An effort underway to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price maintains she has been too lenient on criminals.
Price, who campaigned on criminal justice reform, was elected last November after Nancy O’Malley decided not to seek reelection.
She has been under attack following choices her office has made in cases such as Delonzo Logwood, and for statements about the fatal highway shooting of Fremont toddler Jasper Wu.
Logwood was accused of killing three people. He will serve 12 years in prison for one count of voluntary manslaughter.
Price described the recall effort as coming from a Republican-backed group with local leaders who trying to unseat her “because they refuse to accept the results of a legitimate, democratic election to remove the status quo.”
Price likened the effort to the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, following President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
“The people handily elected her to implement criminal justice reform and make our system fair and balanced, rooting out racial, gender and economic disparities,” said a statement about Price emailed from an election campaign spokesperson.
Recall paperwork filed
Brenda Grisham, who lost her son to Oakland violence in 2010 and is part of the effort to recall Price, would not comment for the story Monday.
She confirmed that official papers have been filed with the Alameda County Registrar of Voters office. Grisham declined to speak for another week until a news conference occurs.
Grisham in the past has publicly said Price needs to be recalled for being too soft on crime.
“This is life and death,” Grisham said in an interview early this year.
A Change.org petition to recall Price has garnered more than 23,000 signatures since Feb. 12.
A statement then said, “Within the first month of office she has suspended a half-dozen experienced prosecutors, she sought a 15 year rather than life sentence for a killer, she refuses to prosecute the perpetrators of sideshows, and she is using taxpayers funds to upgrade the TVs in jails in Alameda County.”
“She is clearly soft on crime and not what the taxpayers in Alameda County need,” according to the petition.
“Going gentle on the hardest of crimes and criminals is cruel to the law-abiding citizens,” D. Wilson said Monday in the comment section of the petition.
Price ‘undeterred’
Price said the group behind the recall hired a Southern California law firm to file the paperwork to unseat her.
The paperwork was not available early Monday afternoon from the registrar of voters following repeated attempts to secure it.
“She remains undeterred by the undemocratic effort and will continue to focus on enacting the reforms county voters mandated.” Pamela Price campaign office statement
The filing will allow people behind the recall to raise money for the effort, Price said.
Price was in private practice for 40 years before becoming Alameda County’s District Attorney. She ran a corporate-free, grassroots campaign, she said.
“She remains undeterred by the undemocratic effort and will continue to focus on enacting the reforms county voters mandated,” Price said through her election campaign office.
Carl Chan, president of the Oakland Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, is also part of the recall effort. Like Grisham, he is saving his comments until the news conference, which had not been scheduled as of Monday afternoon.
