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OAKLAND — Oakland city officials announced legislation today intended to prevent President Trump from sending federal troops to the city — as he threatened to do last week in response to protests — amid heightened concern following Saturday’s demonstration, vandalism and fire to the Alameda County Courthouse.
The protest, which involved hundreds of people, showed solidarity with demonstrators in Portland, Oregon, and called for police reform before a handful of people vandalized several buildings and set the fire Saturday evening.
In response to the president’s threat, council members Dan Kalb and Noel Gallo and City Attorney Barbara Parker submitted a resolution that the Oakland City Council will consider at Tuesday’s meeting, directing Parker and the city administrator to take any and all lawful means to protect Oakland residents.
“Threatening to send camouflage-clad federal troops to Oakland to grab peaceful protesters and throw them into unmarked vehicles is a threat to the people of Oakland, and to freedom and democracy throughout our country,” Kalb said in a statement.
“We want to make it clear that the city of Oakland will not allow a threat to democracy,” Gallo said in a statement.
President Trump threatened July 20 to send federal law enforcement into Oakland, drawing a sharp response from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, who called it a “racist campaign tactic.”
The president said he could send federal agents to several cities across the country, including Oakland — which he called “a mess” — though it wasn’t immediately clear what his reasoning for sending such a response was. Federal police in Portland, Oregon., have clashed violently with protesters and whisking suspects away in unmarked vans.
“Vandalizing our downtown gives Donald Trump the images he wants and the justification he seeks to send federal troops into American cities. We can’t be fooled and play into his twisted campaign strategy,” Mayor Schaaf said in a statement Sunday.
City Attorney Parker said the resolution “is the latest salvo in the fight to protect the rights of the people from a brutish administration intent on destroying those rights — and destroying the rule of law.”
