Message From Nancy Nadel to Oaklanders - "A sad day for Oakland"

Subject: A sad day for Oakland


Dear Oaklanders,

Last night at the city council meeting, the majority of the council voted to support a framework for a "violence prevention" measure that would raise taxes to fund at minimum $11 million worth of police (iMeasure R had $4 million), $4 million for fire protection in the hills and no clarity on real violence PREVENTION programs that we had framed in Measure R like mentors for youth, after school programs, stipends for training programs, wage supports or other employment programs for ex-offenders getting out of prison with no survival funds (Measure R had $4 million for social service programs and $2 million for employment programs).

This was an opportunity to move toward consensus and toward what the public showed it wanted in Measure R. Instead we heard scare tactics, we heard the beginning of the campaign sounding like they'd been taking lessons from Bush's PR firm - spreading fear and terror. They also refused to do a poll to see if their scheme would pass. The tactic is to flood the campaign with money from the police and fire unions as well as every other conservative pocket and force it down people's throats through a fear campaign.

The vote was 5-3 with Brunner, Brooks and Nadel voting "no."

Please spread the word in your circle to contact Councilmembers De La Fuente, Quan, Reid, Wan and Chang to voice your opposition to their plan. Let's not bring the federal war mentality home to Oakland. We still have time to change their minds. Please come to the June 29 council workshop when this will be discussed further. There were many more pro-only police voices heard last night on this issue.

Nancy Nadel

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[my addition of the contact info]

officeofthemayor [at] oaklandnet.com , idelafuente [at] oaklandnet.com, jbrunner [at] oaklandnet.com, dwan [at] oaklandnet.com, nnadel [at] oaklandnet.com, jquan [at] oaklandnet.com, lreid [at] oaklandnet.com, dbrooks [at] oaklandnet.com