Vice President Kamala Harris calls herself “a daughter of Oakland, California.”
She has also been eager to demonstrate her connection to the average American. In a recent interview with an ABC affiliate, she said, “I grew up as a middle-class kid … in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn. You know? And, um, and I was raised to believe and to know that all people deserve dignity.”
What the daughter of Oakland — who was born in the troubled city but raised in Berkeley — never mentions is that there is not much dignity in being beaten, robbed or killed.
CALIFORNIA DEMOCRAT DEFENDS KAMALA HARRIS’ ‘CONCRETE’ ECONOMIC POLICIES
Harris’s hometown consistently ranks as one of the most dangerous cities in America. Crime rose dramatically in the few years after the pandemic shutdowns. Though the early part of 2024 has seen improvements in rape, burglary and homicide, robberies have increased — and the overall level of violent crime has not declined.
Vice President Kamala Harris might claim her California roots, but she ignores the problems in her hometown of Oakland. FILE: Harris gets a warm welcome as she takes the stage at the 20th Quadrennial Convention of the Women’s Missionary Society of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church on Aug, 1, 2023, in Orlando, Florida. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
What has Harris done to help Oakland? At best, she has ignored the plight of residents; at worst, she has endangered them.
Throughout the COVID-19 years, Americans witnessed a wave of horrific attacks on the country’s Asian population, with the most wanton and hateful violence concentrated in urban areas, such as Oakland.
Time and again, video footage revealed the perpetrators to be Black. Far too often, the victims were vulnerable elderly immigrants. As the first Black and Asian vice president, Harris was uniquely situated to lead on this issue. She could have led conversations between Black and Asian communities to facilitate reconciliation and understanding.
As leaders such as former President Barack Obama condemned the ugly attacks against Asian Americans without noting the obvious racial context, she could have addressed Black communities and called specifically for an end to the proliferation of Black-on-Asian violence.
VideoIndeed, a national coalition of Asian-American organizations urged the White House to appoint Harris, a former California attorney general, to work with local and state law enforcement in order to strengthen police protection for Asian Americans in their communities.
Harris did none of the above.
Instead, she condemned former President Donald Trump for alleged race baiting. Never mind that Black-on-Asian violence was a regular occurrence, especially in California’s Bay Area, before and after Trump’s time in the White House. Unable to blame him today, the first Asian-American vice president simply ignores the ongoing heinous attacks.
Meanwhile, Americans who are black, brown, and every other color have reasons to fear as well.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, along with Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff on the Truman Balcony of the White House in Washington, DC, on Thursday, July 4, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In Oakland last year, the local NAACP branch called on elected leaders to declare a state of emergency over the city’s “intolerable public safety crisis.”
“African Americans are disproportionately hit the hardest by crime in East Oakland and other parts of the city,” said NAACP Oakland. “Failed leadership, including the movement to defund the police … and the proliferation of anti-police rhetoric have created a heyday for Oakland criminals. If there are no consequences for committing crime in Oakland, crime will continue to soar.”
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Where does the proud daughter of Oakland stand?
She advocated defunding the police. In the Minneapolis riots that followed the death of George Floyd in May 2020, she promoted a bail fund for rioters. Though she has denied this, her social media post is still on X, formerly Twitter. She also claimed a need to “reimagine public safety,” which again means defunding the police, and supporting the decision by then-mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, to slash police funding by $150 million.
Thanks to policies like those advocated by the most famous daughter of Oakland, residents of the city have found themselves with fewer police officers, more shootings, more crime and less safety.
Oaklanders have launched a campaign — led by the Black mother of a murder victim, and a Chinese-American public safety advocate — to recall Pamela Price, the district attorney of Alameda County, which encompasses Oakland. Price, who reimagines policing in precisely the ways favored by Harris, has been denounced by residents as caring more about criminals than their victims. Her office is accused of, among other things, working secretly to secure parole for murderers.
Where is Harris? Smirking on the presidential debate stage, obfuscating her dismal record as vice president, dodging the media and calling her opponent a racist.
If she becomes president, she will fail all Americans just as she has the residents of Oakland.
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Ying Ma, author of “Chinese Girl in the Ghetto,” is president of American Ideals PAC and Defend American Ideals.
