An Oakland lawmaker who voted to defund the police was forced to call the police after her staff were reportedly attacked by gunmen in the crime-ridden city.
District 3 Councilwoman Carroll Fife, who voted to defund $17.4 million from police in 2021, expressed gratitude to Oakland police officers after saying three of her canvassers were assaulted.
Fife said the young canvassers were handing out campaign materials when armed men began chasing them.
“This campaign season is getting out of control,” Fife said in an Instagram video posted Wednesday night from the scene.
‘Three of my pollsters were attacked tonight; one was physically hit in the head with a gun for distributing my literature.
District 3 Councilwoman Carroll Fife, who voted to strip police of $17.4 million in 2021, expressed gratitude to Oakland police officers after three of her canvassers were assaulted.
Fife, center, celebrates the passage of his legislation to defund the police in Oakland in 2021.
‘The energies around people’s positions, the polarization, the lies have made people stumble here… it doesn’t make sense that a person would have pulled out a gun because he didn’t want pollsters…
“I am grateful that we had the immediate response from OPD to take up this report.”
The Fife campaign incident comes three years after Fife led the effort to remove $17.4 million from the Oakland police budget over two years.
However, shortly after the city council passed the bill, former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was forced to backtrack on the defunding plan when crime exploded in the city.
Oakland was one of several politically liberal cities that reversed commitments, made after the killing of George Floyd in May 2020, to defund the police following a rise in violent crime.
An Oakland-focused social media account has claimed that lifelong Oakland residents are fed up with Fife, whom they accuse of ignoring their complaints about crime.
One local man reportedly claimed he called Fife’s office 15 times this year to report “serious issues” but was unable to speak directly to the councillor.
Former Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf was forced to backtrack on the defunding plan when crime exploded in the city.
An Oakland-focused social media account has claimed that lifelong Oakland residents are fed up with Fife, whom they accuse of ignoring their complaints about crime.
“I live in her district, and while she loves to make campaign ads about ‘doing the real work’ for her ‘constituents,’ I can confirm she hasn’t done anything for us,” the local allegedly said.
Fife, a once-homeless housing activist, founded the group Moms for Housing to “reclaim housing for the community from the big banks and real estate speculators.”
However, the group’s co-founder, Misti Cross, has said that she “has not kept her word” and is a “habitual liar.”
“We don’t want it to continue failing us for four more years,” he said. “Enough about Fife.”
Oakland police told DailyMail.com on Friday that they are investigating the pistol-whipping incident involving Fine’s staff, which occurred around 7 p.m. Wednesday in the 200 block of Fairmount Avenue.
“The victim informed officers that she was walking with two other people when three suspects approached,” police said in a statement.
‘As the others continued, the victim was talking to the suspects when one of the suspects struck her with a firearm. The suspects then got into a vehicle and left the area in an unknown direction.
DailyMail.com has contacted the Fife campaign for comment on this story.