Crimes against people and property appear lately to be rising here in Oakland CA: everything from parcel thefts to vehicle break-ins, to burglaries, to robberies (smashed windows as victims are fueling their vehicles; assaults of pedestrians at gunpoint)…one wearies of sharing city limits with, by my intuitive estimate, a feral population of about 15% who would as soon rob as look at one.

It is greatly to be regretted that the American constabulary never understood that the powers of summary execution implicitly granted to them back when America was Great—before, that is, it summoned forth an extraconstitutional despot to make it Great Again—needed to be exercised with far more discretion once video recording, and the means of its mass dissemination, became accessible to the Teeming Millions. Alas, some egregious footage made the rounds; “black lives matter” became a thing, and a certain demographic was accordingly emboldened—and the cops stood back, shrugged and said, in effect, “serves you right, you fucking bleeding hearts.”

I sense a sea change here in Oakland. Our former DA, who entertained a pretty elastic belief in the virtue of the criminal defendants who came under her review—several instances of “catch and release” her office signed off on made the news, sometimes only days following a subsequent spectacular trespass upon public safety and order—was recalled by a large margin last year.

Never—well, not back in the day—thought I’d sign on to a “law and order” programme, but I must observe that the shiny coat of white liberal guilt with which I arrived in Oakland almost forty-eight years ago has been quite abraded by experiences and events. An acquaintance of my approximate vintage having been robbed and beaten earlier in the year, I am reconsidering an earlier impulse to rid myself of Lina’s revolver, and think that perhaps I will apply for a costly “concealed carry” permit. One has the sense that civil society ain’t getting more “civil” in the coming years.

charily,