The Alameda County Green Party recommends that citizens DO NOT sign the Price recall petition.
If this recall gets on the ballot,
we advise voting against it.
Pamela Price has been doing exactly what she proposed when she ran for office and she has been conducting herself in an ethical manner in the short time that she has been our district attorney.
The recall being called for has three unacceptable parts:
1 false accusations.
2 false promises.
3 partisan politics.
The narrative put forward by those supporting the recall is that DA Price is giving criminals a free pass, and thus encouraging the crime wave that we have been experiencing. They equate her abandonment of the practice of enhanced charges and asking for onerous sentencing as not charging criminals at all.
The idea that asking for reasonable charges and sentencing in the courtroom is the same as giving criminals a free pass is an opinion. Not a fact.
To accuse DA Price of NOT PROCECUTING crime is a false accusation.
If heavy handed policing and harsh sentencing were effective policies, we would not have the current crisis, because that is what our police and prosecutors have been doing for over three decades.
How is it that going back to the practices that got us here in the first place is somehow going to work this time? How is DA Price responsible for a crime rate that started long before she ever ran for office?
For many years now urban Alameda County, especially Oakland, has experienced a crime level that degrades the quality of our lives on a daily basis. Following the pandemic, the general public is experiencing an alarming crime upsurge in the form of aggressive, often armed, robberies.
There is no doubt that our law enforcement has not been effective enough for many years.
And there is also no doubt that some political actors exploit the legitimate fears that this crime wave produces in order to create a false sense of emergency. The situation is worse, but not new.
There are people involved in the recall who have a larger political agenda. They have every right to put forward their views and policies. The public has every right to know who they are and what they want.
Included among those who want us to be disgruntled with DA Price are losing political candidates, former city officials and interest groups from across the state and country. They should show us where their money is coming from and what they are up to. Part of the reason for the recall is resistance to holding police accountable. Another part of the backlash is against addressing racial abuse in law enforcement.
A very similar campaign was successful against the DA in San Francisco. It won the votes, and then never delivered on any of its crime reduction promises.
The Green Party advances that our goal should be the security and well-being of the whole community.
The crime problems in the United States are long established, entrenched and have no simple solutions. We are going to have to listen to many voices, including those supporting a recall now, and do many different things to get the people who commit these crimes to stop and find a place in the community.
Restorative justice has worked well in other places. In those places the various parts of government committed resources and worked hand-in-hand with one another. One thing that we need to be demanding of our myriad levels of local government is that they plan together and cooperate.
Trust and unity are needed for a serious crime reduction effort; that is a trust and unity that we do not have at present. Much of the recall support is a symptom of understandable public dissatisfaction and loss of faith in our elected leadership. But the recall effort as formulated is only going to divide the public more and further damage what little credibility local government has left.
Our advice to the voters is to not sign, and not vote for recall and instead to all be willing to work for, and pay for, the kinds of government actions known to bring us to a healthier level of public safety.
Alameda County Green Party
The Green Party of Alameda County 
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