Schaaf assailed over request for CHP help on city streets
An Oakland city council member and community activists criticized Mayor Libby Schaaf on Monday for requesting help from the California Highway Patrol to enforce traffic on city streets.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom approved a request from Schaaf to send CHP officers to enforce traffic laws. The request came after Chinatown leaders pleaded for help confronting a wave of violent crimes.
City officials said last week that Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong will meet with the CHP commissioner soon to determine the details — how officers will be deployed and for how long.
Council Member Carroll Fife and activist Cat Brooks, the co-founder of the Anti PoliceTerror Project, gathered at a news conference in East Oakland and demanded that the city rescind the plan to bring in the CHP.
“As Black and brown and indigenous people, we know that these law enforcement agencies do not mean safety for our communities and in fact, they mean increased levels of violence and increased dangers for our bodies,” Brooks said.
Justin Berton, Schaaf ’s spokesman, said Monday, “the request for assistance from the CHP came from the community.”
Council Member Dan Kalb said last week he supports
Schaaf ’s move if the CHP limits its involvement to violent crimes and serious traffic offenses.
The criticism underscored the tension over how to handle the rise in violent crime in Oakland, where homicides have spiked and community leaders are debating how to keep the city safe while also addressing the root causes of violence.
On Aug. 10, Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, sent a letter to Newsom urging him to send CHP and other state law enforcement authorities to Oakland.
“I’m not only asking you to patrol in Chinatown. All areas, we need your help,” Chan said at a news conference.
Chan’s plea came after the region’s top federal and local law enforcement representatives joined Asian American community advocates last month, vowing to take a tougher stance against criminals to deter violence.
But some activists are worried about the CHP move. CHP does not have to adhere to the same rules as the Oakland Police Department, which has pledged to reduce certain traffic stops. In 2019, Oakland police said they will no longer pull people over for low-level infractions like a broken windshield or damaged taillight.
Ben Wang, co-director of Asian Prisoner Support Committee, said during the news conference Monday that his organization doesn’t want issues facing the Asian communities to “be used as a wedge to further criminalize other communities of color.”
“We don’t want more police, we don’t want more law enforcement, we want real solutions,” Wang said.
He added that mental health interventions and violence prevention efforts are key, not “the CHP coming down these streets.”
Fife, Brooks and other community leaders were joined by the sister of 23-year-old Erik Salgado, who was shot and killed by CHP officers in Oakland last June.
Salgado, an Oakland resident,
was driving a 2018 Dodge Challenger that was among more than 70 vehicles stolen from a San Leandro car dealership. Police said Salgado rammed their vehicles with the Dodge Hellcat he was driving as officers attempted to pull him over. Salgado, who was unarmed, was in a vehicle with his girlfriend when officers shot him.
His girlfriend, who was pregnant, was also shot. She survived the shooting, but lost the baby.
“Instead of holding CHP accountable for the death of Erik, Libby is empowering them to have a stronger presence in Oakland, even considering their violent history,” said Amanda Blanco, Erik Salgado’s sister. “CHP is a danger on our city streets. Libby has once again shown how out of touch she is with brown and Black communities. We need justice, not more criminalization.”
A day before Newsom’s announcement, leaders in Chinatown sent him a letter calling on
him to declare a state of emergency due to an uptick of robberies and assaults. Newsom did not declare a state of emergency.
“Beware, there is going to be more enforcement,” Schaaf said last week.
A timeline on when CHP will be enforcing traffic on city streets has not been released.