Is Mayor Dellums Running For Re-Election?
It sure seemed that way Monday night at Prescott Elementary School in West Oakland, where the Mayor presented the first of three programs “Mayor Dellums Introduces Oakland’s New Police Chief: Anthony Batts.”
You can get more information on Chief Batts’ presentation at Oakland North here. This was the first time I’d heard the Chief speak, and the one thing neither Oakland North nor anybody else had told me was this: the new Chief is an electrifying speaker, who absolutely owns the room. I strongly recommend going to hear him, either at one of the other “Mayor Dellums” events:
- November 9, Cesar Chavez Education Center (East Oakland), at 6:30 p.m.
- November 18, Tassafaronga Rec Center (East Oakland), at 6:30 p.m.
Or at the upcoming event at Montera Middle School (Montclair), November 12 at 7:00 p.m. I suspect that there will be many other opportunities as well, so watch for them.
But here was what really hit me between the eyes at this meeting: The first 45 minutes was clearly a Mayor Dellums political rally. In attendance were two city council members, two school board members, the new Superintendent of Schools, one clergy member, the city’s Public Safety Coordinator, two members of the mayor’s public safety task force, and at least five video cameras. There were reporters all over the place. We heard much about the Mayor’s vision for the city, about the much-vaunted task forces, about the 2/3 of those forces’ recommendations that had been adopted, and we heard the mayor’s repeated refrain, “The police can’t arrest our way to public safety.” (As Oakland North reports, Mayor Dellums and Chief Batts may not have the same vision in this regard: Chief Batts clearly plans to do some arresting to put an end to the killings that he believes should have every Oaklander outraged.)
As Oaklanders know, the declared candidates for mayor so far are Don Perata and Jean Quan. There were perhaps 100 – 120 in attendance at Monday night’s meeting, and the reception for Mayor Dellums was very warm. What happens if he decides to get serious about another four years?
----Bruce Nye
Is Mayor Dellums Running For Re-Election?
It sure seemed that way Monday night at Prescott Elementary School in West Oakland, where the Mayor presented the first of three programs “Mayor Dellums Introduces Oakland’s New Police Chief: Anthony Batts.”
You can get more information on Chief Batts’ presentation at Oakland North here. This was the first time I’d heard the Chief speak, and the one thing neither Oakland North nor anybody else had told me was this: the new Chief is an electrifying speaker, who absolutely owns the room. I strongly recommend going to hear him, either at one of the other “Mayor Dellums” events:
- November 9, Cesar Chavez Education Center (East Oakland), at 6:30 p.m.
- November 18, Tassafaronga Rec Center (East Oakland), at 6:30 p.m.
Or at the upcoming event at Montera Middle School (Montclair), November 12 at 7:00 p.m. I suspect that there will be many other opportunities as well, so watch for them.
But here was what really hit me between the eyes at this meeting: The first 45 minutes was clearly a Mayor Dellums political rally. In attendance were two city council members, two school board members, the new Superintendent of Schools, one clergy member, the city’s Public Safety Coordinator, two members of the mayor’s public safety task force, and at least five video cameras. There were reporters all over the place. We heard much about the Mayor’s vision for the city, about the much-vaunted task forces, about the 2/3 of those forces’ recommendations that had been adopted, and we heard the mayor’s repeated refrain, “The police can’t arrest our way to public safety.” (As Oakland North reports, Mayor Dellums and Chief Batts may not have the same vision in this regard: Chief Batts clearly plans to do some arresting to put an end to the killings that he believes should have every Oaklander outraged.)
As Oaklanders know, the declared candidates for mayor so far are Don Perata and Jean Quan. There were perhaps 100 – 120 in attendance at Monday night’s meeting, and the reception for Mayor Dellums was very warm. What happens if he decides to get serious about another four years?
----Bruce Nye