(Abdul–Rahman Oladimeji Bello, Headline USA) Hundreds of angry Oakland, California, residents recently stormed a town-hall meeting, demanding answers and actions regarding the crime rate in the city.
Democrat council member Dan Kalb called the town hall, alongside the Oakland Police Department and the Department of Violence Prevention, to discuss the surging crime rate across the city, the Daily Wire reported.
While the city—which lies across the bay from San Francisco—already had a crime rate nearly four times the national average as of 2021, violent crimes surged by an additional 8% this year, according to police data.
A North Oakland resident in her 50s said she was recently mugged outside her houseby youths who appeared to be targeting vulnerable females.
“It’s all women” being attacked, she said.
“Two kids beat the s*** [out] of me in front of my house last Monday night,” she continued. “Down on the pavement. Punching me, kicking me, dragging me through the street.”
Sighting the kids, she thought they needed her help. However, a teenage boy body-slammed her as she went to help, and his female partner then joined in on the attack.
Fortunately, she was able to fend off the assailants by screaming.
“They did not get my purse,” she said. “I have lungs. And my neighbors heard me, and they came out.”
However, she added, other elderly women risked joining the growing statistics of crime victims.
“I’m almost 60 years old,” she said. “I’m one of the old women that just got taken down. And it’s happening everywhere.”
A 63-year-old woman also reported a similar event that happened in broad daylight outside a shopping mall in one of Oakland’s safest areas, the Rockbridge neighborhood.
At the town hall, Adam Stemmler, who runs a pizzeria in Oakland, said the attackers had held his staff at gunpoint and had broken into his shop multiple times.
As he has seen little to no effort from the government to curb these attacks over the years, Stemmler accused the government of “encouraging this type of behavior.”
Other residents also pointed fingers at Kalb, saying the leftist council member turned a blind eye to the attacks.
Sue Saito, a 25-year-old resident, noted that a group of nine troublemaking juveniles had even lived in an RV outside Kalb’s home, the Berkeley Scanner reported.
Nonetheless, she said the local lawmaker had turned a blind eye to the situation in his own front yard.
“I don’t think you did know, Dan, because you never opened your f**king blinds,” Saito said.
“How do you lead a city when you don’t look out your window?” she continued. “We were so stuck, and you did nothing to help us, and they were right under your nose. Open your blinds, Dan. Look out your windows.”
Other cities in California have held similar meetings on crime in the past few months as residents continue to cry for help as they no longer feel safe living in the state.
