Barbara Lee Praised Defunding Police; Now Her SUV | Political News
Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee just obtained a firsthand look at the public security philosophy she once applauded.
According to experiences, a thief allegedly broke into her City Hall workplace, grabbed her keys, and drove off in a city-owned black SUV. Not from a curbside spot. Not from a dimly lit parking storage. From inside City Hall itself.
“Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s car was stolen — after a brazen thief broke into her City Hall office to abscond with the city-owned black SUV,” the Post reported.
You virtually have to respect the symmetry. A taxpayer-funded vehicle taken from the mayor’s own workplace in a metropolis that has spent years arguing it needed to “restructure” policing.
Police recovered the SUV within hours.
“The Oakland Police Department is investigating the theft of a city-owned vehicle. On February 17, 2026, OPD was notified that the vehicle was stolen from Oakland City Hall,” a spokesperson said.
“The vehicle was recovered within hours. OPD is following up on potential leads.”
It is outstanding how rapidly the normal law enforcement model turns into important when crime crosses the edge of City Hall.
The timeline right here issues.
Read More: Gavin Newsom Hears From the Woke-Ness Monster as Barbara Lee Erupts Over Feinstein Situation
In 2020, during the peak of the defund motion, Lee said she was “really proud” of the Minneapolis City Council’s pledge to defund the local police.
Really proud.
There was no distancing language. No caveats. No hesitation about the direction the motion was pushing. At the time, “defund” was not a misunderstood slogan. It was a demand to redirect sources away from police departments and shrink their footprint.
Lee embraced that power.
She later declared:
“We have to restructure our funding priorities in terms of how we make our communities safe.”
That was not a throwaway line. In the political climate of 2020, “restructure” meant fewer officers, less conventional enforcement, and more religion in different approaches. It meant the previous model was flawed and needed to be scaled back.
And she didn’t stop there.
“We can’t wait. It’s time to overhaul our policing system.”
Overhaul contemplates far more than a trim around the perimeters — it’s a teardown. It assumes what exists is essentially damaged and must be rebuilt from the ground up.
Oakland has been residing inside that rebuild.
The metropolis recorded 9,914 motor vehicle thefts in 2024. Its total crime charge has run a number of instances the national average. The police division has been working roughly 280 officers short. Residents haven’t needed coverage papers to clarify the results. They have been double-checking their locks and hoping their vehicles are still where they left them.
Then crime stopped being a statistic and grew to become a image.
It didn’t keep in the neighborhoods. It didn’t politely keep away from elected officers. It allegedly walked into City Hall, went into the mayor’s workplace, took the keys to a metropolis vehicle, and drove off.
After the theft, Lee said:
“No one in Oakland should have to worry about their car being stolen, whether they’re a resident, a city worker, or the Mayor. Public safety is a priority across our entire city.”
No one ought to have to fear.
But Oakland residents have been worrying for years. Nearly 10,000 stolen autos in a single yr tends to create that environment.
When you call for an overhaul, you own the outcomes. In this case, the outcomes didn’t just show up in a crime report.
They confirmed up at City Hall and took the keys.
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