White People Stink, Part Eight Zillion

If you thought Philly's Larry Krasner was bad...............

Oakland is one of the most dangerous cities in America, as crime grows and any serious effort to contain it withers. As is often the case in our big cities, most of the victims are black. Some are white. According to the standards adopted by radical DA Pamela Price, the white ones need to be treated, ummmmmmmm, differently.

Hence I bring you this story by Heather Mac Donald, the country’s foremost thinker and writer about the intersection of crime and race. No one is more insightful, honest, or fearless. She took a look at what Oakland has become. “Cesspool” might not be exactly the right word, but…………

After “antiracist” consultant Karen Fleshman finished a training in Oakland, Calif., she took to Facebook to express pride in her work: “Great afternoon training Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s Victim Services team in ‘How to Serve White Victims.’ Madam DA Pamela Price is my shero [sic] and mentor. She is a lifelong warrior for justice with compassion.”

“Justice with compassion” is Wokespeak for, “We let criminals run wild, but that’s OK because the real problem is white supremacy, see, e.g., ‘1619,’ which is the only thing about Amerika that matters.”

The Victim Services Division consists of social workers who help crime victims obtain psychological and financial support. Ms. Fleshman’s PowerPoint slides reinforce the idea of dividing victims by race.

One PowerPoint panel lists the session’s “Key Takeaways.” Among them: “White people are not entitled to harm you”; “When interacting with white victims, speak up for yourself or for your coworkers”; and “If a white victim continues to harm you, ask that they be transferred.” The slide also asserts that “white victims are entitled to the same compassion and practices as all victims,” but the rest of the slide is at odds with that message. It’s unclear how white crime victims “harm” government employees. Another panel from the training asserts that “White Supremacy Culture” is characterized by “Perfectionism,” “Objectivity,” “Sense of Urgency” and “Individualism.” Perhaps it’s harmful to expect government employees to respond to crimes objectively and urgently.

Or respond at all, if we’re going to be perfectly blunt about it.

Still, as with Philadelphia’s Larry Krasner or LA’s George Gascon, the electorate knew or should have known what it was getting.

Ms. Price has already introduced racial considerations into the prosecution of criminal defendants. During her campaign, she promised to dismantle a discriminatory system that had disproportionately “stiffed” blacks with disproportionate rates of punishment. The late Rep. Ron Dellums, backing Ms. Price’s first run for district attorney in 2018, lauded her commitment to “end the racial disparity in prosecutions and mass incarceration of Black and Brown people.”

Here’s a handy tip: If Ron Dellums (or Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson or AOC) is urging you to vote for X, vote for Y. If Y has some problems, like being dead, vote for him anyway.

An April 14, 2023, “special directive” from the district attorney’s office creates a presumption that prosecutors will foreswear higher sentences for particularly egregious crimes if those higher sentences would “result in disparate racial impact.” If a white person uses a gun during a crime, or if a white gang member commits a robbery, he might face an enhanced sentence based on that gun use or gang membership. If the defendant is black, however, he will be charged at the lowest possible level to avoid “disparate racial impact.” Only if a prosecutor receives permission from his supervisor may he pursue a higher sentence for a black defendant. Other reasons for forswearing a so-called sentencing enhancement are if the crime was “connected” to “childhood trauma” or if a defendant’s prior felonies were committed while he was a juvenile.

What’s next? A “disparate gender impact” in which males, who are “disproportionately represented” in prison, get the easy touch treatment so that “prison looks like America”? Once we start down the path of justice-by-identity, there’s no principled place to stop.

Of course, “principled” is the key word there. When you're a black supremacist, as Ms. Price is, the stopping point may not be principled exactly, but it’s easy enough to figure out. It’s where the goodies run out for your Most Favored Identity Group. All the stuff about “disparate” this and “disparate” that is just code for the racist grab-bag. It’s the first cousin to the way “diversity” is used as code in college admissions to make sure whites, and Asians in particular, get sent to the back of the line while blacks get spots they didn’t earn (and will probably lead to their failure).

(Of course, as Heather points out, you can still shove your way ahead in the identity line, even if you’re white, as long as you’re good enough at whining about what a victim you are. Oh, OK. Question: How long does any sane person expect a culture built like this to survive?)

Ms. Price has announced that probation will be a prosecutor’s presumptive offer for all misdemeanors and for felonies that are statutorily eligible for probation. If a particular felony isn’t probation-eligible, prosecutors will charge the lowest possible term of confinement, unless a supervisor approves a higher charge.

And what are the results?

Crime in the county, which surged after George Floyd’s death, hasn’t relented. As of July, Oakland’s homicide count was up 80% over 2019, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Car break-ins were up nearly 90%, and assaults were up 40%.

The rampant destruction of civic life is what the Left calls “compassion.”

Ms. Price promised during the campaign to “decriminalize young people,” and she has stayed true to that pledge. After six boys and three girls, ages 12 to 17, were arrested in late May for three dozen robberies, five of the suspects were released without charge within three days. At a public meeting that same month, a woman in her 60s described a youth attack. “Two kids beat the s— of me in front of my house last Monday night,” she said. “Down on the pavement. Punching me, kicking me, dragging me through the street.”

It never occurs to liberals that young people might “decriminalize” themselves by acting as if they had at least a semblance of empathy, or if not that, could pretend to have learned just the rudiments of civilized life. But when we’ve spent generations teaching them that they are merely the passive vessels of adverse social forces, and therefore that only others and never themselves are responsible for their behavior, what were we expecting?

Heather’s essay continues, and every word is worth your attention depending, however, on how much gloom about the course of law and culture you feel you can tolerate at any one time.