An Oakland lawmaker who supports defunding the police was forced to call cops after her staff was reportedly attacked by armed men in the crime-ridden city.
District 3 councilwoman Carroll Fife, who voted to strip $17.4 million from police in 2021, expressed her gratitude to Oakland cops after she said three of her canvassers were assaulted.
Fife said the young canvassers were handing out her campaign’s materials when armed men began chasing them.
‘This campaign season is getting out of control,’ Fife said on an Instagram video posted on Wednesday night from the scene.
‘Three of my canvassers were assaulted tonight – one, physically, [who] was hit in the the head with a gun for handing out my literature.
‘The energies around people’s positions, the polarization, the lies have got people out here tripping… it makes no sense that a person took out a gun because they didn’t want canvassers…
‘I’m grateful that we had the immediate response from the OPD to take this report.’
The Fife campaign incident comes three years after Fife led the push to take $17.4 million from the budget for police in Oakland over two years.
Shortly after the bill was passed by city council, however, former Oakland mayor Libby Schaaf was forced to walk back the defunding plan as crime exploded in the city.
Oakland was among several politically liberal cities reversing commitments, made in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, to defund the police following a surge in violent crime.
A Oakland-focused social media account has claimed that lifelong Oakland residents are fed up with Fife, whom they accuse of their ignoring their complaints about crime.
One local reportedly claimed they called Fife’s office 15 times this year to report ‘serious issues’ but has not been able to speak to the councilwoman directly.
‘I live in her district, and while she loves to make campaign commercials about ‘doing the real work’ for her ‘constituents,’ I can confirm she’s done nothing for us,’ the local reportedly said.
Fife, a housing activist who was once homeless, founded the group Moms for Housing to ‘reclaim housing for the community from the big banks and real estate speculators.’
However the group’s co-founder Misti Cross has said she ‘has not kept her word’ and is a ‘habitual liar.’
‘We do not want her to continue to fail us for four more years,’ she said. ‘Enough of Fife.’
Oakland police told DailyMail.com on Friday they are looking into the postil-whipping incident involving Fine’s staffers, which happened at about 7pm Wednesday in the 200 block of Fairmount Avenue.
‘The victim reported to officers they were walking with two others when three suspects approached,’ police said in a statement.
‘As the others continued, the victim was speaking to the suspects when one of the suspects hit the victim with a firearm. The suspects then got into a vehicle and left the area in an unknown direction.’
Police are asking that anyone with information on the incident to contact OPD’s Felony Assault Unit at (510) 238-3426.
Moreover, anyone with relevant videos or photos can sent them to [email protected].
DailyMail.com has reached out to Fife’s campaign for comment on this story.