by Charlotte Hazard
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is facing a recall in California based on citizens’ allegations of nepotism and being soft on crime.
Earlier this week, the local NBC affiliate reported that a group made up of Alameda residents called Save Alameda for Everyone (SAFE) submitted 127 signatures to officially file a notice of intent to recall Price.
Alameda County encompasses the cities of Oakland and Berkeley. The latest annual crime report from the Oakland Police Department showed a 10% leap in crime overall, while in Berkeley, property and violent crime in the city has surged to a 10-year high, Fox News reported, quoting Police Chief Jen Louis.
The Oakland NAACP has reportedly called for a declaration of a state of emergency due to the rise in crime and the seeming inability to deal with it. One local news outlet reported that “Between 2018 and 2022, the average time it took police to arrive after 911 received a call about a high-priority incident ballooned from 12.7 minutes to 19.1 minutes, more than a 50% increase.”
Price has 10 days to respond to the recall notice. After that, a committee has the ability to collect more than 90,000 legal signatures required to put the issue on a ballot.
Price’s office has not responded for comment at this time.
“We know that recalling a public official is a long and arduous process necessitating a large and sustained grassroots effort, however, we are resolved to remove Price from office, because our safety and that of our families is at stake,” the SAFE website reads.
Price is being accused of hiring her boyfriend in her office, not disclosing the relationship and giving him a six figure salary. Her critics have also accused her of being soft on crime.
Some of the members of SAFE are made up of family members of victims killed in the California county.
“I don’t want any family to suffer what we have suffered,” SAFE member and widow of a murder victim, Virginia Nishita said in an interview with a local NBC station. “I don’t want anyone to go through this. I don’t want anyone to struggle each day with the trauma.”
Nishita’s husband, Kevin Nishita, was a security guard who was killed in 2021.
“She has to change her ways and think about us, the victims,” Nishita continued. “We are the public. We are the people she needs to be protecting. That’s what the DA is supposed to be for. She is not the public defender.”
Another member of SAFE is Lorie Moh, the mother of a security guard who was shot and killed during a Home Depot theft.
Moh told NBC Bay Area that she fears Price will reduce the murderer’s sentence.
“She is only charging possession of a gun, she is not charging death and discharge,” she said. “This woman shot my child.”
Billionaire George Soros reportedly poured over $130,000 into the Alameda District Attorney race in support of Price, according to the East Bay Express and Newsmax. Politico noted that this is California’s third attempted recall of a reform-minded prosecutor in less than 18 months, including the successful ouster of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, another Soros-sponsored progressive. The failed recall effort was against Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón, another ward of Soros.
Nationwide, a dozen district attorneys heavily funded by billionaire Soros and related entities were removed from or left their posts within the last year, ABC affiliate KABC reported.
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Charlotte Hazard is a 2022 Liberty University alumni who graduated with a major in journalism and a minor in government.
