Crime

OPD Chief Armstrong Meets with Pres. Biden About Federal Funding for Police

The announcement comes as rising violence has plagued many U.S. cities during the pandemic, including Oakland and a tendency for violence to rise in the summer.

Published

4 years ago

June 25, 2021

Christy Price

Oakland Police/Wikimedia Commons

Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong met virtually with U.S. President Joseph Biden for an announcement Wednesday about federal funding for violence reduction and violence intervention in the U.S.

The announcement comes as rising violence has plagued many U.S. cities during the pandemic, including Oakland and a tendency for violence to rise in the summer.

According to Biden’s office, homicides in large cities were up 30% year-over-year last year, and up 24% in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period a year ago.

Oakland has experienced 61 homicides this year alone, up about 90% compared to last year.

“I think it’s (the funding) a tremendous opportunity for the city of Oakland not only to increase its efforts to address gun violence in the city but also an effort to potentially increase police staffing as well as additional efforts for our violence intervention efforts,” Armstrong said to reporters after his meeting with the president.

“We feel like we are well-positioned as a department and as a city to compete for this funding,” Armstrong said.

He did not say how much money the department would seek.

Armstrong said the city’s Ceasefire strategy “covers all the aspects of the announcement today.”

Oakland’s Ceasefire strategy has been successful in the past at reducing gun violence in Oakland.

The strategy includes focused enforcement efforts, violence intervention, street outreach and using resources to address the re-entry of offenders into the community.

“We have a goal of reducing recidivism,” Armstrong said.

Biden on Wednesday addressed calls for defunding police departments, reportedly saying it’s not the time.

When asked about concerns residents might have about more police funding, Armstrong said, “Well, I think the message from the president is clear. I don’t think it’s time with the increase in violence that we’re seeing, even here in the city of Oakland.”

Sixty-one homicides this year “says we have a significant challenge in front of us,” Armstrong said. “It’s not the time to have less resources.”

Armstrong said he appreciates Biden “authorizing funding that will potentially increase resources because there is a great need.”

The demands for defunding police, Armstrong said, are centered around reform.

“I think people want to see better policing,” he said. “I think we’ve already begun to practice what I feel like is better and more constitutional policing in the city of Oakland.”

Christy Price

Posts by Christy Price

Up Next

A Haven of Peace offered to Stockton Women and Children

Don't Miss

Youth UpRising Serves Young People in East Oakland

Christy Price

Click to comment

Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

To enlarge your view of this issue, use the slider, magnifying glass icon or full page icon in the lower right corner of the browser window.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

1 week ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.