Pres. Trump threatens to send National Guard to Oakland: Here's how city leaders are responding
"It is more than a threat.'"
WASHINGTON D.C. (KGO) -- President Donald Trump announced on Monday that he's placing Washington D.C.'s police department under federal control. And that he will deploy the National Guard as part of a crackdown on crime. He also mentioned Oakland as another city where the National Guard could be sent.
"We are not going to allow a military occupation of this city. That is what this president, Donald Trump, wants to do," says Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee.
Mayor Lee says Oakland is ready to fight back if President Trump follows through on sending the National Guard to Oakland.
"Then you have of course Baltimore and Oakland, we don't even mention that anymore. They are so far gone. We are not going to let that happen. We are not going to lose our cities over this," President Trump said on Monday.
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Mayor Lee says the Trump administration has not formally notified the city of sending in the National Guard. Still, one of her concerns is the president calling out Oakland despite a double-digit drop in violent crimes.
"No one in Oakland knows Donald Trump's playbook, like I do," Lee says, who served in Congress during President Trump's first term. "This is part of his effort to dismantle democracy, militarize cities, where people, which he doesn't recognize, understand or see."
On Tuesday, the Oakland branch of the NAACP held a special meeting to discuss the concern.
"As you know crime is down in Oakland and we are on the right track," says Cynthia Adams, President of the Oakland Branch of the NAACP.
Adams has concerns about having a military presence on the streets of Oakland.
"As African Americans, we have went through so much in the 1960s. All of our lives we have been through pure hell. And I do not want him to bring that to us again," explains Adams.
MORE: Oakland goes 25 days without a homicide in May, June as crime numbers drop
Retired Alameda County Superior Court Judge, Brenda Harbin-Forte, says there would be legal challenges to the proposal as well.
"And we see it for what it is. He just wants to be able to, ultimately, declare martial law and deprive citizens of our constitutional rights," suggests Harbin-Forte.
"Really pushing the envelope. This is the most active takeover of local law enforcement that we have ever seen in the history of the Unites States, what happened in Washington, D.C.," says David McCuan, professor of political science at Sonoma State University.
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McCuan says California is a target of the Trump administration. And that sending the National Guard to Los Angeles earlier this year is an important barometer of where the Trump administration is headed.
"It is more than a threat," says McCuan. "It showed a vulnerability about urban America and a threat that the Trump administration believes give it's a strong political advantage."
Oakland City Council Member Carrol Fife says Oakland does still need help. But instead of the National Guard, she says federal funding for local police would do more.
"$134 million spent on the National Guard presence in the city of Los Angeles. That didn't make anyone safer, and wasted lots and lots of money," says Fife. "We are looking for a nighttime metro unit in the downtown area. Fund that. We are looking for ambassadors throughout the entire city, particularly our business district. Fund that."
