Soros-backed Alameda County DA faces tough recall called ‘incompetent’ and ‘dangerous’

They were about to leave their home on 73rd Ave. and Fresno St. to leave church when they were two rival gangs started fighting nearby. One opened fire, then the other.

Grisham’s daughter was shot first. Her son, Christopher LeVell Jones, ran to the car to get his niece but was fatally struck by a bullet. He was 17 years old.

Since then, Grisham has become one of Oakland’s most vocal voices speaking out against violence and violence corruption as she seeks justice not only in the memory of her son, but for the hundreds of families who have lost loved ones on the crime-filled streets of Oakland. She has become an advocate for victims and their family members and has become a major thorn in their side Pamela Price, Alameda County District Attorney side.

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“My interactions with District Attorney Price, even in March, regarding the way she spoke to some of the families, were appalling,” Grisham told police. Washington Examiner. Grisham said Price waved away family members, saying she was too busy to listen to their concerns.

“She chose to disrespect those families in front of me, and then she attacked me and never apologized,” Grisham added. “I expected her to change course and apologize to the mothers, but that never happened. It just went on and on, and the disrespect continued.”

There is so much bad blood between Grisham and Price that Grisham’s name is the first in the recall against the new district attorney.

Like Grisham, business owners, residents and visitors to Oakland and other parts of Alameda County say they don’t feel safe in their community and blame Price. Most want her out of office.

Voters in Alameda County will have the power to do that Tuesday, when they vote on whether to recall Price.

The outcome marks a pivotal moment for the future of how criminal cases are prosecuted in liberal California. Washington Examiner as “a land of lawlessness” and “the new Detroit of the 80s” by resident Javier Jones.

“There is more dysfunction and corruption here,” Jones said. “It’s just like it used to be in Detroit. Price doesn’t know what she’s doing and has gone from inept to dangerous.”

Price is a former defense and civil rights attorney. She had never prosecuted a single case when she was elected to the prestigious position. During her campaign, she promised criminal justice reforms and a “new era in the district attorney” if elected. She got a big financial boost from the billionaire Democratic megadonor George Soros and Laurene Powell Jobs, widow of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, when she first ran for the job in 2018. She lost that race but ran again in 2022, defeating Terry Wiley, the county’s deputy district attorney.

Soros, who has funneled more than $5 million into his fundraising PAC, the Justice and Public Safety in Californiaturned off the money tap for Price and the Los Angeles County District Attorney from 2018 to 2020 George Gascon this election cycle. Both are deeply unpopular, facing recalls and in danger of being removed from office.

It would be a tough fall for Price, the first-ever Black woman to serve as Alameda County’s top prosecutor. When she was sworn in, she was very clear about her liberal agenda, and excitement began to build.

She pledged to overhaul the way the district attorney’s office conducted business, including banning the use of sentence enhancements, a tool prosecutors use to increase the sentence for a crime by adding time to a base sentence . She also sought to convict criminals given long prison sentences, end the practice of charging minors as adults and crack down on police misconduct.

Price said her leadership would ensure progressive justice for diverse and often disenfranchised communities. But less than a year after she took the oath of office, residents (fed up with her handling of crime) began the recall process.

The challenge to Price marks the second recall in two years of a liberal district attorney in the Bay Area. The first occurred in 2022 with the recall of San Francisco Attorney Chesa Boudin.

If Price’s recall is successful, it would be a blow to the kind of criminal justice reform championed by Price, Boudin and Soros. If Price is successful in defeating the recall, it would send a strong message that Alameda County voters are still behind the progressive agenda despite all the problems.

“I’m not in favor of recalls in general because I think it costs too much money and time, but Price has to go,” George Latvilla told the newspaper. Washington Examiner. Latvilla has lived in Oakland for 40 years and leadership, city services and crime have declined under Price.

Edward Escobar of Coalition for Community Engagement/Citizens United supports the recall. He said Price prioritizes the rights of criminals over victims and has shed her pledge to fight for minorities, especially among Oakland’s Asian American population, which has seen a surge in hate crimes.

“She talks about reforming the criminal justice system, but it is her version that is dysfunctional; it is defective,” he told the Washington Examiner. “She says, ‘Oh, the perpetrators are victims too.’ I’m sorry, but you don’t say that to real crime victims. I agree with her that criminals are victims of the socio-economic injustice that has occurred, but that is not her job. She tastes people like a social experiment.”

Escobar said he disagrees with Price’s willingness to drop the gun enhancement charge.

“Remember the expression ‘Buy a gun, go to jail’? Now it’s ‘Use a gun and hey – you might have more success and there are no consequences,'” Escobar said.

Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) has also done his part in the recall effort.

“Pamela Price has failed the people of the East Bay, and we unite to demand her recall from office,” said the California Democrat, who accused Price of being too lenient. “Police arrest and Price lets go.”

Price’s office has also been accused of missing filing deadlines for more than 1,000 felony cases that have been collecting dust on her desk. The San Francisco Chronicle, in his approval of the recall called her inaction a “stunning miscarriage of justice” that “left victims hanging and eliminated rehabilitation and accountability for offenders.”

In Price’s short time in power, she has been accused of punishing opponents, hiring allies with questionable credentials, including her own boyfriend, flouting disclosure laws, and demonstrating a level of incompetence that in his own class, according to those sources. who have been on the receiving end of her wrath, Grisham said. Price was recently accused of extorting money from a political rival.

Before she was sworn in, Price had never prosecuted a case. She promised voters she would be ready to hit the ground running on day one and boasted that she would hire a crack team with “proven track record of leading justice reform” to back her up.

Her team included Royl Roberts, a man who had passed the California bar just six months before being hired by Price. The other chief assistant she hired was Otis Bruce Jr., who was recruited by the Marin County Prosecutor’s Office while he was in jail. under research there. The results of that investigation revealed that he had demonstrated gender bias, made disparaging comments and often intimidated young women. Then there was Eric Lewis, a former deputy chief of the Oakland Police Department, who was given the option to retire or be fired in 2021. Price then hired her boyfriend, Antwon Cloirdas a senior program specialist, earning him a six-figure salary for a job that was never publicly advertised.

Price has pushed back on claims that she is unfit for office and has blamed the pressure to oust her on outside special interest groups and billionaires.

“Alameda County is not for sale,” she said, noting its progressive roots. “This is the home of Earl Warren and the Black Panther Party. We are Barbara Lee’s Democratic Party.”

Last week, she and about a hundred supporters held a rally outside the Alameda County Courthouse.

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“We are in the midst of resistance that is loud rather than massive,” she said, adding that the recall against her “amplifies people’s grief and pain” and aims to silence the voices of criminal justice reform advocates to bring.

Emeryville City Council Member Kalimah Priforce acknowledged that Price “does not have a uniform maximum sentence for every case approach,” but instead “seeks to address the root causes of crime.”