Republished from Care 4 Community with permission from Tur-Ha Ak

If we’re going to talk about crime in Oakland, then we have to start with an honest timeline, when all these problems actually began, and who was in charge when things really blew up.

Because once you look at the facts, the narrative people keep repeating does not match reality.

Source: Oakland released detailed historical crime data. Here’s what is shows. (SF Chronicle)

The rise in violent crime, the spikes in shootings, the surge in murders, the explosion of homelessness, and the illegal dumping crisis, all of this began, spiked, and persisted under Libby Schaaf and Nancy O’Malley.

Not under the progressive women of color who came later.

Not under the newer leadership that walked straight into crises they didn’t create.

And let’s be clear about something people keep trying to rewrite:

Before progressive women of color ever stepped into the mayor’s office, the DA’s office, or council leadership, Oakland was NOT being run by progressives.

There was a progressive council majority at the very end of the Schaaf era, but here’s what matters:

That progressive majority passed ZERO public-safety policies that changed OPD operations, chase rules, charging standards, or anything that shaped the crime spike. Nothing.

Meanwhile, the current encampment management policy was actually passed by the conservative caucus, not progressives.

And yes, there were early doom-loop narratives emerging under Schaaf.

This is when the groundwork began:

• national headlines painting Oakland as ungovernable

• “Oaklanders Lost” and similar campaigns appearing

• and even OPD leadership going on national platforms saying Oakland “couldn’t be protected”

Which was peculiar, because that kind of messaging doesn’t just demoralize Oakland. It announces the city as open for street shit.

And it set the stage for the blame-shifting that was coming.

Now here are the numbers nobody likes to discuss:

Oakland homicides under O’Malley’s last four years:

• 2019 — 78

• 2020 — 109

• 2021 — 134 (the peak)

• 2022 — 120

Those were the real spike years.

Source: Oakland’s high homicide rate moves residents to do something about it (Oakland North)

That’s when things shot up and stayed high.

And all of it happened before any progressive woman of color held those top positions.

Under Schaaf, the pattern was the same:

• violent crime rose hard during the pandemic

• property crime climbed

• homelessness doubled

• illegal dumping tripled

These were the conditions the new leadership inherited, not the ones they created.

And we need to say this plainly:

We all agree that one murder is too many. One violent incident is too many. No one is minimizing harm. What we’re calling out is the political weaponization of harm. Because here’s the truth:

When crime was rising under Schaaf and O’Malley, when the spike actually happened, there were:

• no recall efforts

• no billionaire-funded coalitions

• no coordinated doom-loop assaults

• no right-wing billionaire funded/developer recall efforts

But the moment progressive women of color were elected, the recall papers came out almost instantly, literally days into their tenure.

They were never given a fair chance to address the crises they inherited.

They were forced to govern under immediate attack, exactly as intended.

And now that violent crime has actually declined, including homicides dropping below pre-pandemic levels, the same doom-loopers who once treated OPD and FBI data as gospel suddenly claim the numbers “aren’t real.”

Think about that:

OPD and FBI crime data, the same sources they trusted when the numbers served their narrative, are suddenly ‘unreliable’ the moment improvement shows up.

When the numbers rise:

“See? Progressives failed.”

When the numbers fall:

“The data must be fake.”

When the numbers drop below Schaaf and O’Malley levels:

“It’s not enough.”

That tells you everything.

Before their usual talking points appear, let’s deal with the myths:

MYTH 1 — “The chase policy was progressives.”

False.

The core restrictions date back to 2015, long before “progressive power” dynamic existed. The 50-mph Special Order was issued by OPD’s own chief in 2022 in response to lawsuits, fatalities, liability, and federal oversight — not a progressive vote.

MYTH 2 — “Defund caused the spike.”

False.

OPD was never defunded. The budget went up every single year. A tiny adjustment to future projected increases was spun into a political myth.

MYTH 3 — “Progressives destroyed police morale.”

False.

Police hiring collapsed nationwide, including in conservative states.

This is a national labor trend, not a local political issue.

MYTH 4 — “Progressive policies caused the spike.”

False.

The spike began in 2020, under Schaaf and O’Malley, before any progressive woman of color held office or enacted any policy. And here’s why this matters:

If we keep operating on a false premise, we will never get to real solutions.

If we pretend the spike began when progressive women of color took office, instead of acknowledging it began under Schaaf and O’Malley, then we will keep misdiagnosing the problem.

And if we misdiagnose the problem, we will always choose the wrong solutions.

This was never about public safety.

This was never about the actual conditions.

This was never about data.

This is about power.

This is about access.

This is about control.

It was about weaponizing long-standing, pre-existing crises to attack progressive women of color and reinstall the same establishment that presided over the actual spike.

Look at the timeline: It tells the story the doom-loopers don’t want the public to see.