthy that it is glorious even to fail.”

I encourage young people in our community to continue to push for accountability in the DA’s office and oversight over the Sheriff. I believe that we must achieve those goals for a safer Alameda County.

In the words of Ella’s Song, we who believe in freedom cannot rest until it comes. Now is not the time to silently accept a DA whom some say is “Clarence Thomas in lipstick and heels” as the chief administrator of justice in Alameda County.

Let us continue the fight for justice and accountability in the days and months ahead, marching together until we achieve justice for all. Justice must be fought for, protected and demanded, and I will be there with you. I have no regrets. I serve an awesome God.

P.S. While the 2026 campaign for justice and accountability has ended, there are still bills to pay and money needed to sustain our ability to communicate with you and our community. Please make a donation if you can to retire the debt and support the work for tomorrow’s future.

Her work pushes for healing, transparency, and real accountability—not just punishment. Through her leadership, Jamilia has helped shape historic legislation—like SB1437, SB1421, and SB300—bills that are changing lives and creating second chances.

Her commitment to justice isn’t just professional—it’s deeply personal. Personal tragedy and the deaths of close family members by gun violence or incarceration fueled her mission and elevated her voice as a powerful force in the fight for a justice system that values dignity and human life.

******

Op-ed | Money, Friendship, and the Swalwell Shadow

Alameda County’s race for district attorney is no longer just a referendum on one scandal-plagued congressman or one cautious prosecutor; it is a verdict on whether the county’s justice system will keep orbiting the same tight circle of power, punishment and political protection that has defined it for decades.

The Eric Swalwell allegations have simply made visible what was already there: a system where friends vouch for friends, old-guard prosecutors bankroll the future and victims are asked to trust an office that keeps drifting back toward the harshest tools of the past.

The Eric Swalwell scandal — involving multiple women alleging sexual assault and misconduct, documented in detail by CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle — has sent prosecutors in Manhattan and Los Angeles into motion, opening investigations and inviting accusers to come forward. In the Bay Area, however, Alameda County District Attorney Ursula Jones Dickson has taken a narrower line, emphasizing that no victims have yet filed complaints in Alameda County and urging anyone with information to contact law enforcement.

That restrained stance lands in a political landscape where Swalwell is not just a disgraced former congressman but a longtime insider: an East Bay power broker, a onetime endorser of Jones Dickson and a figure openly described as “a friend” by County Supervisor Nate Miley.

Miley’s statement that he was “shocked, saddened and disappointed” by the allegations, yet still considers Swalwell a friend, illustrates the core tension here: Alameda’s justice and political leadership wants credit for supporting victims while keeping a careful, almost affectionate distance from condemning one of their own.

Tom Orloff’s $20,000 and the Old Order

Into this already crowded circle steps former District Attorney Tom Orloff, whose name still evokes an earlier era of Alameda justice: one defined, in many residents’ memory, by aggressive prosecutions, racial disparities and a reflexive alignment with institutional power. Campaign finance filings show that Orloff contributed $20,000 to the Friends of Ursula Jones Dickson for District Attorney 2026 committee — by far one of the most significant single contributions from a figure synonymous with the county’s old prosecutorial establishment.

Legally, there is nothing improper about that donation. But public trust is not measured by legality alone; it is measured by whether people believe the system can act independently of the people who built and benefited from its past injustices. When a former DA whose tenure is tied, in the public imagination, to unchecked prosecutorial misconduct and racially tainted death penalty cases now bankrolls the current DA, the message to marginalized communities is unmistakable: the old guard is not just back — it never left.

Silence Has Weight in a Friend’s Case

In this context, the DA’s measured response to the Swalwell allegations does not read as neutral. It reads as calibrated restraint. Jones Dickson’s office has said no victims have come forward locally and encouraged people to report if they have information.

On paper, that is a legally cautious stance, grounded in jurisdiction and evidence; in reality, it sounds like an office determined not to get too far ahead of the political comfort zone of the men who helped shape and fund it.

As Manhattan’s DA and Los Angeles authorities field calls from accusers and publicly acknowledge their investigations, Alameda County’s top prosecutor essentially tells her own community: We are here if you come to us, but we will not press the issue.

For survivors, especially those who know their alleged assailant is connected to a supervisor who calls him a friend and a DA he once endorsed, that distinction matters; it signals that some cases may be treated with “extraordinary care” when they threaten the comfort of the powerful.

A DA’s Race Financed by Insiders

Jones Dickson’s campaign is fueled by institutional support from inside the justice system itself. The Alameda County Prosecutors Association gave $10,000, the Northern California Carpenters Regional Council POWER PAC gave another $10,000, and the donor list reads like a roster of county officials, law enforcement stakeholders and legal insiders.

That donor map does not prove corruption, but it sharpens a central question: When the same institutions that depend on the DA’s discretion are writing the biggest checks, who is the office really meant to serve?

In a county with a long memory of unequal justice, especially in Black, Brown and poor communities, the optics are devastating. A prosecutor’s office that looks like a club funded by prosecutors, unions and former DAs — now presiding over a scandal involving a powerful friend of that club — asks residents to believe that the rules will be applied evenly. The Swalwell case is not an anomaly; it is a stress test for a system already bending under the weight of its own alliances.

Reopening the Door to the Death Penalty

Meanwhile, Jones Dickson has been quietly reshaping Alameda County’s approach to its harshest punishment. Under recalled DA Pamela Price, the office had begun reviewing 35 death penalty cases after a federal judge found strong evidence that prosecutors had engaged in Batson violations — excluding Black and Jewish jurors to secure death sentences in violation of the Constitution. Price’s resentencing team identified multiple cases where misconduct and racial bias compromised the integrity of the verdicts, and she moved to support resentencing in several of them.

Jones Dickson, appointed in 2025 after Price’s recall, reversed course. Her office moved to withdraw resentencing recommendations in multiple death penalty cases, a decision that prompted the Alameda County DA Accountability Table, a coalition of community and civil rights groups, to accuse her of “choosing to ignore racial justice” and “allowing a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution to continue.” In their words, her actions “undermine community trust and send a dangerous message: racism in the DA’s office will continue to reign,” and signal a return to “tough on crime” politics rather than a commitment to repairing past harms.

Children in Adult Court

That same punitive drift shows up in how Jones Dickson’s office treats children. Between 2014 and 2023, only three young people in Alameda County were transferred to adult court. But in just six months under Jones Dickson, county officials reported that six youths ages 14 to 17 had cases pending transfer to adult court, representing roughly 10% of the youths held in juvenile hall.

Public defenders and juvenile justice advocates sounded the alarm, arguing that this surge undermines the rehabilitative mission of the juvenile system and exposes young people to adult prisons, where they are far more likely to be assaulted, traumatized and permanently derailed. The DA’s office has stressed that filing for transfer does not guarantee that youths will ultimately be tried as adults, and that no transfer hearings had yet been completed. But for families watching their children suddenly face adult charges — a life-defining difference — the message is unmistakable: Under Ursula Jones Dickson, Alameda County is once again willing to treat teenagers like disposable adults when it wants to send a political message about toughness.

Talking Accountability, Dismissing Cases

Jones Dickson and her supporters insist that she holds law enforcement accountable, recently pointing to the prosecution of San Leandro Police Chief Angela Averiett in a hit-and-run case as proof. Yet on other fronts, the same office has taken steps that appear to shield or soften the accountability burden for law enforcement and the system’s insiders.

In at least one highly scrutinized police shooting case, Jones Dickson’s office issued an official statement explaining why it would not move forward, citing exculpatory expert reports, withheld evidence and a lack of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Critics read that explanation as part legal argument, part political signal: a DA willing to stand with officers when the evidence gives her cover, even if communities see a familiar pattern of deference.

Combined with her reversals on death penalty resentencing and increased efforts to send youths to adult court, these decisions have fueled a perception that the rhetoric of accountability is reserved for convenient moments — a police chief here, a press conference there — while the deeper structure of power remains undisturbed.

Two Standards, One County

The Swalwell scandal, Nate Miley’s friendship, Tom Orloff’s $20,000, the death penalty reversals, the rush to adult court for teenagers and the selective prosecution of law enforcement feed into a single, corrosive narrative. Alameda County appears to operate on two standards: one for the connected, another for everyone else. Cases involving poor, young or marginalized people move swiftly and harshly; cases entangled with donors, friends and political allies are handled with extraordinary care and a choreographed caution that masquerades as prudence.

In a county with decades of tension over policing, race and prosecutorial power, that perception is not a minor public relations problem; it is an existential threat to the legitimacy of the justice system. When survivors of sexual violence watch Manhattan and Los Angeles prosecutors engage openly while their home DA whispers carefully from behind the shield of jurisdiction, they are not just making note of legal nuance — they are deciding whether it is worth risking retaliation, humiliation or disbelief to come forward at all.

The Choice in Front of Voters

Alameda County voters are not being asked to choose between “soft on crime” and “tough on crime” slogans. They are being asked whether their district attorney’s office will be structurally independent of the power networks that have long steered it. The money is in the filings: $10,000 from prosecutors, $10,000 from a powerful labor PAC, $20,000 from a former DA who helped build the very death penalty architecture now under federal scrutiny.

The relationships are visible: a county supervisor calling an accused rapist “a friend,” a disgraced congressman once treated as a political asset, a DA who talks of accountability while reviving the old system’s harshest tools.

The Swalwell allegations did not create this crisis of confidence; they simply exposed it. The question now is whether Alameda County will accept a justice system that still reflexively protects its own, or demand a district attorney who treats every accused person — whether friend, donor, ally or stranger — with the same urgency and scrutiny. For victims, especially those watching from the edges of power, the answer will determine whether the courthouse door feels like a place of refuge or just another gate held by the people who have always had the keys.

Disclaimer: Opinions are those of the writer and do not reflect those of The Vanguard or its Editorial Staff. The Vanguard does not endorse political candidates and is committed to publishing all public opinions and maintaining an open forum subject to guidelines related to decency and tone, not content.

Follow the Vanguard on Social Media – X, Instagram and Facebook. Subscribe the Vanguard News letters. To make a tax-deductible donation, please visit davisvanguard.org/donate or give directly through ActBlue. Your support will ensure that the vital work of the Vanguard continues.

I had the privilege of interviewing Ms. Land on Pamela Price Unfiltered. Check out her amazing fact-filled interview on our criminal-legal system.

This is a reprint of an OP-ED published by the Davis Vanguard from UC Berkeley Law attorney and criminologist Andrea Crider.

Note: Several mainstream media outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Mercury News/East Bay Times declined to publish this OP-ED.

When Alameda voters head to the polls for the primary election this June to elect a District Attorney, they’ll be choosing whether to restore a program that saved California tens of millions of dollars annually. Prosecutor-initiated resentencing allowed district attorneys to recommend sentence reductions for low-risk, elderly prisoners who no longer posed a threat—redirecting those resources toward victim services and crime prevention.

Two elected DAs with very different philosophies used this power successfully to achieve low recidivism and massive cost savings. Then, DA Ursula Jones Dickson—appointed by the Board of Supervisors after DA Pamela Price’s recall—changed course on the efforts immediately after taking office. As the primary approaches, voters must demand that candidates commit to reinstating this evidence-based initiative.

The results of prosecutor-initiated resentencing speak for themselves. After nearly two decades behind bars, Brian (whose name has been changed to protect his privacy) walked out of prison in November 2024 with $200 and a pair of shorts. Within weeks, he had secured employment with CalTrans and enrolled in Sacramento State’s Reintegration Academy. Today, he’s building the life he never had—and proving that resentencing works.

Brian is one of 165 people whose sentences were recommended for resentencing by Alameda County District Attorneys between 2020 and 2025. I helped evaluate many of these cases while contracting with the DA’s office, and my recently published report, Measuring the Impact of Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing in Alameda County, reveals the scale of this success: the program traded 2,792 years of incarceration for real public safety, while saving the state up to $287 million. The individuals resentenced served an average of nearly 22 years, and two-thirds were over age 50—a demographic with extraordinarily low recidivism rates.

Resentencing isn’t a progressive prosecutor phenomenon. Former DA Nancy O’Malley, a traditional prosecutor, initiated this work in 2020 and resentenced 72 individuals; DA Pamela Price expanded it with a dedicated unit, resentencing 93 more. While judges maintain final authority and not every recommendation results in immediate release, both administrations recognized that some sentences no longer serve justice.

National polling confirms voters want what prosecutor-initiated resentencing delivers: accountability paired with compassion, not endless warehousing of people who no longer pose a threat.

Meaningful accountability starts with hearing from those most affected by crime. These cases involve real harm and real victims–which is why California law mandates victim notification and participation in resentencing proceedings. Many victims participated in hearings with varying views. DA Price’s office provided restorative justice resources through organizations like Mend Collaborative.

For Ralph (name also changed), now a peer case manager, facing his victim during a hearing forced him to confront the pain he caused in a way decades behind bars hadn’t. This is what accountability looks like when coupled with redemption: individuals confronting their harm, victims having their voices heard, taxpayers saving millions, and communities gaining productive members.

DA Dickson’s policy shift has real consequences. She began her tenure withdrawing pending recommendations—including in death penalty cases where federal courts found prosecutorial misconduct. This reversal contradicts a federal judge’s order to address the systematic exclusion of Jewish and African American jurors from death penalty trials.

Withdrawing pending recommendations abandons a data-driven approach to public safety. Decades of rehabilitation, aging, and demonstrated accountability should inform sentencing decisions—not political winds.

Beyond cost savings and public safety, resentencing transforms prison culture itself. Ralph observed that people are engaging more seriously with rehabilitation programs “because they now recognize that transformation offers a genuine possibility of going home.” Dismantling this incentive structure makes prisons less safe and less effective.

As Alameda County heads toward its next DA election, candidates must answer a straightforward question: Will you commit to reinstating a robust Resentencing Unit with the resources to evaluate cases thoroughly, engage victims meaningfully, and make decisions based on data and outcomes?

The stakes are too high for political posturing. Two DA administrations proved this works: it saves the state money, improves public safety, provides restoration opportunities for survivors, and corrects unjust sentences. Voters should demand that candidates show commitment to justice—not just rhetoric. Brian and Ralph’s stories aren’t exceptional—they represent what the data consistently reveals. Alameda County pioneered this work before it became statewide policy. We shouldn’t abandon it now.

Andrea Crider is a Staff Attorney and Lecturer at UC Berkeley School of Law’s Criminal Law & Justice Center, where they contracted with the Alameda County District Attorney’s office from 2024-2025 to assist with prosecutor-initiated resentencing evaluations.

To Hon. Ursula Jones-Dickson, our Elected Officials and the Faith Community:

No one expects—or wants—to be thrust into a moment where their life is forever changed by violence.

No one prepares for the call.
No one prepares for the knock.
No one prepares for the devastating reality of losing a loved one to violent crime.

And yet, in the midst of grief, shock, and unimaginable pain, we are asked to do something few understand—we are asked to enter a system. A system of courts, procedures, unfamiliar faces, and legal language. A system we never asked to know as we encounter strangers at the most vulnerable time of our lives.

We write this letter as crime survivors and survivor families—voices united—to share why we have come together to support the leadership and re-election of former District Attorney Pamela Price.

The Difference Compassion Makes

In one of the most vulnerable moments of our lives or its aftermath, we encountered something we did not expect from a political leader:

A leader grounded in integrity, compassion, and respect.

We were not treated as case numbers.
We were not left in the dark.
We were not dismissed.

Instead, we were:

• Listened to

• Informed

• Prepared

• Supported

Before and after she became the District Attorney, Pamela Price met us where we were—in grief, in confusion, in pain—and helped guide us through a process that can otherwise feel cold and overwhelming.

She answered questions.
She followed up.
She acknowledged our loss—not just legally, but humanely.

That kind of care does not happen by accident. It reflects leadership and intention.

A Survivor-Centered Approach to Justice

Former Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s administration brought forward a vision of justice that included survivors—not as an afterthought, but as a priority.

Her steadfast commitment to equity and justice for all was reflected in how survivors were treated:

• With dignity

• With transparency

• With compassion

Her approach did not weaken accountability—it strengthened it.

Because justice that includes survivors and prioritizes fairness is justice that is real.

Our Collective Voice

We did not choose to become survivors. But we are choosing to speak.

Together, we affirm our belief based on our experience that Pamela Price will move the District Attorney’s office toward a justice system that is respectful and supportive of those most impacted by crime in Alameda County. We urge you to recognize that no one person speaks for us and you do not know former District Attorney Pamela Price like we do.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned Crime Survivors of Violence in Alameda County

Addie Kitchen, Grandmother of Steven Taylor
Angelique Paige, Mother of Vernon Eddins
Anita Wills, Grandmother of Kerry Baxter, Jr.
Bivett Brackett, Mother of Jasmene Thompson
Carrol Curtis, Mother of Kevin O. Reese, II
Dennis Middleton, Uncle of Kamahl Middleton
Ocean Mottley, Jen Angel’s Life Partner
Rashidah Grinage, Mother & Wife of Luke Grinage & Rafael Grinage
S. Jamila Buckner, Mother of Rachel Imani Buckner
Terry Lovett, Mother of Jalani Lovett
Tinisch Hollins, Sister of James Smith & Mitchell Smith, Jr.
Wanda Johnson-Moore, Mother of Oscar Grant III

I have been standing up for survivors of rape and sexual assault since I sued Yale in 1977 as the lead plaintiff in the first sexual harassment lawsuit under Title IX. (Alexander (Price) v. Yale, 459 F.Supp. 1 (D.Conn. 1977).)

I dedicated my professional life to standing up to sexual predators like Eric Swalwell and holding them accountable. I am eternally grateful to the brave women who have stepped forward to expose Eric Swalwell’s unacceptable misconduct.

When Eric Swalwell called for my recall in 2024, he joined a racist and misogynistic attack on the first Black woman District Attorney in Alameda County. Local Democratic politicians stood by and watched. When Swalwell published a racist meme attacking me in February 2026, the entire California Democratic Party stood by and watched. Only the Black women stood up, and we were ignored.

Eric Swalwell has survived and thrived for the past 10 years as a leading figure in the local, State and national Democratic party because too many politicians were willing to stand by and watch as he demeaned, exploited and abused women.

Eric Swalwell clearly knew in 2024 that if Alameda County had an independent District Attorney with a history of boldly standing up for women, he would have a problem.

All of us who have suffered under his influence are pleased that the national media and the Democratic Party leadership are finally holding him to account for some of his conduct.

We need a full investigation of Eric Swalwell’s misconduct by both the Manhattan District Attorney and the California Attorney General.

The interim Alameda County District Attorney has a conflict as she has benefitted immensely from her association with Swalwell, receiving at least $50,000 from his supporters for her election campaign. She should be disqualified from any investigation, and the matter should be referred to our Attorney General. Only then will the survivors know that politics will not play a role in holding Eric Swalwell accountable for his crimes.

For more than a decade, Eric Swalwell has misled the public and the voters. His decision to suspend his campaign for Governor is a welcome first step. He needs to heed the call from all survivors and his own staff to resign from Congress immediately.

It is long past time for a reckoning of his horrific misconduct and those who were silently complicit in it.

You can help us get our message out across Alameda County. Please tell everyone you know that the race for Alameda County District Attorney will be decided in the June primary.

Voting begins on May 4, 2026. Please donate whatever you can ASAP.

A Luta Continua.

My recent guest this week on Pamela Price Unfiltered is Tinisch Hollins, the Executive Director of Californians for Safety and Justice (CSJ). CSJ is the Alliance for Safety and Justice (ASJ)’s flagship state-based program in California. ASJ was founded in Oakland in 2016 and works to create networks of crime survivors and shift resources from incarceration to effective alternatives to incarceration. ASJ also advocates for governments to invest in programs that provide violence intervention and mental health support for communities.

Tinisch previously served for two years as CSJ’s Associate Director and the California State Director of Crime Survivors, after starting with the organization as the Bay Area chapter coordinator in 2019. She is a native of San Francisco and a survivor, having lost two brothers to gun violence.

Tinisch’s leadership helped to pass historic first-in-the-nation legislation that extended employment leave for all survivors of violence, as well as legislation permitting crime victims to terminate their leases if they no longer feel safe in their homes following a crime.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch my compelling conversation with Tinisch Hollins on Pamela Price Unfiltered

She has been deeply engaged in the Bay Area social justice movement as a community organizer, policy advocate and systems navigator for nearly two decades. Her work is grounded in her lived experience since childhood.

Tinisch has worked passionately to bring the voices of survivors to the center of community engagement and public policy and has advocated tirelessly for those voices to guide decisions, priorities, and resources.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Tinisch’s journey to becoming a leading advocate for survivors arising out of her justice-driven advocacy for her family, friends and community

• What does safety and justice look like in a society where services and resources are not distributed equitably

• How Tinisch advocates for support for survivors with the emphasis on healing and expanding the definition of “victims”

• How the criminal justice system engages survivors and operates and fails to provide justice or accountability

• the challenges of navigating California’s victim services and compensation for victims and the need for a better model to provide support and services

• CSJ’s work on expungements with C Lee for the people

Listen to my interview with Tinisch Hollins on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

What Does Safety and Justice Mean?

Tinisch Hollins brings an incredibly rich lived experience to the conversation about safety and accountability. Her journey began with deep family experiences where she had a clear view of system-impact on her community. Along the way, she became a survivor herself after losing two brothers to the epidemic of gun violence in San Francisco. She shares her very personal story of trauma, pain and how the violent crime destabilized her family.

Tinisch’s lens on safety and justice highlights the importance of recognizing the humanity of every person who encounters the criminal justice system. Tinisch shares how the narrow bilateral view of who is a victim and who is not a victim does not fit marginalized communities. The defendant in every case may also be a crime survivor before or after he harms another person.

Tinisch is building the conversation about justice for survivors. As she lays it out, it involves an acknowledgment that harm has happened, accountability for the person causing the harm, then restoration and rebuilding that person so that the behavior is not repeated.

Tinisch points out the conversation about public safety and justice is political, and too often, dominated by police unions and law enforcement advocates that point fingers at other actors in the system. The political battle and power struggle leave survivors and the whole community “re-victimized, re-traumatized and exploited.”

California’s Victim Compensation Model

California needs a new model for supporting survivors. The state’s victim compensation system is based on an original narrow definition of “victim” and a paternalistic model of support.

Ironically, most people eligible for victims’ services are not involved in active prosecutions. Most crimes go unsolved and victim benefits from the state are not contingent on a prosecution. Counties and local agencies are only minimally involved in providing resources or services to survivors. “Witness protection programs” are not actually funded or offered in most jurisdictions.

California’s eligibility criteria vary depending on

• How the victim was killed or injured

• Whether the victim has been identified as a victim by the police officer in the police report

• Whether the victim killed or injured has a criminal history

• Whether the victim is on probation or parole

In a state with a high level of violence in Black and Brown communities, survivors of police violence and/or crime are often excluded and ineligible for compensation. Law enforcement are the first gatekeepers in the system. Too often, the trauma to children or witnesses to violence is not adequately highlighted in providing services or compensation. When a traumatic crime occurs, survivors are often unable to get answers to questions and lack the support to navigate the requirements to receive services.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch my compelling conversation with Tinisch Hollins on Pamela Price Unfiltered

The State requires survivors to exhaust all of their personal funds on the expenses arising out of a crime event and then, the State will reimburse or pay some of the expenses. With few exceptions, the victim compensation funds dispersed to survivors are made available to reimburse them.

The system lacks uniform standards for local agencies dispensing the funds and every County is different. There is no law that says every County must provide compensation funds for survivors or witnesses. While the State’s eligibility criteria are strict and uniform, the State does not require a County to actually process claims and does not enforce how long it takes the County to process claims. The State provides minimal oversight on who receives the compensation or whether the process is equitable and fair.

Healing the Harm

Tinisch points out that the current model does not focus on healing the harm or appropriate accountability. The compensation system fails to recognize that most of the harm caused by crime is caused by someone known to the victim. Survivors are trapped in a system that is riddled with racial bias and inequities. The criminal justice system is also poorly equipped to respond to folks suffering from mental health crises or addiction. Law enforcement is the first call to support survivors, and they are the least prepared to address crimes involving intimate partner violence, family violence or a mental health crisis.

Listen to my interview with Tinisch Hollins on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

The criminal justice system’s overall ineffectiveness to support survivors has fueled the move toward restorative justice as a model to hold a person who has caused harm accountable to the survivors. In 2023, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 60, to require notification to a crime victim of the availability of community-based restorative justice programs and processes available to them, including, but not limited to, programs serving their community, county, county jails, juvenile detention facilities, and the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Under this new law effective in 2024, crime victims have a right to be notified as early and often as possible, including during the initial contact, during follow-up investigation, at the point of diversion, throughout the process of the case, and in postconviction proceedings of the availability of community-based restorative justice services.

The Legislature found that restorative justice offers the opportunity to better meet the needs that arise when harm has been caused than the traditional criminal legal system. This finding was based in part on a 2015 study of Community Works West’s restorative justice youth diversion program in Alameda County which showed that restorative justice processes reduce future acts of harm and violence and have been used with documented success in counties throughout the state.

Between 2023 and 2024, Alameda County had the opportunity to become a leader in restorative justice practices. We are a national hub for restorative justice as the founding place of Community Works West, and before that, Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY). Oakland youth are also committed to this work at Communities United for Restorative Youth Justice (CURYJ).

All forward progress for survivors in Alameda County was stopped when a new District Attorney was appointed in 2025, and she promptly disbanded the restorative justice unit and reassigned the attorney - a leading international expert on restorative justice - to another role in the office. The interim appointed DA has since declined to participate in community conversations about restorative justice or criminal justice reform. In her own words, she is NOT a progressive.

For More Information on how the Alliance for Safety and Justice is advocating for justice for crime survivors in California and across the country, visit their new website.

A new report on Prosecutor Initiated Resentencing (PIR) in Alameda County is making waves in the world of criminal justice. The report looks at 165 resentencing cases in Alameda County from 2020 to 2025 and finds that resentencing people who had served lengthy sentences saved the State of California approximately $287.4 million per year.

This week on Pamela Price Unfiltered, we break down the UC Berkeley Law Report on Prosecutor-Initiated Resentencing, its history, purpose and impact.

What is PIR?

The California State Legislature passed AB2942 in 2018. It went into effect on January 1, 2019. It gave prosecutors the power to refer someone back to court for resentencing. Advocates claimed it was the first law of its kind in the country to address mass incarceration. For decades, California was a leader in mass incarceration. Alameda County played a big role in helping to explode California’s prison population.

In fact, one Alameda County prosecutor, James Anderson, bragged on his retirement in 2004 that he had sent more people to death row than any other prosecutor in California. In 2024, notes discovered in his files from multiple death row cases exposed how Anderson deliberately kept Black and Jewish jurors off of his cases and used racist imagery to convict Black men.

In 2021, the State allocated $18 million to create the California County Resentencing Pilot Program, a three-year program in nine counties to establish policies and criteria for making referrals for resentencing by prosecutors. Three Bay Area counties received state funding, including Contra Costa, San Francisco and Santa Clara. Alameda did not receive the funding, but the DA’s office did start resentencing people in 2020.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch Pamela Price Unfiltered

What Happened in Alameda County?

The UC Berkeley Law research team looked at 165 cases that passed through the Alameda County criminal justice system between 2020 and 2024.

It notes that in 2025, the appointed interim DA stopped all resentencing, disbanded the Resentencing Unit, and either fired or reassigned all of the team members. She also filed motions to withdraw all of the pending resentencing recommendations from 2024.

Resentencing began under the Nancy O’Malley administration. The report found that under O’Malley’s administration from October 2020 to the end of her term in December 2022, 72 individuals were resentenced based upon her referral. When I took office in January 2023, I found a small unit poorly organized and lacking direction or leadership.

I immediately created a resentencing and reentry unit to serve our residents. We developed written policies for resentencing and created priority categories, including

• minors sentenced as adults under prior administrations,

• people sentenced to LWOP,

• people serving 3 strikes sentences, or

• women who had served more than half of their sentences.

During my administration, we resentenced 93 individuals. The UC Berkeley Law report found that resentencing people who had served lengthy sentences saved California taxpayers approximately $287.4 million per year using the annual cost of incarceration from the Legislative Analyst’s office.

Listen to Pamela Price Unfiltered on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

Most of the people resentenced in the four years that resentencing was taking place in Alameda County were over 50, and 21% were 65 or older. The average number of years served by people who were resentenced was 21.8 years of incarceration.

Seventeen people sentenced to death were resentenced after we exposed the death penalty scandal. We discovered what Judge Vincent Chhabria concluded was “strong evidence that in prior decades, prosecutors from the office were engaged in a pattern of serious misconduct, automatically excluding Jewish and African American jurors in death penalty cases.”

Based on that evidence, multiple cases had to be reviewed for resentencing. While most of the defendants remained incarcerated, several people were released after serving many decades as a result of prosecutorial misconduct.

Alameda County’s Pioneering Reentry Unit

As the District Attorney recommending resentencing, I knew the responsibility to protect public safety required our engagement in successful reentry programs and strategies for individuals coming home.

In 2020, California passed SB369 to establish a statewide Reentry Commission. It would’ve created a reentry roadmap, cleared barriers (all 44,500 of them), and built a central hub for services. Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill.

Still, we moved forward with the roadmap in Alameda County. We paired our efforts with a reentry program that rigorously evaluated eligible individuals to help guide their pathway to successful reintegration into the community.

In 2023, we launched the ONWARD Reentry Commission—our own community-based collaboration of nonprofits, faith-based organizations, public agencies, private businesses, and formerly incarcerated leaders. We had six dedicated teams focused on mentoring, mental health, housing, employment, and more.

In 2025, the interim appointed District Attorney disbanded the Commission. She also fired or transferred all of the staff assigned to the Reentry Unit.

The UC Berkeley Law report highlights the crucial role of reentry with the case studies of two men who were resentenced by the DA’s office. One man released in November 2024 was paroled back to Sacramento County. According to the report, he was released with only three days’ notice and left prison with “just $200 gate money on a debit card, a pair of shorts and a t-shirt.” His ability to avoid quickly returning to prison depends heavily on his strong family support.

Another man released in January 2025 received minimal reentry support from his CDCR caseworker. CDCR failed to enroll him in Medi-Cal and provided limited post-release parole support. When he asked for job assistance, he was told to “sign up for BOSS [Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency]. This man has full custody of his 12-year-old daughter and is trying to navigate the challenges of parenting as well as providing financially for her and his other children. He too was fortunate to have a strong family support system.

These stories and the valuable insights from the UC Berkeley Law report show how the implementation of policies is what makes the law real in the lives of community members. It clearly demonstrates the importance of having someone embedded in community and committed to following the laws that we fight to pass in the position to do so. The report concludes that under past administrations, Alameda County District Attorney’s resentencing unit made a significant contribution to public safety in California.

A Luta Continua.

My guest this week on Pamela Price Unfiltered is C Lee, known to millions on Instagram as CL Legal and CL for the People. C LEE is an Influencer, Host, Philanthropist, and Media Personality.

His roots are in SF in the Bayview Hunter’s Point. His influence today however spans across California and any day of the week he might be in Richmond, Oakland, Antioch, Sacramento, San Francisco, or Vallejo.

C Lee started his journey as a media influencer after he lost his clothing business. God opened the door for him to become a voice that inspires and uplifts millions of people.

C Lee’s purpose in this season is to support families and communities impacted by the criminal justice system and the stigma of convictions for conduct or behaviors no longer relevant to their lives. Working across the state with Californians for Safety and Justice, C Lee is on a mission to help expunge stale convictions that keep people from getting good jobs or having access to good schools or safe housing.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch Pamela Price Unfiltered with C Lee for the People

Here’s what we’re covering:

• How to find purpose after a major business failure

• The reality of being a "World's Greatest Square" in a street-influenced culture

• Why health and fitness are the ultimate forms of wealth

• The systemic barriers faced by people with criminal records and how expungement changes lives

• Why helping people clear their criminal records is a priority for C Lee and criminal justice reform advocates

• how to discern what direction God is telling you to move in

• Reflections on my time as DA and the current challenges to our state of justice

• Why I am running for re-election to Alameda County District Attorney and how I came to that decision.

A Fair Chance at a Second Chance

In 2015, President Obama announced the Fair Chance Business Pledge for businesses, and the Fair Chance Higher Education Pledge. It was a national call-to-action to create a stronger set of opportunities for people who have been impacted by the criminal justice system.

Recognizing that approximately 70 million Americans had some type of criminal record, President Obama emphasized the importance of ensuring that “Americans who’ve paid their debt to society can earn their second chance.”

California’s legal framework for job seekers with conviction histories is established through the Fair Chance Act (Government Code section 12952), often called “Ban the Box” legislation.

This law prohibits most employers with five or more employees from inquiring about or considering an applicant’s conviction history before a conditional offer of employment has been extended. The goal is to ensure applicants are judged on their qualifications and experience first, not their past record.

The law specifically restricts the use of conviction information in the hiring process. Employers cannot ask about arrests that did not result in a conviction, participation in diversion programs, or convictions that have been sealed, dismissed, or expunged.

Listen to my interview with C Lee for the People on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

Expungement and California’s Fair Chance Employment Laws

Assembly Bill 2138 to amend the Business & Professions Code was passed in 2018 and went into effect in July 2020.

AB 2138 changed the law about how criminal records can be considered and gave formerly incarcerated people a fair chance at obtaining licensure under the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA). AB 2138 was sponsored by the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, East Bay Community Law Center, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Root & Rebound and supported by a coalition of 50 organizations.

The Act became effective during the pandemic shutdown in California which began on March 19, 2020 when Governor Newsom issued a statewide “stay at home” order. Most pandemic restrictions remained in place until June 2021.

The pandemic clearly delayed the impact of Assembly Bill 2138 due to the widespread shutdown of businesses for more than a year as well as the aftermath of the pandemic which saw many business failures and reduced hiring opportunities. The desired effect of the law, to create new economic pathways for people with convictions, likely did not even start to provide relief to those affected until after 2021.

Under AB 2138, however, many convictions are no longer grounds for denial of a license if those convictions have been expunged, or, even if not expunged, are more than seven years old. (Business and Professions Code section 480)

In criminal courts, there is a process for a person to have a deferred entry of judgment or diversion. They enter a plea of guilty, but once they complete a program required by the Court, the charges are dismissed. Before AB 2138, these types of guilty pleas could be used as “convictions” to deny license applications and punish licensees while these individuals were in the program. That law was changed under AB 2138.

Expungement and California’s Licensing Laws

Business and Professions Code section 480(d) explicitly forbids many licensing agencies from using any criminal dispositions other than misdemeanor or felony convictions to deny a license. However, an expungement or certificate of rehabilitation can bar the agency from denying a license based upon a conviction for certain crimes.

Examples of jobs that require a license are: real estate agents, security guards, barbers, hair stylists, home health aides, caregivers, psychologists, insurance agents, cosmetologists, nurses, doctors, dentists, lawyers, paramedics, massage therapists, clinical social workers, pharmacists, teachers and many more.

The ability to obtain a California alcoholic beverage license may also be affected by a prior felony conviction.

The changes to the law only apply to agencies that operate under the Business and Professions Code.

Licenses covered by the Insurance Code (insurance producers, adjusters), the Education Code (teachers), the Financial Code (lenders, DFPI-licensed mortgage loan originators), the Health and Safety Code (childcare centers, residential care homes for the elderly, foster care, nursing homes) and others are not affected by AB 2138.

Felony financial crimes of any age committed by fiduciaries, contractors, private investigators, funeral directors or real estate licensees can still be grounds for license denial. Also, serious felonies (most violent offenses) and sex offenses of any age may result in license denial.

Agencies are also still free to deny a license due to discipline imposed by other agencies, either inside or outside of California.

Nonetheless, expungement, authorized under Penal Code section 1203.4 and 1203.4a, which once provided little relief for license applicants, is a powerful shield against the denial of many licenses.

C Lee’s mission in collaboration with Californians for Safety and Justice is a vital step in ensuring the economic viability of California where millions of people have suffered a misdemeanor or felony conviction. Their motto is “Safety that lasts; Justice that heals.”

In 2022, the New York Times reported that 8 million Californians have a criminal record of some type.

Many people who are eligible for expungements simply are not aware of this opportunity to clear their record and remove the stigma of a criminal record. Most counties have participated in community clinics to help residents clear their records. Disturbing reports have indicated that under the leadership of appointed interim District Attorney, in 2025 Alameda County suspended the office’s participation in this vital program to benefit the community.

While a 2022 law - Senate Bill 73 - provided for “automatic sealing” of certain records, expungement provides certainty for those impacted. Those impacted include family members and children of people with convictions. Even after a person convicted of a crime has paid their debt to society, as long as their economic opportunities are limited, their family and children continue to pay the price of a conviction. The stigma of incarceration hurts the community long after the incarceration ends.

Connect with C. Lee:
Instagram: @clee.legal / @cleeforthepeople

My guest this week on Pamela Price Unfiltered is Lorrain Taylor, the founder and Executive Director of 1000 Mothers to Prevent Violence, a community-based, faith-centered nonprofit supporting families grieving the loss of loved ones to violence.

1000 MPV has served over 1,000 victim-survivors in the San Francisco Bay Area, offering hope, resources, and connection, with referrals from community partners and local agencies, including the Oakland Police Department.

Her journey began with profound loss. On February 8, 2000, Lorrain’s 22-year-old twin sons, Albade and Obadiah, were tragically killed by gun violence in East Oakland.

After years of grieving in silence, Lorrain discovered healing and purpose through service and transformed her personal grief and pain into a mission of healing and hope.

In 2004, Lorrain founded 24/7 Gospel, a grassroots outreach through which she personally provided groceries, meals, and hands-on care to grieving families.

In 2006, the organization was formally established as a nonprofit and renamed 1000 Mothers to Prevent Violence, while remaining rooted in its mission to bring comfort, dignity, and hope to families navigating the aftermath of violence.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch Pamela Price Unfiltered with Lorrain Taylor

Here’s what we’re covering:

• The impact of gun violence on mothers and survivors

• The solve rate for homicides in Oakland

• What is the solution to unsolved cases

• The importance of up-to-date forensics technology in local law enforcement

• The importance of addressing the root cause of crime

• Why keeping young people in the juvenile justice system is the best solution

Turning Pain Into Purpose

Lorrain Taylor is a woman of incredible strength. In one moment on the most horrible day of her life, she lost two sons, twins Abade and Obediah, to a senseless act of gun violence. She was absolutely devastated by the loss. She never expected to bury her sons.

Somewhere out of the deep wail of her despair, she found the courage and spirit to confront the Oakland Police Department and demand answers and accountability. OPD failed her and her family. They were not able to gather enough evidence to arrest or charge the man who killed her sons.

From that failure came the resilience that has sustained her for the past 26 years. Lorrain became an advocate for grieving families. She became an advocate for addressing the root causes of crime. She demanded that Oakland Police pursue better investigative tools and models to be able to solve homicides. She demanded that OPD listen to the mothers of the victims of gun violence. She developed an understanding of the criminal justice system and the factors that influence the outcome of a case.

Listen to my interview with Lorrain Taylor on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

Her work has been recognized by Bay Area media outlets, the Oakland Athletics and Ebony magazine’s Power 100. She is also the visionary behind the annual Purple Gala and continues to work toward establishing the Lorrain Taylor Healing Center, a multi-service space dedicated to grief support and community healing.

The Victims of Unsolved Homicides

When a homicide occurs in any jurisdiction, the local law enforcement agency is charged with the investigation and solving the crime. In the City of Oakland, the homicide solve rate is reportedly improving since 2024 but had been dismally low for decades. OPD claims that it solved the murder of Lorrain’s twin sons but could not charge the murderer because of a botched investigation.

Problems with investigations in Oakland are a serious and recurring problem.

In 2022, the alleged corrupt misconduct of a leading homicide detective was exposed, leading to the reversal of multiple convictions and the review of hundreds of cases.

OPD’s inability to solve violent crimes for decades fostered an embittered and suspicious community. Survivors were also often denied victims compensation through the Alameda County District Attorney’s office and the State Victims Compensation Board.

Benefits such as wage compensation, housing and relocation vouchers, U-Visas and mental health counselling were limited and frequently not even offered to survivors. For victims whose cases were not being prosecuted, those benefits became difficult, if not impossible to access.

Without a defendant, these survivors too often became “low priority” for the DA’s Victim Witness Advocates Division which was focused on cases with an active prosecution of a defendant. These victims were relegated to the dysfunctional claims process, with little urgency attached to their processing of their claims.

The Alameda County District Attorney’s Victim Witness Division Claims Supervisor’s office under DA Nancy O’Malley’s administration, November 2022

Without grief counseling or healing support, some victims became bitter adversaries of the justice system and vulnerable to manipulation by opportunists with their own agenda. Too often, the so-called “victims rights” advocates care little for the victims or their rights.

The best example of opportunistic legislation based on the sensationalism of a crime is California’s 3-Strikes law. To their credit, Polly Klass’ sisters have shared how their tragedy was sensationalized for a political agenda.

Lorrain’s Lessons

Lorrain Taylor could teach a master class on healing through service. Her vision is to establish the Lorrain Taylor Healing Center, a multi-service space dedicated to grief support and community healing. She has helped and continues to help thousands of survivors of loss, whether by gun violence, street violence or human trafficking.

Lorrain’s organization fills in the gaps for survivors where the justice system failed to go. Survivors need groceries, meals, and hands-on care to navigate the aftermath of the loss of a loved one. That outreach brings both hope and healing to grieving survivors.

Lorrain learned through her own hard experience how to engage with the local police. She demanded and received accountability for their failure to meet their burden and gave them the perspective of survivors that they might have missed. Lorrain served as an advisor to Oakland Police Department Chiefs Anthony Batts, Howard Jordan, and Sean Whent.

When violence strikes, the impact reverberates through families and communities. 1,000 Mothers to Prevent Violence (1K MPV) provides compassionate support, advocacy, and practical assistance to families affected by homicide and loss, helping them heal, stabilize, and rebuild their lives.

A Luta Continua.

The California Democratic Party held its convention in San Francisco this past weekend. I attended as an elected delegate from Alameda County’s 18th Assembly District. I joined about 2500 delegates from around the State.

By design, many if not most of the delegates are political appointees of the incumbent elected officials. The California Democratic Party or “CADEM” values incumbency more than anything, so incumbents are afforded the privilege of appointing groups of delegates to represent their interests.

Aside from the controversy created by Congressman Eric Swalwell’s posting of a racist meme demeaning me, the CADEM Convention was relatively controversy-free. Also by design. Delegates were given a list of Prohibited Items that included noisemakers, unauthorized professional electronics, unauthorized signs, posters or printed materials, and unauthorized solicitation materials, “including flags, flyers, stickers, cards, statements, beach balls, giveaways, etc.”

So, we gathered, ostensibly to select the Democratic nominee for California Governor. And there were so many choices. With less than 75 days before the June primary election, the cast of characters vying for the nomination was extremely confusing to most delegates. We also voted on the nominations for other contested Statewide offices including Superintendent of Public Instruction, Lieutenant Governor, Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner. And just like the Governor’s race, there was no consensus on a Democratic nominee for those offices.

At the Convention, we were presented with eight (8) candidates for Governor, three for Lt. Governor, three for Treasurer, four for Insurance Commissioner, and five for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Among this potpourri of choices, delegates could not agree on a choice for any of the leading offices for the State.

There were some clearer choices (“favorites”) than others. In the Governor’s race, Congressman Eric Swalwell came in first with 571 votes or 24% of the delegates voting in the race. Hon. Betty Yee came in second with 411 votes, followed by Hon. Xavier Becerra with 334 votes. Tom Steyer, the richest and very aggressive candidate in the race, and the only non-elected candidate received 315 votes. Hon. Katie Porter, the only other woman in the race got 222 votes.

Tony Thurman, the only African American in the race, did not break 200 votes with only 189 delegates voting to endorse him. 203 delegates voted “no endorsement” - almost 10% indicating their non-allegiance to any of the above.

Despite his public pronouncements as the anti-Trump candidate, Swalwell is the most right-wing candidate in the race. In 2024, the People’s Tribunal Against Eric Swalwell, a coalition of over 100 citizens unanimously found Swalwell “guilty of complicity in the Palestinian genocide” and a failure to represent his constituency. The evidence presented at the tribunal showed that Swalwell has accepted thousands of dollars from pro-Israel groups, defunded humanitarian aid to Gaza, supported resolutions and legislation to protect Israel and ignored constituent concerns.

Swalwell is also well known for openly collaborating with Republicans whenever it suits his political ambitions. He was raised in a Republican household, the son of a conservative police Chief and touts his law enforcement roots (two of his brothers are in law enforcement) in his campaign appeals.

Swalwell started his political career with the support of the Tea Party in one of the most conservative districts in our County. For those who don’t remember the Tea Party, they were the precursors of the MAGA movement. If we think California is moving to the right and turning purple, Swalwell is leading the rightward shift.

There is great fear amongst Democrats that with so many Democrats in the Governor’s race, the top two candidates in the primary will end up being both Republicans. Swalwell’s primary strategy is clearly to pretend to be a Democrat while working with his Republican donors and supporters to consolidate his base on the right.

It apparently worked for Swalwell in 2014 in the Democratic primary contest against the Hon. Ellen Corbett so this is not a new play for him. His Republican roots (and donors) have remained constant over the years of his tenure in Congress. Petty personal attacks on his perceived opponents are also a stable characteristic of his campaign tactics.

In the 2022 and 2024 elections, Swalwell defied the endorsements of the local Democratic Party and ran with the MAGA-Republican agenda. In 2022, he publicly and financially supported former MAGA-Republican Sheriff Greg Ahern in opposition to the Democratic Party-endorsed candidate. Ahern was renowned for his corruption, use of excessive force and deplorable in-custody death record at the Santa Rita jail. Nonetheless, Swalwell was one of Ahern’s biggest supporters.

Swalwell repeated his defiant stance in 2024 by loudly supporting the MAGA-inspired recall movement against me as the first Black District Attorney in Alameda County despite the overwhelming anti-recall endorsement of the Democratic Party. Democrats should beware that Swalwell is the Republican’s “Trojan horse” inside the Democratic Party.

I find it interesting that the two leading Governor candidates for the nomination at the Convention - Swalwell and Yee - are both from Alameda County. While we claim to be the most progressive County in the country, the home of the Black Panther Party, and all that, these two leading candidates from our County are both moderate (at best) and corporate Dems.

Hence, the question - is California purple, red or blue?

Hon. Betty Yee tells a compelling back story of her ascension to State office as someone the establishment did not support. However, since joining the Democratic Party establishment, she has shown herself to be at best a moderate. She is the first Asian-American woman to hold statewide office, and one of only two women remaining in the race. Both Lt. Governor Eleni Kounalakis and State Senator Toni Atkins dropped out earlier. Obviously, Yee’s win as California’s first woman Governor would be historic.

Yee’s position on the genocide in Gaza appears to be clearer than some of the other candidates - she says she abhors violence and anti-Semitism and supports a two-state solution. In October 2023, when our Democratic Party Central Committee voted on a resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, my recollection is that Yee was MIA and did not support the resolution. Yee also has been extremely resistant to efforts to reform Alameda County’s broken criminal justice system.

Tom Steyer, candidate for California governor, center, and his spouse, Kat Taylor, right, are introduced by state Sen. Henry Stern, of Los Angeles, left, during a luncheon at the California Democratic Party convention in San Francisco on Feb. 21, 2026. Photo by Jungho Kim for CalMatters

Tom Steyer was probably the most exciting candidate at the Convention. His lunchtime reception was super-crowded, and the delegates generally seemed fascinated by him. His billionaire status both draws people to him and repels others. Progressives like me who are leery of the billionaire-class influence in politics and society are perplexed by his candidacy, and he aggressively sought our votes. His fourth-place finish in the delegates race was actually surprising given all the buzz his candidacy has created, and all the money he has poured into the race so far. Still, it is undeniable that Steyer is the most progressive option in the top tier of candidates.

I’m told Steyer is the only Governor candidate who has openly acknowledged Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza. Steyer has called for an immediate ceasefire of the attacks in Gaza and has been a longtime critic of US military support for Israel, a sticking point for most Democrats who rely heavily on Jewish support for their election campaigns. His attacks on Eric Swalwell’s voting record have been particularly effective. I’m sure Swalwell’s alleged affair with the Chinese spy known as “Fang Fang” and his complicity in the Palestinian genocide will also become subjects of discussion in the campaign.

Tony Thurmond, once a rising star in the Democratic Party, finished in a disappointing sixth place, behind Katie Porter, who finished fifth. Thurmond is running as a strongly progressive candidate. The way that his candidacy has been dismissed and marginalized may reflect the reality that racial justice in California is no longer a priority for the Democratic party faithful, if it ever really was.

Katie Porter did not do much better than Tony Thurmond. While her delegate vote total of 222 is surprising, it may not reflect the strength of her appeal to everyday voters. Porter has more name recognition than Yee, and is endorsed by progressive organizations like FundHer, the only political action committee in California dedicated to putting progressive women at the helm of state governments. That movement has had some impressive wins across the country and is deeply rooted in historical efforts to elect a woman Governor in California, including my dear friend Delaine Eastin’s run for Governor in 2018. Delaine was also from Alameda County and a staunch supporter of working people and progressive causes. She finished sixth in the June 2018 primary.

What happens next is up in the air. With less than 75 days until voting begins, voters will be bombarded with ads, mailers, and meetings. It is also certain that state Democrats will take a page from the national party and start pressuring folks like former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and former State Assemblyman Ian Calderon, to drop out of the race. Pushing Tony Thurmond and Katie Porter out of the race may be a bit more difficult.

Former California Attorney General Xavier Becerra may be the sleeper candidate to watch, particularly if Eric Swalwell’s true identity is exposed to the electorate. Whether the indictment and conviction of Becerra’s Chief of Staff for bank and wire fraud will hamper his electability remains to be seen.

In the meantime, the California Democratic Party is having trouble finding a leader and a lane for leadership.

Exciting news: a coalition of progressive prosecutions has launched FAFO, a project for the fight against federal overreach. When federal agents exceed their lawful authority, these progressive prosecutors have pledged to hold them accountable.

This project called the Fight Against Federal Overreach is led by Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and Minnesota District Attorney Mary Moriarty. They are standing up against warrantless entries, unlawful detentions, kidnapping, and coercive enforcement tactics by federal agents.

They know that in the time of Trump, it is up to prosecutors to hold the line and protect our constitutional rights.

This week on Pamela Price Unfiltered, I dive deep into the role of local prosecutors who are and should be on the front lines of defending the Constitution and the basic rights of residents against the violence of Trump’s new gestapo troops.

Here’s what we’re covering:

• Prosecutors are charged with the duty to respect the constitutional rights of all of their residents, victims, defendants and witnesses to crime.

• The task of prosecutors is to balance everyone’s rights to achieve justice.

• Prosecutors’ duty to secure fair justice for everyone in the system.

• The crimes that federal agents can be charged with by local prosecutors.

These brave prosecutors have formed a coalition to share strategies and best practices, provide regular public updates on efforts to rein in unlawful federal conduct, and educate the public on what paths are legally available.

🎧 Subscribe to YouTube to watch Pamela Price Unfiltered.

They have also agreed to coordinate accountability efforts across jurisdictions. This type of coordination with prosecutors’ offices would work well in the Bay Area, where we have nine counties that are interlocked and there are no boundaries for our residents.

It is not enough to simply say “no one is above the law” Prosecutors have to be prepared to take action when federal agents exceed their lawful authority.

Accountability is critical to keep trust in the legal system.

That means understanding the challenges of holding any law enforcement official accountable in court and in the court of public opinion.

As a prosecutor, it means balancing your independent relationship with law enforcement when they serve as witnesses for your cases and when they engage in misconduct.

When you demonstrate your commitment to the rule of law and the Constitution, you affirm that the system of justice is not supposed to favor one group of people over another.

Justice must be served, and it must be served the right way, without fear, favoritism, or hesitation.

When prosecutors bend to the will of law enforcement - whether local, state or federal agents - the rule of law crumbles and means nothing for the average resident.

Listen to Pamela Price Unfiltered on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Spotify, IHeart or wherever you tune in.

My friends in DA offices outside of California understand the challenges we all face in the time of Trump. The founding of this coalition is a sign of hope and heroism.

They are not going to, as Larry Krasner said on my podcast a few months ago, “keep quiet in the corner.” Watch Larry Krasner tell the feds to FAFO on Pamela Price Unfiltered.