By Sierra Lopez
Bay Area News Group
OAKLAND, Calif. — In their most forceful comments to date, leaders of the Oakland police union on Tuesday called for Mayor Sheng Thao to immediately resign and said they would back the recall effort if she doesn’t step down.
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The four-person executive board of the Oakland Police Officers Association, led by President Huy Nguyen and Vice President Tim Dolan, voted unanimously to demand Thao’s resignation, according to a letter addressed to the mayor and shared publicly Tuesday.
“We’re a joke and not just in the state but in the country and world. We need to change the state of the city,” Sgt. Nguyen said at a press conference Tuesday.
Nguyen and Dolan, also a police sergeant, cited bouts of violent crime, understaffing in the police department, an unclear future financial future for the city and the recent FBI raid of Thao’s Oakland home as reasons why Oakland needs new leadership.
The department currently has 678 officers, but it needs between 1,000 and 1,200 officers to be fully staffed and equipped to respond to the number of calls they receive on a daily basis, according to the OPOA’s letter to Thao.
In a statement, Thao said the budget adopted last month “prioritized public safety by funding two new police academies and prevented the elimination of over 80 police officer positions.” The mayor also touted “significant reductions in robberies, shootings, and homicides.”
“I urge the four-member executive team of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association to join me in celebrating this achievement rather than attempting to scare the public with misinformation and falsehoods,” Thao’s statement said.
A spokesperson for Thao said “the mayor has no plans to resign.”
If Thao does not step down, Nguyen said the association plans to fully back a recall campaign that qualified for the Nov. 5 ballot after enough required signatures were gathered and verified.
While Oakland has faced budget woes and high crime rates before Thao took office early last year, Nguyen said the city’s fumbling of a state retail theft grant happened under Thao’s watch, as have a number of violent crimes including a shooting that injured four people at a large sideshow this past weekend. And while crimes against people are down compared to prior years, Nguyen asserted that property crime data is at least four months out of date.
The leaders of the police union, who represent hundreds of rank-and-file officers, called the FBI raid of Thao’s home on June 20 a “turning point.” Since the June 20 raids, Thao has faced similar calls for her resignation from the leaders of the recall effort. Thao has repeatedly said she is innocent and not a target of the federal investigation, which remains ongoing.
The union leaders on Tuesday were joined by the association’s spokesman, Sam Singer, who also represents LeRonne Armstrong, the Oakland police chief fired by Thao last year. Armstrong is running for the city’s at-large council seat in this fall’s election.
“On top of the devastating, out-of-control violence and crime, the City of Oakland is currently in a fiscal crisis, and should it result in bankruptcy, this will only lead to a further deterioration of public safety,” read the letter to Thao. “Every day you are in office, Oakland is less safe. Your administration has turned Oakland into an international embarrassment.”
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