Oakland decides to clean up graffiti -- by fining the victims

American Thinker ^ | April 12, 2025 | Monica Showalter

[lowbridge]

Of all the one-party blue city disasters, Oakland is probably the biggest, a once-storied city full of beautiful old houses and a really great Chinatown, and is now farthest down the road to becoming Detroit.

After all, when you're the only city to lose In-N-Out Burger and your airport hotels based on unenforced crime, the only city whose major league baseball team insists on playing in some other city, and the only big city whose mayor is under indictment for corruption up the wazoo, you know the city's got problems. Gangs, illegals (Oakland is a sanctuary city), drug dealers, and smash-and-grab gangs all flourish in Oakland, along with a lot of murderers and muggers. The cops, considered bad guys by the recently recalled Soros district attorney, don't enforce much.

Someone wants to clean up the city, though, and has come up with the perfect tone-deaf leftist solution: Fining the victims.

According to ABC 7 News:

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) -- In Oakland, Chinatown merchants are raising the alarm after many are being hit with thousands of dollars in fines for graffiti on their properties.

Shirley Lou knows how this story goes. On any given day, the supermarket she manages is tagged. They paint over it and then it happens again.

"We cannot control. We clean up and they come again. So many times, but the city -- I don't know why they are charging me money," said Luo, manager at Won Kee Supermarket.

On Tuesday, she tried to pay the latest fine of $500. The city told Luo she owes $3,000, which includes late fees.

"It's not my fault. Not our fault. It's somebody go to the roof and mark so many graffiti," Luo said.

[scrabblehack]

Is Oakland still the largest US city without a daily newspaper?