This is not for the Oakland Fire Department but rather MACRO that operates out of it…read more
This group is absolutely useless. Not only have I only ever seeing them getting coffee and hanging out, but even when a crisis arises that matches the exact description of what they should be responding to, according to their website, their coffee break keeps going uninterrupted. Here are a few examples:
A few years ago, an unhoused woman who was camping outside of my house snapped and got completely naked and began yelling and accosting people, even propositioning them. I called MACRO about it, only to be prompted to call OPD. I was baffled - as this seemed like the very call MACRO could, would, and absolutely should respond to; there was no violent crime being committed, no weapon. Merely an unfortunate unhoused person having a (further) mental break. Even on the police's end when I did call them at the behest of MACRO, they told me to call MACRO! I had to tell the dispatch that MACRO had already directed me to them. So not only does MACRO not know what they do, but neither does the other extensions of the very city government that funds and manages them.
I would like to say that this was an isolated incident but then a few weeks ago, an almost identical event happened; I was walking home from work along Grand and passed by another unhoused man, holding a bottle of liquor and walking with his pants down around his ankles, his junk visibly hanging below his shirt. Now, it's already bad enough that this city has gotten to a point where this is so normalized that I was going to just ignore it and go about my evening. Yet 20 meters away from where I passed this man, a two-person team from MACRO was standing around, coffee in hand, just hanging out in front of their official van. Frustrated, I walked up to them and pointed out their missed opportunity. Their response was "we're working on it". Okay - how?! How is standing around doing nothing equate to you "working on it"?! Did you give him a crisis number to call? Did you give him money for a room? Or did you just call the cops because you didn't know how to handle it or simply not feel like handling it? Neither answer is surprising or better than the other.
This wouldn't be so aggravating but this is just a another bullet point on the ever-growing litany of incompetencies, shirking, unaccountability, and plain apathy and self-serving that the Oakland City government operates on. The unhoused people, garbage, unmitigated crime aren't the issue; it's the general idiocy and/or corruption that permeates city hall from top-to-bottom or vice-versa to do anything about this. Whether it's holding criminals accountable and actually using taxpayer dollars to establish crime prevention programs, setting up helpful shelters and resources for the unhoused or food banks, etc., all this city personnel and administrators care about is promotions, pensions, and power. That's it. They got our money via taxes under the lies that they'll use it wisely. They're no better than the current inhabitants of the National Mall and White House. Yet their virtue signaling and performative progressive agenda would love to convince us otherwise. They're all liars and kleptocrats, including the derelicts who staff MACRO. We hope you enjoyed filing your taxes - no be complacent with getting nothing back.
