There’s a New Chief in Town
[Nov. 15, 2009]

            I received an email yesterday that prompts some thoughts.  The sender tickled the notion that a better Oakland is still worth working for.  It makes me wonder… again.

            What is it that would make a better Oakland?  Is it to turn our City green?  Is it to offer specialized services to our seniors and youth?  Is it to clean our neighborhoods?  Is it to enhance our commerce?  Is it to develop the intercourse of activities?  Is it to encourage population growth?  Is it to enhance our accomplishments and pride?  Yes of course…. and much more.

            There are locks on our potential, and they are rusted.  There are locks on all the doors and windows of the Oakland premises, along with signs imprinted with the message, “Danger – Unsafe.”  We can enjoy the ownership of our home but not the free use of it.

            Many are locked behind barricaded doors and barred windows.  Yards are secured with barbed wire.  We tremble behind security cameras and electronic alarms.  We are frightened.  Thank goodness the last crime happened to someone else, someone for whom we have the utmost compassion.  It’s no wonder our business people seek haven elsewhere and we can’t attract much new business.  We can’t enjoy our parks without fear of attack.  The sound of footsteps at night, in the dark, anywhere in the city, cramps our hearts with fear.  Our police administrators have told us they can’t do their job without us.  They’ve told us they don’t have enough cops, enough resources, enough help from citizens, and the litany of excuses has been endless in recent years.  Charlie Pine, a well-meaning gadfly, once stood at a North Oakland Neighborhood Meeting and declared Oakland a Free Crime Zone.  He has written that we need to expand our police occupation forces.  After all, they would have us believe, Oakland is a crime-ridden rat infested nest preyed upon by parolees, gangs, random criminals, all sustained by a normalcy of unlawfulness and inevitable violence. 

            We own the key that can unlock our potential.  The same key will unlock all the barriers to a better Oakland.  That key is rusted.  We’ve misplaced it.  It’s been bent, tarnished and neglected. That key is stamped with the initials O.P.D.  It’s been used and abused by special interests, competing provincial politics, mis-governance, mismanagement, overzealous jurisprudence, lack of prosecution, and other claimants to whom we have loaned it.  We’ve forgotten that we have it and what to do with it. 

            The OPD, we would envision, is a professional organization.  However, the most important attribute to professionalism, the exercise of qualified judgment, has been stolen from OPD.   Any police officer today can tell you, in a protected unguarded moment, that they live in constant fear of damning and unforgiving oversight.  They will also tell you, if allowed, that they have been working without organization, disconnected and fragmented, facing problems ad hoc, and have in recent years been moved about as pawns on a chessboard manipulated by amateurs.  The loss of our key, the misplacement of OPD,  has resulted in a chaos of public safety in Oakland.

            There is a new guy in town by the name of Anthony Batts.  He is now the Police Chief of OPD.  He is a virgin among jaded panderers of government, a man who refers to “Merritt Lake” and “South Oakland.”  He comes from Long Beach, where he reigned over a city enjoying progressively lower crime rates during recent years when we successively experienced descent into greater violence.  He is educated.  He came up through the ranks.  He is a respected cop.  He is also an evangelist.  He can stir crowds of eager, hopeful and desperate Oakland citizens.  He is self-deprecating about the shine of his bald head, disdaining of the podium and preferring to mingle personably with a crowd, and he appears to talk the talk and walk the walk.  He has most of OPD cautiously optimistic.  We’ll see. 

            Like his predecessor, he will no doubt talk about Community Policing and Geographic Policing because they are the worshipped political buzzwords.  He will likely offer transparency, openness and accessibility, for the same reasons.  He will certainly move to make dramatic changes at OPD because we all expect it.  He will also face reality soon enough. 

            Reality is either confronted with appropriate construction, or it is denied with a façade of excuses.  Can Batts reconstruct OPD with what we’ve got, or will he soon enough falter with cop-outs?  After all, OPD has more and better trained cops earning more money and is equipped with more facilities and resources than ever before.  OPD has top people at all ranks eager to do real police work.   Batts will take the helm of a ship with furled mainsails, floating without a course.

            Should we support Chief Batts?  Should we allow him to do his job?  Should we give him a honeymoon period?  Should we watch him closely?  Should we demand measurable results?  Should we hold him accountable?  Should we expect him to do the job with what he’s got?    Yes… of course; but we must loan him our respect and adulation until he has earned it.

ronoz