Liberty Expose: Alameda County Looks To Recall District Attorney Pamela Price
NBC Bay Area
One of the most important issues that is consuming the minds of Americans is the safety of the country and their communities. Criminals have been running rampant throughout the nation, and Americans have grown rightly and have very low tolerance. This has become most prevalent in states such as California, where the violent crime rate increased by 6.1 percent in 2022. This has culminated in the recall efforts of the Alamedas District Attorney, Pamela Price.
Recall of Pamela Price
Pamela Price was elected Alameda County's District Attorney in California on November 8, 2022, where she won by 6.2 percent, for a total of 228,954 votes. Since she entered office Price has allowed the crime rate to reach astronomical numbers. 46 people out of every thousand residents will be victims of a violent crime, one of the highest crime rates in America. This has been attributed to her relaxed attitude towards criminal activity and the lack of punishing perpetrators of violence.
While barely being in office for more than a year, Pamela Price has allowed Alameda County to become infected with violence in criminal conduct. When compared to the rest of California, Alameda County has almost twice as many property crimes per capita as the rest of California.
Property Crimes
Alameda County is only 22 square miles, but the density of crimes happening in that small of an area is astounding. California averages eighty-four crimes per square mile, while Almeda has a massive 326 crimes per square mile. Both are much greater than the national average of twenty-seven.
Alameda Crimes Per Square Mile
An attempt has been made to recall Pamela Price and remove her from her position in office by April of this year. Price has responded to the recall attempt by declaring it "undemocratic." She has also expressed her belief that the recall effort is an attempt by businesses to punish her for negative impacts on their property value. Price stated;
“We know that this recall is not about public safety; we have their campaign plan; this campaign plan says that they are concerned with the value of their portfolios, real estate developers; there is nobody in here; there is nobody that comes through our office that is a real estate portfolio."
This argument, however, is lunacy, as a record of being a district attorney has led to tens of thousands of people feeling unsafe in their communities. As of now, the recall campaign known as Save Alameda for Everyone (SAFE) has collected 80,000 signatures to recall Pamela Price. They only need 30,000 more by their March deadline to be voted upon.
San Francisco Recall
This is, in fact, the second attempt at recalling a District Attorney in the state of California. One very similar event occurred with the removal of Chesa Boudin in 2022. Chesa Boudin was elected as San Francisco District Attorney and entered office in January 2020. He nearly won his election by less than 3000 votes. He was later successfully recalled in July 2022 because of his soft nature toward crime. 55% of voters supported removing him from office.
During Boudin's time as district attorney of San Francisco, the criminal activity in California became very apparent, as peaks in crime rates led to countless robberies and shoplifting videos that took up massive amounts of attention. It was more than just the people of California experiencing the uptick in crime, such as violence, shoplifting, and auto theft; people from around the country witnessing these events are what helped to make it a priority issue. If SAFE is looking to repeat the recall efforts for Pamela Price, this example of a mass-based effort should be emulated to gain as much attention as possible.
Addressing the Problem
This does beg the question: why has California succumbed to an influx of violent crime compared to other states? While other states have experienced increased rates of crime, California in particular has become synonymous with it. Ever since November 2014, current state law has classified stealing or shoplifting anything under the value of $950 to be considered a misdemeanor offense and is often not investigated by police. This led to famous viral videos on the Internet of mass looting taking place at these retail establishments in California.
This feeling of being unsafe is almost universally felt. Alameda is predominantly white, at 41.3%. However, it does have a large Asian and Hispanic population as well, at 31.1% and 12.1%, with a median household income of $129,917. San Francisco, which successfully recalled Chesa Boudin, is also extremely similar in terms of demographics.
Both San Francisco County and Alameda have extremely high Asian populations, which have been following increasing trends in anti-Asian hate crimes. San Francisco had a 567 percent increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans in 2021. This was neglected by Boudin. Who failed to prosecute perpetrators of these hate crimes. Also allowing a huge percentage of the population of San Fransisco to become frequent targets, adding tremendous pressure to his recall.
Conclusion
Safety in the United States has become one of the top concerns in America. Conservatives should take the opportunity to point to their records of how they handle the safety of their cities and states as proof of their effectiveness in handling crime. California, as a state, has been plagued with district attorneys who have shown themselves to be extremely lax on individuals looking to hurt and take advantage of their communities. The recall efforts of Pamela Price are just one step in the right direction for Californians to help improve the quality and safety of their state.