Effort to recall Alameda County DA Pamela Price takes major step forward
OAKLAND -- The effort to oust Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price moved forward Tuesday afternoon as an organization filed the intent to recall paperwork and the needed signatures to officially begin the process.
The group calling for Price's recall is known as Save Alameda For Everyone or SAFE. It includes critics, activists and members of families who have been affected by her policies.
Seven months into her tenure, Price has already become a lightning rod in the heated conversation about criminal justice reform and public safety. She ran on a platform emphasizing restorative justice policies including reducing sentences for younger offenders, eliminating most sentencing enhancements and holding law enforcement accountable.
But critics say she's too lenient on violent criminals. District attorneys are an arm of law enforcement. Police officers arrest suspects, then it's up to district attorneys to decide which charges to file. The more serious the charges, the more jail time.
Price has faced criticism for how she chose to charge two high-profile murder cases. One was the shooting death of two-year old Jasper Wu, who was riding in a car with his parents when he was fatally shot in the head. The other case involved Blake Mohs, a loss prevention officer at a Pleasanton Home Depot who was shot and killed four months ago during an attempted shoplifting.
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In both cases, critics say Price's office is being too lenient by not adding additional charges to increase jail time.
"Pamela Price is directly choosing to charge properly in my son's case," said Lorie Mohs who was at the Alameda County registrar's office when the recall paperwork was filed.
Lorie is Blake Mohs' mother. She has been a driving force behind SAFE. She says DA Price is going easy on the female suspect in her son's case by not charging her with robbery or adding sentencing enhancements that would mean more jail time if she's convicted.
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"I think that she is really advocating more for the accused than she is the victims," said Mohs.
Families of victims believe Price has been pushing for the shortest possible sentences. In an interview with KPIX reporter Betty Yu last month, Price said she does not believe in adding sentence enhancements.
"Anytime that we can divert someone from the criminal justice system, that is a goal, because the criminal justice system has been shown to be racially biased," said Price in that previous interview.
Carl Chan, the president of Oakland's Chinatown Chamber, is also a founder of SAFE. He says Price's brand of reform just isn't working.
"When we are talking about reform, it does not mean it's a disruption. Reform means to make it better, but it's not making it better," he said.
During a press conference held immediately after the recall paperwork was filed, Chan was joined by Brenda Grisham, who lost her son to gun violence in 2010.
"I saw my son shot, in front of me, on my porch. And my daughter was shot as well. If you've never been through that, you can't tell us what goes on after you went through it. And you have to go through it again when you think you have justice, and you turn around and you walk in the store and see your son's killer in the store, because you didn't know that they were let out," said Grisham.
KPIX reached out to Price's campaign multiple times for comment on the recall effort, but no one ever responded to our requests.
Even though the paperwork for the recall was filed Tuesday, it doesn't mean the recall goes straight to the ballot. There is a lengthy process the SAFE group will have to complete. It starts once the county registrar approves the recall petition. Then SAFE can begin collecting signatures, which they estimate will be around the beginning of September.
The organization has 160 days to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in Alameda County, which is about 98,000 signatures. All of those signatures then have to be verified.
If they get enough verified signatures, only then will the recall make its way onto the ballot for voters to decide if Price should stay in office.