Burglars stole the work laptop of soft-on-crime Oakland district attorney Pamela Price while she was visiting a victims’ justice center on Friday afternoon.
The George Soros-backed district attorney waited an hour for police to show up and help her before giving up and filing a report online, according to a local ABC News reporter. The government computer was one of several items the unidentified thieves took from Price’s $90,000 taxpayer-funded SUV. Price’s bodyguard had parked outside the Alameda County Family Justice Center where the district attorney was attending an event.
The incident is the latest example of lawlessness in Oakland. Violent crime, robberies, and property destruction have surged since Price assumed office in early 2023 while the understaffed police force struggles to respond to calls for help. Throughout her tenure, she has declined to charge criminals with enhancements or to prosecute any minors as adults, regardless of the crime, and is pushing for shorter prison terms and probation sentencing.
A representative for Price and the Oakland Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Car break-ins are increasingly common in Oakland, where they are up more than 41 percent since 2019, while robberies are 30 percent higher. More than 100 people have been murdered in the city so far this year. Meanwhile, police dispatch times are slowing so much that some Oaklanders say they’ve quit calling 911 for help.
The crime spike prompted the local NAACP chapter to declare a public emergency. Police have urged Oakland residents to place bars in their windows and buy air horns to scare off burglars.
Price has responded to her constituents’ mounting frustrations by saying that her job has "no impact" on crime, as organizers collect signatures for a petition to recall her from office.
Price’s tenure has been marked by scandal and controversy. Earlier this year, she fired Oakland’s police chief—leaving the department without a leader. She petitioned a judge to grant a seven-year sentence to a teen linked to three murders, and has sought parole for the gang members who killed a toddler in a high-profile case.
Meanwhile, she has charged one of her strongest critics—a former Oakland prosecutor—with a misdemeanor, and gave her boyfriend a six-figure taxpayer-funded job within her department.