Oakland City Council member Carroll Fife says violent threats against her and other public officials are increasing.
To draw attention to the problem, Fife took to Twitter on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to publicize a series of horrific, hate-filled voicemails she has received, many of which use racist and violent language to demean and threaten her, a Black woman.
Fife framed her decision to publicize the messages as being directly inspired by Dr. King, ending her tweet thread with the closing line from a 1967 address: “We say to our nation tonight, we say to our Government, we even say to our FBI, we will not be harassed, we will not make a butchery of our conscience, we will not be intimidated and we will be heard.”
Fife added in an interview with KQED on Tuesday that she's continuing to fight for many of the same things King was, including racial and economic justice, and particularly the rights of poor people.
“And if we understand and deify [King] for those things, why don’t we understand that racist attacks in pursuit of those very same things are happening right here in the city of Oakland? And how progressive are we to allow these things to continue to happen?” she asked. “I’m asking folks to stand with me because what’s happening is unacceptable. I have children.”
Warning: Audio of the messages, playable in the following embedded tweets, contains explicit, violent, racist language.
Fife says these types of threats tend to increase when the city makes national headlines — particularly when Oakland is featured on Fox News. This time, she says, the timing appears to be linked to the tragic stabbing death of a 71-year-old postal worker and Oakland resident last week.
“The only reason I posted it is because it's gotten worse lately. Because this has been happening to me, honestly, pretty consistently since Moms 4 Housing,” she said, referring to the activist group she co-founded that gained national attention in 2019 after occupying a vacant Oakland home owned by an investment firm.
“We literally had death threats. People were saying that we need to be killed and shot and raped and all that stuff.”
She said in addition to threatening messages and videos, she's had dead animals and condoms left on her car.
Fife is not alone: Threats against public officials have been increasing in recent years, according to numerous studies. State Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco in the state capital and has been an outspoken advocate for gay and transgender rights, has been the subject of threats for years, including recent bomb threats.
Many of the attacks Fife publicized Monday blame her for Oakland’s crime and homelessness problems and claim she’s worked to “defund” the police (the Oakland police budget has actually increased in recent years).
Fife said it’s not just people calling from faraway states — she said the rhetoric of some local residents is troubling as well. She has received videos of people shooting guns and calling for people to arm themselves, she said.
“They whip up all of this frenzy, [saying,] ‘Carol is a criminal. She has relationships with thugs and her friends are the ones that are breaking into all of these homes. And she's allowing killers to get out of jail and go free. And we need to do something about it.’ I don't know how far that's going to go,” she said.
“I do recognize that these are some of the signs of, you know, unhinged activity that can lead to violence.”
Fife said she’s made several reports to the Oakland Police Department, and planned to make another one today. Late Tuesday, an OPD spokesperson confirmed to KQED that the department has been in contact with a Council member and a report has been filed, but would not release additional information citing an ongoing investigation.
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