Opponents of Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price held a rally in Oakland Friday, just a week after they filed formal paperwork to try to remove her from office.
Family members, who have lost loved ones to violence in Alameda County, spoke at the rally and said Price has got to go.
They say her progressive policies are giving criminals a pass and leaving victims to suffer.
“These are the people you need to be standing behind because at any time you could be one of them,” said SAFE member and community activist Brenda Grisham. “Laws are laws. There is a judicial system. There are judges and juries, we need the powers that be hand down the sentence.”
Virginia Nishita, the wife of Kevin Nishita, a security guard who was shot and killed in 2021 said that despite several request she has yet to meet with price on her husband’s case. She worries prices sentencing reduction strategy will mean the suspects accused of killing her husband won’t face real justice.
“He lost his kidneys, he lost his liver, he lost his intestines, his colon, his lower spinal chord to three men that are repeat offenders,” she said.
Grisham is a member of “SAFE” which stands for “Safe Alameda for Everyone” the group pushing for the recall. She is accusing da price of intimidation after receiving a handwritten envelope with a letter from Price.
A spokesperson for Price’s campaign released a statement Friday, denying the accusation, saying the letter was simply the required response acknowledging the recall petition.
Grisham says the problem is the letter went to her home through what she says are unofficial channels- mailed differently than the same letter her colleague received. Her concerns come after Price’s campaign in an earlier letter, compared the then potential recall efforts to the January 6 insurrection.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
The Price campaign again denies this, saying they simply sent the letter to the address they were provided.
“I took it personal,” Grisham said. “Because I’m a mama, I got my kids and I got my grandkids. I took it personal because it was not a formal letter that I’m responding to a petition.”
Grisham is waiting until September to release the letter publicly marking the official start to the 160 days to secure nearly 90,000 signatures.
Price has only been on the job eight month in a letter this month, the Alameda County Democratic Party is urging voters to oppose the recall and support Price.
NBC Bay Area reached out to Price’s campaign for comment. They released the following statement on Friday:
"On August 15, 2023, the proponents of a Notice of Intention to Circulate Recall Petition filed the Notice with the Registrar of Voters and served the Notice as required by law on District Attorney Pamela Price. Ms. Grisham is a primary member of SAFE and her residential address is listed at the beginning of the public document.
Under California law, District Attorney Price had seven (7) days to file and serve an Answer to the Notice. Our campaign filed the Answer with the Registrar of Voters and served the Answer on Ms. Grisham at the address she provided in the Notice. The Answer is signed by District Attorney Price as required by law."
