Oakland Mayor: The FBI Data About Oakland Being the Second Most Violent City in the U.S. ‘Are Not Correct Statistics’

SHARPTON: “You’ve recently marked 100 days in office. And while the changes you’ve made seem to have made impact, according to data from the FBI examining each city’s murder and property crime rates, Oakland still ranks among — as the second most dangerous place in the country, and police retention in the city has been a big problem for Oakland. The department says there are 300 officers short of what they need on the streets. Trump sending in the National Guard for 30 days doesn’t seem like it would bring long-lasting change to this situation. What would actually help, since you’ve already started bringing some things down?”
Lee: “Yes, Reverend, those statistics aren’t the correct statistics. When you look at the FBI report, Oakland in the scheme of things, is number 17 or number 18 on its list. And so there’s a lot of misinformation and disinformation about Oakland. And what would be helpful, of course, is funding our applications and our requests for more work with regard to our Department of Violence Prevention. We are trying to get to 700 police officers. We have a voter initiative that passed, that wanted and directed us to get to 700. We’re on that path. And yes, we are strained, our budget, of course, some jurisdictions are providing $75,000 signing bonus, but retention is extremely important. And so the support from the federal government for retention and for recruitment would be welcome. Also to help us invest more in our Department of Violence Prevention. But the crime rate is coming down even in spite of these challenges. So it’s all hands on deck. We’re working with our organizations to help recruit from inside of Oakland. We have many young people who are ready to go into the academies. We funded five new academies this year in our budget. We funded — if we have an issue, we don’t sweep our challenges under the rug with sideshows. And so we funded, finally, which was not in the budget before, an additional — a new investment in sideshow prevention. And so we’re moving forward in spite of our challenges. But we want people to understand that.”
SHARPTON: “With all this moving forward, you’re saying the White House and no one in the federal government has reached out to you to talk about how they could be of assistance.”