During a rant about crime on Monday, President Donald Trump called out Oakland, along with several other cities with Democratic mayors, despite evidence showing the East Bay city’s crime rate has fallen.
While announcing his intention to federalize the Washington, D.C. Police force and send the U.S. National Guard into the city, Trump implied that the same treatment could be in store for other cities that voted against him in the past.
“We have other cities also that are bad. Very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem,” Trump said.
“And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don’t even mention that anymore there. They’re so far gone. We’re not going to let it happen,” he said. “We’re not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further. We’re starting very strongly with D.C., and we’re going to clean it up real quick, very quickly, as they say.”
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee said Monday that Trump is wrong about her city, which she praised for making progress on its often-discussed public-safety challenges.
Lee: It’s ‘fear-mongering’
“President Trump’s characterization of Oakland is wrong and not grounded in facts, but in fear-mongering,” Lee said in a statement. “This is not leadership — it’s an attempt to score cheap political points by tearing down communities he doesn’t understand.”
“Our comprehensive public safety strategy is working — crime rates are coming down even though we still face many challenges. And let me repeat, President Trump is wrong,” she said.
Coincidentally, Lee and Police Chief Floyd Mitchell both recently touted local and national statistics showing a significant drop in crime.
Mitchell said Oakland is echoing a nationwide trend, with the city seeing a 29% drop in violent crime from Jan. 1 through June 30, according to data released last week by the Major Cities Chiefs Association.
“Our comprehensive public safety strategy is working — crime rates are coming down even though we still face many challenges. And let me repeat, President Trump is wrong.”
Mayor Barbara Lee
The figures released Thursday show homicides in the city are down by 21%; aggravated assaults have dropped 18%; rapes are down 24%; and robberies have decreased by 41%.
The same report shows burglaries down by 19%, auto thefts by 45% and larceny by 17%. Arson was the only category that rose, and was up by 9%.
Lee, who took office in May, said her public safety strategy includes funding 678 sworn officers this year as part of a multi-year commitment to reach 700 under Measure NN, approved last November by voters.
In fact, crime numbers were trending down in Oakland prior to Lee’s April election win, during the tenure of former mayor Sheng Thao, who lost a recall election partly due to concerns about crime and the perception of crime in the city.
Also, crime is trending down in almost all categories for all the cities Trump mentioned Monday, according to the Major Cities Chiefs Association’s numbers.
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