Toddler's Death is 'Sad Reality' Oakland Union Attributes to Defund the Police Movement

A California police union on Monday linked what it described as the "mounting homicide toll" in Oakland to the defund the police movement.

The Oakland Police Officers' Association (OPOA) said a recent mass shooting and the death of a toddler who suffered a fatal shooting were examples of the city's "sad reality" in a statement shared on its website.

"Oakland's sad reality has become back-to-back violent tragedies," OPOA President Barry Donelan said in the association's statement. "This reality was created by the "defund the police" majority on the city council, who have abandoned public safety in Oakland."

The OPOA cited the city's crime statistics, which were most recently updated through the first week of November. The statistics showed more than 5,500 violent crimes reported thus far in 2021—crimes that the Oakland Police Department said included homicide, aggravated assault, rape and robbery—119 of which were homicides. The number of homicides represents an uptick over those reported by this time last year.

The OPOA said the city's police department has 681 employees, which the association said is "the lowest since 2014." The OPOA attributed the city's "defunded and shrinking" police force to the Oakland City Council's earlier decision to freeze 55 current officer positions and to freeze 100 positions for 2022.

"Oakland's strained police officers continue to work hard, recovering firearm #1,000 for the year and striving to stem the violence despite being vilified and provided no support from Oakland's 'defund the police' majority city council," the association said.

The toddler the OPOA referred to in its statement has been identified as Jasper Wu, according to the San Francisco-based KRON 4. Investigators told local media outlets they believe the child, who was in a vehicle at the time he was shot, was caught in the crossfire during a shootout that occurred Saturday.

Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf said the toddler's death was "as heart-wrenching and as sickening as it gets" in a Monday tweet.

"As a mother and as a mayor, I'm devastated by the totality of human loss and trauma caused by gun violence in our society," she wrote, adding that anyone with information on the shooting was encouraged to contact the California Highway Patrol.

Donelan said in the OPOA's statement it was "no wonder" recent polling results released by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce found a majority of voters in Oakland do not view their city as safe.

The poll, which was conducted in late October with a 4 percent margin of error, said residents are more concerned about safety now than they were last year and are also "increasingly pessimistic" about the path Oakland is taking. The poll also found 51 percent of respondents want the city's number of police officers to increase, with 23 percent saying they would like to see the police force remain at its current size.

Newsweek reached out to the Oakland City Council for comment.