The people of Alameda County are understandably frustrated with homelessness and crime, and they deserve real solutions. Recalling District Attorney Pamela Price has never been that solution. After all, last year, law enforcement in Alameda County solved just 10 percent of violent crimes and three percent of property crimes. But instead of working with DA Price to hold people accountable and address the root causes of crime, police unions and deep-pocketed donors started working to remove her the day she was elected.
And why? Because they knew she’d keep her promise to hold law enforcement and corporations accountable, and that’s exactly what she’s done. The forces that supported this recall want accountability for everyone but themselves, and they’re willing to pay any price for it.
The recall of Pamela Price isn’t an indictment of criminal justice reform but an indictment of California’s recall system. Once again, we’ve seen a group of billionaires band together to game the recall system by misleading the public, overthrowing the will of the people, and ousting a prosecutor committed to reform.
This recall isn’t just disappointing, it’s deeply poisonous to our political system. When rich donors and law enforcement unions can’t win at the ballot box the first time around in California, they can now simply buy their way back onto the ballot and trap candidates they don’t like in endless, exhausting, and expensive campaigns. That’s not democracy, and it certainly doesn’t make our communities safer.
We’re so proud of what DA Price has accomplished in her short time in office. This fight is far from over and we know she will continue to stand with the people of Alameda County in working towards safe and just communities for all.
–Prosecutors Alliance Action Executive Director Cristine Soto DeBerry
“We’re so proud of what DA Price has accomplished in her short time in office. This fight is far from over and we know she will continue to stand with the people of Alameda County in working towards safe and just communities for all.”
It was “the people of Alameda County” who voted DA Price out of office.
All of the internal fighting within her office, her firing of longtime staffers, their lawsuits against her, and her overhanded responses, really had nothing to do with deep pocketed donors. While the “amplification” of high-profile stories certainly didn’t help her cause, she has been ineffective because of the internal politics within her office. Her loss of support among progressives (she is being recalled by a large margin) is directly tied to those issues, and not just the deep-pocketed interests that made mainstream news. You can follow some of those stories with this link: https://www.berkeleyscanner.com/topic/pamela-price/
Yes Jeff, it was Alameda County residents who are tired of the crime and progressive policies of DA Price that got her thrown out of office. I don’t care who funded the recall, it was the voters ultimately made the decision. They know best what their community is dealing with.
Keith, it sounds to me that you are looking from afar and trying to paint broad brush strokes about “crime” and “progressive policies” using right wing talking points. In fact, there is nuance and most voters in Alameda County aren’t swayed by right wing media hype about crime or “Soros fundeded DAs” (I realize you didn’t say that). There were problems with Pamela Price that didn’t make the news beyond Alameda County, and those problems don’t fit neatly into right or left perspectives. I was simply trying to point those out.
So it was right wing talking points that I saw stab a security guard outside of Ross when he tried to prevent the talking points from stealing? It’s right wing talking points that are breaking into cars at Lake Merritt. The newspapers have created a mosaic of incongruity between the soon to be erstwhile DA and the prosecution of criminals the voters in Alameda County want.
James Poll, thank you.
Alameda County is hardly full go conservative voters, yet they soundly defeated the progressive justice DA. They’ve had enough.
James- feel free to make clever rhetorical arguments all you want, because I guess you didn’t read the “her loss of support among progressives” part.
The notion that the recall was driven by right wing talking points instead of the actions coming out of her office is more proof that (to paraphrase a well known author) some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual would believe them
James- maybe you are confusing my point with the author, I can’t tell. But just in case: 1.) “the recall was driven by right wing talking points” was never written by me and 2.) I specifically mentioned “actions coming out of her office” as the reason she lost support among progressives.