Now that it is clear that California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces a legitimate risk of being recalled in the state’s upcoming election, he has finally decided to do something about the state’s increasing crime rates.
Newsom announced this week that he has ordered California Highway Patrol officers to join the Oakland police department as back-up and assist local law enforcement in its efforts to crack down on a deadly surge of violence that has claimed 77 lives already this year.
The spike comes after Oakland’s city council voted in June to cut $18 million from the city’s police budget, even as other far-left cities have begun to reverse course on controversial calls to “defund the police.”
With municipal resources spread too thin, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf formalized a request for state highway patrol help on Tuesday, and she said Newsom was remarkably quick to respond.
“I am going to continue to look for every resource,” Schaaf said in a statement.
“I am going to continue to try and get adequate staffing in the Oakland police department, especially for investigations,” she continued. “But to bring traffic enforcement—which is the job of the California Highway Patrol—into Oakland is an appropriate request, and I am so grateful the Governor has granted it.”
Newsom also told reporters last week that he intended to do more to remove massive homeless encampments in California’s cities. Just last month, Newsom was inviting the nation’s entire homeless population to move to California.
Another sign that Newsom knows he’s in trouble: He launched into a profanity-laced tirade this week during an interview seeking the endorsement of some of the state’s leading newspapers.
“It would be nice if our homegrown team would be focusing on what’s right,” the embattled governor yelled, according to the Sacramento Bee. “Everybody outside this state is b****ing about this state.”
Newsom subsequently tried to regain his composure.
“Guys, forgive me, I know I am a little pointed today,” he said in the teleconference. “But I’ve been taking a lot from you folks for a lot of months.”
