So last week I’m sitting in a small office in Oakland, probably in a not so good part of town, in a meeting with Impact Bay Area, a non-profit who teaches a unique form of self defense to women. It’s an organization I’m thinking of getting more involved in as I think it does some great work in the community.
As we’re talking through some tech stuff with respect to their website and digital operations, we hear a huge crash. We all whip our heads around and see some guy and some woman try to blow through this intersection at the same time and of course they hit.
Both cars don’t look too good and neither do the people…they are shaken but at least not too badly hurt.
This intersection is one of the worst around. It has 2 crossing streets and one that takes off at a diagonal. How are you supposed to know if someone is supposed to go and get to the diagonal road or not?
So then, we see a police car pull up, and then wow, fire trucks pull up, the paramedics are there, and 2 more police cars pull up.
Remember this is Oakland. Where no cops respond even to a car break-in. Or a traffic accident. They have more important things to deal with like drug killings and gang problems.
But here we are, with 3 cop cars and the whole fire department sitting outside our door. We’re all thinking what is up with this?
So a cop comes over and asks if anyone saw the accident. One of us did happen to look out the window when it happened so she gets picked to go outside to talk to the police.
She gets questioned and then comes back and tells us that the guy is the Chief of Police for Oakland!
Geez.
So if you see the Chief of Police of Oakland, and you live in Oakland, and you know your name is on the police report, and the police asks you who was at fault, and you want continued police support in case something happens to you…. what do you say when you see the Chief of Police in your city get into a car accident…?
Hmmm….