Occupy Oakland, Mayor Quan, and Public Safety

When Occupy Oakland began, some people were all for it. They hoped it would flow into the national movement against economic oligarchy. Other people were appalled at the scene that developed on Ogawa Plaza. Oakland mayor Jean Quan managed to do the worst from both points of view.

Occupy Wall Street in New York City has been largely peaceful. The City government and the activists found a way to keep the site clean, safe, and healthy. So have Occupy takeovers in many other cities. Mayor Quan did almost nothing to get the same situation in Oakland. For several weeks she was passive as the situation deteriorated.

Then a horrific police attack occurred on mayor Quan's watch. After it all happened, Quan spoke out of both sides of her mouth, asserting that she knew the City would do something, but she the mayor didn't really know what would be done.

Incapable of real leadership, always ready with an excuse

The situation called for decisive leadership and effective follow-through. Jean Quan does not know what principles are. She is incapable of effective action on big issues. Nor has Quan attracted such leadership to her team. After all, just two weeks earlier popular chief of police Batts resigned. He could not do his job with Quan's petty directives and her snarky public remarks about the City's police force. The city administrator hired by Quan proved to be a disaster, too. No wonder; qualified candidates for the position had refused to accept a job reporting to Quan.

Oakland has half a police department in relation to population when compared with most major cities. That fact made the decision to assemble police aid from surrounding cities, the Highway Patrol, and other agencies inevitable. Under such circumstances, the attempt to keep the peace around a large evening demonstration on Oct. 25, 2011 was an invitation to disaster.

Oakland needs at least 1,100 police, not the 650 we have today. They have a huge job to do in the neighborhoods of the sixth most dangerous city in the country, a city that suffers twice as many robberies, burglaries, and assaults as other California cities, a city blighted by open drug dealing, boom cars, and public urination. Police deterrence is absent, investigations do not happen, and criminals are not apprehended. They get more savage; now they rob in broad daylight in busy commercial districts, shooting middle-aged women who do not hand over their possessions fast enough. For years before Occupy Oakland, councilmember Jean Quan chopped away at public safety in Oakland, and when Occupy Oakland is over one way or another, basic public safety will remain the number one task of Oakland city government.

In all her years as school board member, councilmember, and now mayor, Jean Quan has never handled a major issue with skill and intelligence ("ebonics," the school district bankruptcy, the Measure Y tax and police staffing in general, the City budget crisis, and now Occupy Oakland). The Peter principle is a wry observation that managers rise until they reach their level of incompetence. The Quan principle is that a self-absorbed careerist who thinks in the small is always at a level of incompetence. Quan was a failure on the school board and got away with it. She was a manipulative, deceitful failure on the city council and got away with it. But petty maneuvers do not work for a mayor.

A broad, experienced, widely-connected group of civic-minded Oakland residents have launched a drive to recall mayor Quan. Already, the response is a torrent of Oakland residents asking, "Where do I sign?"

Mayor Quan must go!

Reader Comments

I am all for recalling Quan! She is such a wobbler on issues, and the only thing she is sincere about is asking homeowners for more money for the same services, etc. we are already paying for and not getting.

It is tragic that the young Marine veteran was critically injured – for heaven's sake Oakland needs leadership.