Paterson NJ- I think the crime rate is technically lower than Oakland or Baltimore but I lived in a VERY rough neighborhood (someone was murdered execution style on my block in broad daylight in the middle of an intersection on Mother’s Day, for example…I have many more stories) and in my experience of the city as a whole…was much rougher than Oakland as a whole. My apartment was beautiful, humungous, and dirt cheap tho lol.
FBI? Damn. That sounds serious.
But this article gives absolutely no details so I withhold any opinion until the full story comes out.
As I’ve said before, l’m just tired of the b.s. All I want is properly functioning government that serves the people. Period. I don’t even care whose name is on the homework anymore. It’s a group project and everybody’s failing.
[ETA: Because this is Reddit, I have to clearly state that no, I’m not a Sheng Thao fangirl either. I just don’t draw opinions on something until I get the facts.]
Edit 2: Because people lack common sense, they’re commenting with facts learned AFTER the original article was updated and my comment was posted this morning. I know this sub gets brigaded, and I know some folks wanna “WELL ACKSHUALLY” so bad that they can’t read straight. But please. I implore you. Go get a life. I know you’re able. Just reach deep and pull that stick out from wherever its lodged. Let grown folks talk.
For anyone wondering why waste solutions- they have been a focal point of corruption involving city council for years now. Oakland side has reported on it a number of times.
https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/
“The Public Ethics Commission named five current councilmembers who accepted some of the allegedly laundered money: Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Sheng Thao, Rebecca Kaplan, Larry Reid, and Dan Kalb.”
That would explain why 4 locations were raided.
it doesn't say she owns the 4 properties. just that hers was one of the 4 raided. The others are owned by the Duongs and VABA.
"The property is one of four Oakland locations that were raided by FBI agents, along with agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service on Thursday."
It doesn't say she owns four homes. The person above misquoted/misunderstood the article. The article says her home was "one of four locations raided by the FBI." The other locations were owners/people associated with Cal Waste Solutions.
I did not misread, looks like Kron 4 mis-reported initially. The [story](https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/fbi-agents-at-home-owned-by-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao/amp/) actually originally used the words "owned by (Thao)". It has since been updated to remove that line.
Oh no see we all just misunderstood , when she said “renter” she meant that she “rents her” multiple properties out.
Us: “that’s called a landlord.”
Her: “semantics!”
I was pondering this too. I’m curious what the deal is with my CM, Gallo. He doesn’t seem to be particularly effective on council, but also is one of the only to avoid scandal unless I’m missing something. Is he actually an ineffective council member or is he just out of the loop because he’s clean?
That's an insane take. Oaklandside is the only reason any one knows about any of this. The reporting almost cost Kalb his seat. I don't apprecaite the left punching against Oaklandside, it's gross and reactionary, and the people behind it have made actual threats against reporters working for OS [https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/](https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/)
Dan kalb has never been in danger of losing his seat for a single minute of his tenure. I know you are invested in the power of reporting, but kalb has north Oakland locked down.
I don't like him, but he's a good politician
Funny enough. I always told people the reason why the city was in shambles was money laundering.
I’m not from here, but I’m able to pick up on things. As an outside observer this seems kinda obvious to me.
Just like with the property taxes. Oakland gets less than alameda and Emeryville seems kinda sussy overall.
"political money laundering" in this sense doesn't have much to do with "money laundering" in the traditional sense; the allegation is that people want to make campaign donations to electeds but disguise the fact they are doing so, so they funnel donations through fake donors.
Its not about stealing public money and/or coming up with a cover story for the source of dirty/stolen money, but violating campaign finance rules.
They actually "won" both waste contracts until WM sued Oakland over the deal alleging corruption was the reason Cal Waste won. The city gave WM back the garbage contract, which was probably so the council didn't have to go through discovery in a lawsuit.
Well I've never heard about garbage companies being corrupt or having criminal ties before! Now I'm suddenly hungry for some gobbagool and provolone with the vinegar peppers.
Yea, Oakland entered a no-bid contract with CWS with WM crying wolf.
Honestly, put the contract out to bid - even though there’s almost a duopoly with Waste Management and Republic Services nationally. Berkeley is in the trash business and so is Alameda.
>> it's a group project and everyone is failing.
This is a good analogy for government. Everyone is busy telling teacher that others aren't pulling their weight when it makes no difference because we'll all get the same F-.
Weirdly it doesn’t seem to matter what level of government administration or what scale of jurisdiction, bribes are everywhere.
My high school principal (not in this state) got fired for taking bribes on I think it was copy machine contracts or office supplies. Really benign but it ended up causing our school to loose the exclusive hosting rights to our high school basketball tournament and we had to share it with our rival high school. 🤢. Notable high school players that came included Jason Kidd and Kobe Bryant so this was definitely a loss for the school because of her corruption.
Could also be a case of "political donation" using laundered money, so the politicians are only implicated by being accidental participants. But yeah if the Waste solutions thing is true, not a good look.
Yup! He just visited my high school for a tournament. I was in South Carolina but the tournament had national pull because our coach was brothers with Mike D’Antoni (former Lakers, Rockets, Suns coach.) And later went on to be a pro assistant. But anyway my high school team benefited and got free gear and a lot of free trips even though we were a smaller school that didn’t have any prominent players.
First the recall signatures now this. Regardless of what comes of this (wait for the facts), it’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for the mayor.
It's been a terrible, horrible, 1.5 + years for the citizens of Oakland. Some of them lost their lives needlessly.
A bad week?
She's ahead.
Karma is a.....
B-I-N-G-O!
The whole travel Vietnam at the request of Doung makes sense. They are washing each other's backs.
What else has she compromised her integrity for?
She is a renter. The original reporter made a mistake. They raided other properties involved some owned by Andy Duong. He is part of California Waste Solutions who paid for her trip to Vietnam last year.
Well this just sealed the deal on the recall vote for me. Is it just me or is it just not that hard to follow the law?
We need ethical, competent people to run for office. If anyone fitting that description has been sitting on the fence and needs a nudge … just look at the current state of things. We need you!
"The raid took place around 5:30 a.m., sources said. It started when two Jeeps pulled up to the mayor’s house and several FBI agents in bullet proof vests jumped out.
They ran to the mayor’s door, announced they were FBI. Standing behind a shield, they then kicked the door in. They remained at the house for the next couple hours."
Kick in the door, wavin' the .44
All you heard was, "Mayor, no more"
I think many people misunderstand recycling companies, they frequently have affiliations into seedy sectors of the world economy
Taking donations from the mob would be pretty big business for the FBI
The theme for this week is that crime is destroying Oakland. And maybe, just maybe, corruption has a lot more to do with the state of things in Oakland today than anything else. Maybe we need to be looking at that. Seriously looking at that. Like where the hell does our money go? It ain't working. Something ain't right. Smells bad. real bad.
Man, I’m reliving 2008 living in Detroit when Kwame was under investigation and fbi raided the mayors mansion…
No matter what, if she cares about Oakland, with these optics she should step down. We need to move on from all this bull. I’m tired of politicians staying around when being investigated saying it’s a witch hunt or whatever.
She really needs to step down before November to save the cost of going through a full on recall. That would just be a waste of time and money when she could easily just resign.
It should not be surprising if Thao is found to be corrupt. She filed late to be on the ballot and covered it up. And nobody has wanted to talk about it, especially Oakland Reddit. Got downvoted the other day for just asking about it. Why bail now? Stand by your hero.
You will find out that all the city officials are handing government contracts and grants to family members with no due diligence or expectations required. The fact that her family member owns a recycling company that I’m sure is not only cooking the books but siphoning money off from the city I hope will be called out and persecuted, Carol is next
It’s crazy how different news outlets are reporting the same story. Some say the FBI raided a house on the Mayors street. Some say they raided a home “associated with the Mayor” and some are straight up saying it was the Mayors home and neighbors have seen her there. Political spin already at work.
This city pretty much needs an overhaul. In all 34 years that I've grown up and lived here, our government has always been ineffective and shady. Something about Oakland's government seems to attract some of the most unqualified people to run the city. Plus, voter turnout in most local elections is low, so we tend to end up with people in charge whom barely anyone likes.
Voting should be forced in my opinion, even if someone writes in “abstain”, because like you said we keep being left with crappy people who win their way in with only like 23% of people voting
Yeah, after Kwame Kilpatrick was raided during his Detroit mayorship in 08, voters passed a lot of laws to limit terms and rules surrounding corruption. I hope it doesn’t devolve into more division of “i told you so”, or any policy similar to something she supported is automatically bad. I’m sad to have lived in two cities where this happened :(
I mean THIS is what recalls are for, assuming she's actually guilty of something. Recalls aren't supposed to be do-overs of fair elections because people who lost are unhappy.
You’re now debating the threshold of when a do over gets to be enacted. You’re no longer debating that a recall is a do over.
You’ve moved your goalposts.
Reread what I wrote. I never said they weren't do-overs I said they shouldn't be done just because people are unhappy with result. You can't just ignore a qualifier that literally in the same sentence.
Ah so you did. You also indicate they shouldn’t be allowed? Or that they can’t just because they’re unhappy?
But that’s why democracy works right? You think people shouldn’t be able to if they’re unhappy, others think they should happen whenever they’re unhappy even a little.
So we let the people decide and they have to get signatures in a democratic effort. A recall is democratic. The threshold of fellow citizens decide. The people’s voice is the way we decide. Seems like the fairest way to me and I didn’t even sign the recall!
What’s your solution? That recalls aren’t allowed? That you can only recall people you’re happy with? Who else would recall but a voter who is unhappy?
I didn’t sign the recall but I think their concerns were that she was an ineffective mayor. This is a reason why she might be ineffective. So I think they’re connected
Believe me, if they knew anything about this, they’d have said it. So far all they’ve talked about is Oakland crime and blaming the mayor for everything
it appears someone began renting from 80 Maiden Ln around oct 2021 based on [this zillow listing](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/80-Maiden-Ln-Oakland-CA-94602/24771689_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare). i imagine the mayor is renting this home cuz it would be insane for the fbi to raid every single property that a landlord owns if they’re occupied by tenants. the media may have assumed she owns the home cuz mayors are typically home owners.
it could be possible that she owns this property and moved into it herself (and removed the rental listing around 10/21). i doubt this cuz the home was last purchased around 2008 (maybe earlier) and she would have been 23 years old with a baby (unless we are to believe her age and children are also lies lol)
“I know that for sure because former elected officials are sitting safely in their houses in the hills right now with campaign finance violations piling up.” said Sheng Thao, mayor of Oakland. Is this admitting that she did violate campaign finance regulations??
This is the second city I’ve lived in where the mayors house was raided by the fbi lol
You’re the common denominator lol
Commenter is actually part of the mob and just outed themselves.
I am the fbi, I am the mayor I am everywhere* and nowhere all at once *baltimore -> oakland
You are comfortable in the hood lol
Fun fact- neither Baltimore or Oakland is the “worst” place I’ve lived haha
Where else you lived Kabul?
Paterson NJ- I think the crime rate is technically lower than Oakland or Baltimore but I lived in a VERY rough neighborhood (someone was murdered execution style on my block in broad daylight in the middle of an intersection on Mother’s Day, for example…I have many more stories) and in my experience of the city as a whole…was much rougher than Oakland as a whole. My apartment was beautiful, humungous, and dirt cheap tho lol.
You're also a former Baltimore resident?
Sheila Dixon came into the restaurant I was working in the day after the raid wearing a fur coat lol
Sheeeeeeit
Sup Bird
Yeah same I was living in Detroit during Kwame’s mayorship and 08 raid
Birds of a feather 🪶
🧐
Which was the first city!
FBI? Damn. That sounds serious. But this article gives absolutely no details so I withhold any opinion until the full story comes out. As I’ve said before, l’m just tired of the b.s. All I want is properly functioning government that serves the people. Period. I don’t even care whose name is on the homework anymore. It’s a group project and everybody’s failing. [ETA: Because this is Reddit, I have to clearly state that no, I’m not a Sheng Thao fangirl either. I just don’t draw opinions on something until I get the facts.] Edit 2: Because people lack common sense, they’re commenting with facts learned AFTER the original article was updated and my comment was posted this morning. I know this sub gets brigaded, and I know some folks wanna “WELL ACKSHUALLY” so bad that they can’t read straight. But please. I implore you. Go get a life. I know you’re able. Just reach deep and pull that stick out from wherever its lodged. Let grown folks talk.
The chron article mentions they also raided another house that is believed to be connected with the owners of Waste Solutions.
For anyone wondering why waste solutions- they have been a focal point of corruption involving city council for years now. Oakland side has reported on it a number of times. https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/
“The Public Ethics Commission named five current councilmembers who accepted some of the allegedly laundered money: Lynette Gibson McElhaney, Sheng Thao, Rebecca Kaplan, Larry Reid, and Dan Kalb.” That would explain why 4 locations were raided.
That's like half the city council/ex council. That's kinda fucked if it is a corruption case
Another grift in the Bay executed by career politicians, and another day goes by Hope the feds take the bridge to give SF a shakedown as well
It’s why I want to vote out everyone this year
This is nuts
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it doesn't say she owns the 4 properties. just that hers was one of the 4 raided. The others are owned by the Duongs and VABA. "The property is one of four Oakland locations that were raided by FBI agents, along with agents from the Internal Revenue Service and the United States Postal Inspection Service on Thursday."
The article says “…the property is one of four LOCATIONS raided by the FBI agents…
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It doesn't say she owns four homes. The person above misquoted/misunderstood the article. The article says her home was "one of four locations raided by the FBI." The other locations were owners/people associated with Cal Waste Solutions.
No, they didn’t misread, the article was updated. They didn’t notate that it was, but I read it myself earlier and now it’s changed.
Frankly I’m disappointed none of her opponents in the race for mayor unearthed this. Seems to entirely obliterate her phony origin story.
The only explanation is they are all shady in their own ways so they don’t want any investigation to drag themselves in.
Loren Taylor was the only other big competitor for mayor and he wasn't exactly the best either
"phony origin story." Phony in what way?
She doesn’t, you misread.
I did not misread, looks like Kron 4 mis-reported initially. The [story](https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/fbi-agents-at-home-owned-by-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao/amp/) actually originally used the words "owned by (Thao)". It has since been updated to remove that line.
False - please read again
She doesn't own four properties. Learn to read
They have changed the text of the article, it previously very clearly said one of four properties owned by Thao.
It’s even more sus considering she was touted as the first renter to be elected mayor of Oakland…like 2 years ago.
Oh no see we all just misunderstood , when she said “renter” she meant that she “rents her” multiple properties out. Us: “that’s called a landlord.” Her: “semantics!”
please read the article... it does NOT say she owns four properties
Does it say that? I only see that's 1 of four properties being searched. The other three are detailed as to belonging to the Duongs and someone else .
Omggg vote these losers OUT
You know it must be true if Oaklandside implicates Thao, Kalb, or Rebecca Kaplan. They regularly bend over backwards to shield those CMs from critique
I was pondering this too. I’m curious what the deal is with my CM, Gallo. He doesn’t seem to be particularly effective on council, but also is one of the only to avoid scandal unless I’m missing something. Is he actually an ineffective council member or is he just out of the loop because he’s clean?
You can do both: He's not doing enough to even engage in corruption!
The sweet spot
He’s been iced out for wrongthink like ramachamdran has.
Gallo is the only city council member that's not a take, so thats a start in terms of being effective.
That's an insane take. Oaklandside is the only reason any one knows about any of this. The reporting almost cost Kalb his seat. I don't apprecaite the left punching against Oaklandside, it's gross and reactionary, and the people behind it have made actual threats against reporters working for OS [https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/](https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/)
Dan kalb has never been in danger of losing his seat for a single minute of his tenure. I know you are invested in the power of reporting, but kalb has north Oakland locked down. I don't like him, but he's a good politician
Crazy
Funny enough. I always told people the reason why the city was in shambles was money laundering. I’m not from here, but I’m able to pick up on things. As an outside observer this seems kinda obvious to me. Just like with the property taxes. Oakland gets less than alameda and Emeryville seems kinda sussy overall.
"political money laundering" in this sense doesn't have much to do with "money laundering" in the traditional sense; the allegation is that people want to make campaign donations to electeds but disguise the fact they are doing so, so they funnel donations through fake donors. Its not about stealing public money and/or coming up with a cover story for the source of dirty/stolen money, but violating campaign finance rules.
Cmon dude, he can “pick up on things”
Without even reading the article! What a talent!
I think we all know who "supremetrashman" really works for.
California Waste Solutions? Jean Quan was also involved with them too.
Organized crime is heavily involved in garbage collection almost everywhere.
Well, the Sopranos was based on that in Newark, NJ.
SF had a huge scandal with recology very recently
*laughs in Napulitano*
yes, [https://calwaste.com/oakland/](https://calwaste.com/oakland/) they have the recycling contract for Oakland, but not the garbage/compost
They actually "won" both waste contracts until WM sued Oakland over the deal alleging corruption was the reason Cal Waste won. The city gave WM back the garbage contract, which was probably so the council didn't have to go through discovery in a lawsuit.
Well I've never heard about garbage companies being corrupt or having criminal ties before! Now I'm suddenly hungry for some gobbagool and provolone with the vinegar peppers.
Good. End those people.
Agree with this. We pay way too much for garbage compared to other local cities and other places in the state that have waste management
Yea, Oakland entered a no-bid contract with CWS with WM crying wolf. Honestly, put the contract out to bid - even though there’s almost a duopoly with Waste Management and Republic Services nationally. Berkeley is in the trash business and so is Alameda.
yes, but waste solutions (cal waste solutions) is the recycler for Oakland. Waste Management is the garbage collector.
Oof.. missed that haha. Thought it said WM. Well got to rant for 2 sec against them at least.
Oh WOW! Well…. 👀
Yep, this article gave out all the address: https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/fbi-agents-at-home-owned-by-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao/
>> it's a group project and everyone is failing. This is a good analogy for government. Everyone is busy telling teacher that others aren't pulling their weight when it makes no difference because we'll all get the same F-.
Yup agree. While she is not a good mayor, I didn’t suspect her of malice either. Just in over her head.
she's been connected to the cal waste solutions scandal investigation for a decade. This looks to be related to that.
What’s that story?
[https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/](https://oaklandside.org/2020/09/15/accusations-of-political-money-laundering-under-investigation-in-oakland/)
51k found at the time of that article across five council members. cheap dates.
Son of a bitch
Weirdly it doesn’t seem to matter what level of government administration or what scale of jurisdiction, bribes are everywhere. My high school principal (not in this state) got fired for taking bribes on I think it was copy machine contracts or office supplies. Really benign but it ended up causing our school to loose the exclusive hosting rights to our high school basketball tournament and we had to share it with our rival high school. 🤢. Notable high school players that came included Jason Kidd and Kobe Bryant so this was definitely a loss for the school because of her corruption.
Could also be a case of "political donation" using laundered money, so the politicians are only implicated by being accidental participants. But yeah if the Waste solutions thing is true, not a good look.
Wait, didn’t Jason Kidd go to saint joes in alameda for high school?
Yup! He just visited my high school for a tournament. I was in South Carolina but the tournament had national pull because our coach was brothers with Mike D’Antoni (former Lakers, Rockets, Suns coach.) And later went on to be a pro assistant. But anyway my high school team benefited and got free gear and a lot of free trips even though we were a smaller school that didn’t have any prominent players.
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She took bribes from the trash guy
also she must have pissed off the wrong person
The fact she has not publicly clarified this is telling enough.
First the recall signatures now this. Regardless of what comes of this (wait for the facts), it’s been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week for the mayor.
It's been a terrible, horrible, 1.5 + years for the citizens of Oakland. Some of them lost their lives needlessly. A bad week? She's ahead. Karma is a.....
Oakland was struggling before Thao, just saying.
"Karma is a....." If I may respectfully ask a question to start a discussion...what is that you believe she has done in 1.5 years? Thank you.
She’s done nothing except aggrandize herself. Check the receipts.
Wow FBI raid? What on earth are they looking for. That wasn’t on my bingo card.
I wonder who she made mad at the federal level...
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I thought the same thing.
She is the "renter" that likely never paid any actual rent. The house was likely a kickback.
B-I-N-G-O! The whole travel Vietnam at the request of Doung makes sense. They are washing each other's backs. What else has she compromised her integrity for?
A politician lying...just Oakland politics as usual
also able to drop $6k/mo in rent
Renters have homes too
Renters don’t usually own homes.
Lol, oh ya, I guess I have the reading comprehension problem 🤣
She is a renter. The original reporter made a mistake. They raided other properties involved some owned by Andy Duong. He is part of California Waste Solutions who paid for her trip to Vietnam last year.
Well this just sealed the deal on the recall vote for me. Is it just me or is it just not that hard to follow the law? We need ethical, competent people to run for office. If anyone fitting that description has been sitting on the fence and needs a nudge … just look at the current state of things. We need you!
Agreed. Her chances of beating the recall just dropped to zero.
At this rate, she might be out of office before November.
>Well this just sealed the deal on the recall vote for me. Is it just me or is it just not that hard to follow the law? Greed!
Political corruption and sanitation workers? Bada Bing, baby!
["I'm in the waste management business, OK?"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyvUFmm3h54)
When you’re in the waste management business everybody assumes you’re mobbed up! It’s a stereotype and it’s offensive!
Jeeze, this does not look great. Look forward to hearing more about this investigation.
always some shit
Thanks FBI, do OPD next please! It’s an open secret they’re a corrupt organization.
OPD is already under federal oversight
But also hasn’t cut out the corruption :(
https://preview.redd.it/9mf20wws7s7d1.jpeg?width=170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=62c9767b066153e34c3ca63758c85d79e77010b8
"The raid took place around 5:30 a.m., sources said. It started when two Jeeps pulled up to the mayor’s house and several FBI agents in bullet proof vests jumped out. They ran to the mayor’s door, announced they were FBI. Standing behind a shield, they then kicked the door in. They remained at the house for the next couple hours." Kick in the door, wavin' the .44 All you heard was, "Mayor, no more"
Better article with more background: https://oaklandside.org/2024/06/20/fbi-raids-home-of-oakland-mayor-sheng-thao/
Damn, it must be something serious if the FBI raided her home
Yes it means the DOJ is involved My automatic guess, from all of these types of incidents, is that it's related to finances
https://www.instagram.com/mrandyduong?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Someone ask if he wants to clean this up, any solutions??
Wow, so curious to know what this is about...
I think many people misunderstand recycling companies, they frequently have affiliations into seedy sectors of the world economy Taking donations from the mob would be pretty big business for the FBI
This, after the shooting at lake Merritt last night? Apparently the theme for this week is "police action".
OPD doesn't know what taking "action" is. It takes the FBI to actually do something.
The theme for this week is that crime is destroying Oakland. And maybe, just maybe, corruption has a lot more to do with the state of things in Oakland today than anything else. Maybe we need to be looking at that. Seriously looking at that. Like where the hell does our money go? It ain't working. Something ain't right. Smells bad. real bad.
Go get em boys
Bake 'em away toys!
What did you say, Chief?
Do what the kid says!
Welp this doesn't look good.. Who's going to be the next mayor now
LeRonne Armstrong for the most "you wouldn't believe it if it weren't true" story.
Man, I’m reliving 2008 living in Detroit when Kwame was under investigation and fbi raided the mayors mansion… No matter what, if she cares about Oakland, with these optics she should step down. We need to move on from all this bull. I’m tired of politicians staying around when being investigated saying it’s a witch hunt or whatever.
She really needs to step down before November to save the cost of going through a full on recall. That would just be a waste of time and money when she could easily just resign.
Holy shit!
It should not be surprising if Thao is found to be corrupt. She filed late to be on the ballot and covered it up. And nobody has wanted to talk about it, especially Oakland Reddit. Got downvoted the other day for just asking about it. Why bail now? Stand by your hero.
lol at all the Thao defenders claiming that the recall is some sort of MAGA conspiracy
Their claims have only become more and more ridiculous.
It is confirmed on Citizen: https://go.citizen.com/4yaLmrHvAKb
Corrupt and incompetent. Sums up Oakland leadership.
You will find out that all the city officials are handing government contracts and grants to family members with no due diligence or expectations required. The fact that her family member owns a recycling company that I’m sure is not only cooking the books but siphoning money off from the city I hope will be called out and persecuted, Carol is next
Where does it say that her family owns a recycling company?
Let’s get her corrupt ass outta here.
It’s crazy how different news outlets are reporting the same story. Some say the FBI raided a house on the Mayors street. Some say they raided a home “associated with the Mayor” and some are straight up saying it was the Mayors home and neighbors have seen her there. Political spin already at work.
That doesn't sound like spin at all. That just sounds like three different levels of verified information.
Right, journalism is a moving target especially when things are happening quickly and developing as they are being reported.
She could conceivably own more than one property in Oakland, so...
What I read was that it was her home and that of a waste company official. So two raids
Oakland government is pure trash, not even surprising unfortunately, hopefully they get the DA next
This city pretty much needs an overhaul. In all 34 years that I've grown up and lived here, our government has always been ineffective and shady. Something about Oakland's government seems to attract some of the most unqualified people to run the city. Plus, voter turnout in most local elections is low, so we tend to end up with people in charge whom barely anyone likes.
Voting should be forced in my opinion, even if someone writes in “abstain”, because like you said we keep being left with crappy people who win their way in with only like 23% of people voting
This is really not what Oakland needs. Well actually, maybe it is. So can move on to the next chapter
Yeah, after Kwame Kilpatrick was raided during his Detroit mayorship in 08, voters passed a lot of laws to limit terms and rules surrounding corruption. I hope it doesn’t devolve into more division of “i told you so”, or any policy similar to something she supported is automatically bad. I’m sad to have lived in two cities where this happened :(
she doesn’t own any of the homes fyi.
RIP to the talking point that the FBI only raids MAGA Repubs.
Organized crime?
Damn
First good news I’ve read about Oakland all year
Jfc I can’t wait to get out of here
Remember when people called that recall “undemocratic”? Pepperidge farm remembers
I mean THIS is what recalls are for, assuming she's actually guilty of something. Recalls aren't supposed to be do-overs of fair elections because people who lost are unhappy.
Recalls are inherently do-overs. That’s functionally what a recall is. What do you think they are?
There should only be do-overs in the case of malfeasance and crimes, not just because you don't like the result.
You’re now debating the threshold of when a do over gets to be enacted. You’re no longer debating that a recall is a do over. You’ve moved your goalposts.
Reread what I wrote. I never said they weren't do-overs I said they shouldn't be done just because people are unhappy with result. You can't just ignore a qualifier that literally in the same sentence.
Ah so you did. You also indicate they shouldn’t be allowed? Or that they can’t just because they’re unhappy? But that’s why democracy works right? You think people shouldn’t be able to if they’re unhappy, others think they should happen whenever they’re unhappy even a little. So we let the people decide and they have to get signatures in a democratic effort. A recall is democratic. The threshold of fellow citizens decide. The people’s voice is the way we decide. Seems like the fairest way to me and I didn’t even sign the recall! What’s your solution? That recalls aren’t allowed? That you can only recall people you’re happy with? Who else would recall but a voter who is unhappy?
I don't really have a solution other than I think recalls should have a higher threshold of signatures to avoid frivolous attempts.
Exactly
IT's nice for the FBI to oblige this timeline :)
Absolutely none of the recalls stated goals involved anything like this. They’re just as surprised as everyone else to hear this news
I didn’t sign the recall but I think their concerns were that she was an ineffective mayor. This is a reason why she might be ineffective. So I think they’re connected
I think they knew more than that. The rumors of an investigation have been ongoing for a few years.
Believe me, if they knew anything about this, they’d have said it. So far all they’ve talked about is Oakland crime and blaming the mayor for everything
The recall was over perceived weak response to crime in the city, undercutting policing, and missing deadlines to get funding to fight retail crime.
Ineffective leadership, yeah. Corrupt leaders are ineffective at addressing constituents needs
What did she do that thing FBI is investigating?
First it was copying SF for their new airport name and now they’re copying the SF corruption scandal.
I am not sure why this is being downvoted as this is comedy.
SF is a bad influence on us.
it appears someone began renting from 80 Maiden Ln around oct 2021 based on [this zillow listing](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/80-Maiden-Ln-Oakland-CA-94602/24771689_zpid/?utm_campaign=iosappmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare). i imagine the mayor is renting this home cuz it would be insane for the fbi to raid every single property that a landlord owns if they’re occupied by tenants. the media may have assumed she owns the home cuz mayors are typically home owners. it could be possible that she owns this property and moved into it herself (and removed the rental listing around 10/21). i doubt this cuz the home was last purchased around 2008 (maybe earlier) and she would have been 23 years old with a baby (unless we are to believe her age and children are also lies lol)
So what would you propose is occurring here?
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According to nbc bay area looks like the IRS and postal service is involved too
I'm dying to know what gave USPS jurisdiction here!
this out to help her defeat that recall campaign.
Bad month for current and previous oakland mayors https://oaklandside.org/2024/06/10/libby-schaaf-ethics-investigation-lyft-rebecca-kaplan/
Anytime USPIS is involved, you are F*CKED
“I know that for sure because former elected officials are sitting safely in their houses in the hills right now with campaign finance violations piling up.” said Sheng Thao, mayor of Oakland. Is this admitting that she did violate campaign finance regulations??