Brenda Harbin-Forte was appointed to the Oakland Police Commission (OPC) in 2020 by former Mayor Libby Schaaf, The OPC is the most powerful police commission in the US and was created to provide oversight to the scandal-plagued Oakland Police Department. Brenda failed as a police commissioner, where she oversaw record crime, an array of new scandals, and failed the residents of Oakland when they depended on her leadership.
 

• Brenda is backed by big Coal and Refuses to Take a Stance on the Proposed Coal Terminal in West Oakland
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• Two of Brenda’s biggest financial supporters are Greg McConnell, the lobbyist behind the proposed coal terminal in Oakland and Phil Dreyfuss, a Piedmont resident and hedge fund manager with billions in coal investments. The No Coal in Oakland has raised red flags over her unwillingness to reject support from these individuals and more importantly her unwillingness to stand against a coal terminal.
   

• Brenda Harbin-Forte focused on Drama Over Rising Gun Violence
  
  As a City of Oakland Police Commissioner Harbin-Forte oversaw former Police Chief Leronne Armstrong’s defunding of the Oakland Police Department’s Ceasefire program, which was responsible for the largest crime decrease in Oakland history but was walked away from by the former Mayor and her Chief, Leronne Armstrong.
   

•  Brenda Harbin-Forte’s Failures Led to an Extension of Costly Federal Oversight
  
  As a City of Oakland Police Commissioner, Harbin-Forte joined a fringe group of fellow commissioners to attack the federal oversight of OPD after former Chief Leronne Armstrong was fired for failing to discipline officers who used OPD police cars for joy rides, have unethical relationships with their commanders, and even bribe witnesses in serious criminal trials.
  
  This scandal led to an extension of the Oakland Police Department’s Federal Oversight which costs Oakland taxpayers nearly $1,000,000 a year.
   

•  Brenda Harbin-Forte is directly responsible for the length of the Police Chief Search…
   

As a City of Oakland Police Commissioner, Brenda failed the residents of Oakland by causing drama and fights when the commission should’ve been focused on addressing a 3-year spike in crime, record homicides, and selecting a new police Chief.

After she was removed from the police commission by Mayor Sheng Thao, she began falsely blaming Mayor Thao for the lack of Chief despite Harbin-Forte being in charge of the hiring timeline.

 

• Brenda Harbin-Forte failed to address the major 9-1-1 hiring scandal!
  
  As a City of Oakland Police Commissioner, Brenda failed to catch a huge issue with 9-1-1 candidates when Oakland’s were most desperate for help. The Police Department failed to follow up on 1,000 applicants while the 9-1-1 division was experiencing record vacancies.

 

• Brenda failed to keep Oakland residents safe when they needed her most.

 

After one term of scandals and failure, Harbin-Forte was removed from the Commission by the Mayor and to the great relief of the community. She responded by running a vindictive and unethical recall of the Mayor.

 

• Brenda-Harbin Forte hired a man with a history of anti-semitism, homophobia, transphobia, and unhinged behavior for the recall.
  
  Despite the Democratic Party urging other Democrats not to work with Seneca Scott, Brenda Harbin-Forte allied with him and other crazed right-wingers to lead a recall against the Mayor who removed her for her failures.
   

• Brenda is an election-denier
  
  Harbin-Forte regularly claims that the 2022 Mayoral election was illegal and claims the Mayor should’ve never been on the ballot. This claim led to a lawsuit by far-right attorney Marleen Sacks, which was thrown out by a judge just like Trump’s lawsuits claiming the 2020 election was stolen.
   

• Brenda regularly attacks the free press
  
  Harbin-Forte proudly tweets about her unhinged attacks against local press like The Oaklandside for them inquiring about the recall’s donors.
  
   

• Brenda is being sued by the Oakland Ethics Commission to Hide her Millionaire Donor
  
  After she attacked the press, the Oakland Ethics Commission opened up an investigation and later lawsuit against the recall Harbin-Forte was running for using shady practices to hide their donors.