By Micah Yip
Dozens of Chinatown activists joined Oakland, CA Mayor Sheng Thao at a press conference on Tuesday, rallying in opposition to the recall campaign against her.
Representatives from the Asian American Progressive Organization, the Toisan Association and Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) Action voiced their support of Mayor Thao from behind the podium.
“We need a strong leader. We need bold leadership, a leader who is not afraid to make change and not afraid to make tough decisions,” APEN Action organizational director Kenneth Tang said. “We support Mayor Thao.”
Since taking office in January 2023, Mayor Sheng Thao has faced mounting public criticism, starting with her decision to fire Oakland Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong just one month into her term. Additional grievances have followed, including the city’s rising crime rates, the loss of the Oakland A’s and missing the deadline to apply for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s retail theft prevention grant. The controversy deepened when the FBI raided her home on June 20, though the reasons for the raid remain unclear.
“We inherited so many issues,” Thao said in her speech, referring to when she first took office. “We inherited an Oakland with high crimes. We inherited a dirty Oakland. We inherited an Oakland with demoralized city staff. We inherited an Oakland with a huge historical [budget] deficit because of the pandemic. These are unprecedented times.”
Thao said that despite all of this, the city has since seen less crime, and that Oakland is “headed on the right track.”
During the press conference, a handful of protesters occasionally shouted at the speakers, voicing their disappointment in Thao’s leadership.
One of the protesters, real estate agent Francisco Acosta, said he decided to join the protest as a concerned citizen.
“[Thao] has impacted me a lot. I don’t feel safe in my home anymore,” Acosta said. “And the uncertainty of what’s coming, it’s even greater because…she fired the police chief just on rumors, and when his name was cleared out, she didn’t hire him back. We went over a year without a police chief.”
In her remarks, Thao addressed her decision to fire the former police chief.
“Yes, I had to fire leaders that I inherited that were not doing the job. And I stand by that because I care about Oakland.” Thao said. “I will always put Oakland at the forefront, even if that means that it is not a popular idea within a certain small community.”
Carl Chan, a local Asian community leader, supports the mayoral recall for several reasons, including in opposition to the mayor’s dismissal of former Police Chief Armstrong.
Chan said that in response to the surge in hate crimes against the AAPI community in 2020-21, Armstrong promised the Asian community that he would allocate more resources to fight the anti-Asian attacks. Chan said Armstrong delivered on his promise by stationing more police officers in Chinatown, which he believes led to a decline in crime.
“But unfortunately, when [Armstrong] was fired, the mayor…[started] to take all these resources away,” Chan said. “And then we are back to the point that we have more attacks…Our seniors again are afraid to walk down the street.”
Chan expressed disappointment over the growing division within the Oakland community and emphasized that if the recall succeeds, the next mayor must focus on uniting the city rather than deepening the divide.
As a leader in Oakland’s Asian community, it’s not easy for Chan to pursue the recall effort.
“It’s difficult for me to recall an Asian mayor,” Chan said. “I hate to do this, but I think it’s the right thing to do.”
With less than three weeks until Election Day, Thao has a challenge for those calling for her ousting:
“Look, if you’re upset and you want to run against me, run against me in 2026 when I’m up for reelection,” she said.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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