Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee just got a firsthand look at the public safety philosophy she once applauded.
According to reports, a thief allegedly broke into her City Hall office, grabbed her keys, and drove off in a city-owned black SUV. Not from a curbside spot. Not from a dimly lit parking garage. 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 almost have to respect the symmetry. A taxpayer-funded vehicle taken from the mayor’s own office in a city 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 remarkable how quickly the traditional law enforcement model becomes essential when crime crosses the threshold of City Hall.
The timeline here matters.
Read More: Gavin Newsom Hears From the Woke-Ness Monster as Barbara Lee Erupts Over Feinstein Situation
In 2020, during the height of the defund movement, 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 movement was pushing. At the time, “defund” was not a misunderstood slogan. It was a demand to redirect resources away from police departments and shrink their footprint.
Lee embraced that energy.
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 traditional enforcement, and more faith in alternative approaches. It meant the old model was flawed and needed to be scaled back.
And she did not stop there.
“We can’t wait. It’s time to overhaul our policing system.”
Overhaul contemplates far more than a trim around the edges — it is a teardown. It assumes what exists is fundamentally broken and must be rebuilt from the ground up.
Oakland has been living inside that rebuild.
The city recorded 9,914 motor vehicle thefts in 2024. Its overall crime rate has run several times the national average. The police department has been operating roughly 280 officers short. Residents have not needed policy papers to explain the consequences. They have been double-checking their locks and hoping their cars are still where they left them.
Then crime stopped being a statistic and became a symbol.
It did not stay in the neighborhoods. It did not politely avoid elected officials. It allegedly walked into City Hall, went into the mayor’s office, took the keys to a city 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 should have to worry.
But Oakland residents have been worrying for years. Nearly 10,000 stolen vehicles in a single year tends to create that atmosphere.
When you call for an overhaul, you own the results. In this case, the results did not just show up in a crime report.
They showed up at City Hall and took the keys.
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