Loony Oakland Mayor Begins Second Term [OPINION]

With all of the attention on Congress during the midterm election cycle, the re-election of Democrat Libby Schaaf as mayor of Oakland, California managed to slip by, largely unreported by most in the media.

You remember Mayor Schaaf. She is the one who issued a series of tweets back in February alerting illegal aliens of a pending ICE raid in her city. As a result, hundreds of illegals, many with serious criminal backgrounds, went into hiding and were able to elude capture.

“What she did is no better than a gang lookout yelling ‘Police!’ when a police cruiser comes in the neighborhood, except she did it to a whole community," former Acting ICE Director Thomas Homan told Fox & Friends. "There's over 800 significant public safety threat criminals ... that we are unable to locate because of that warning, so that community's a lot less safe than it would've been.”

Schaaf, re-elected to a second term in November, tells BuzzFeed she has no regrets about what she did:

“I have no regrets, none. The more time goes by, the more certain I feel that I did the right thing in standing up for our community and pointing out our values are not aligned with our laws," she said.

Schaaf, like many of her loony left contemporaries, despises President Trump's immigration policies and advocates for the abolishment of ICE.

“This agency has gone astray and has so broken the trust, particularly in cities like mine, I believe we would all be better served to start from scratch," Schaaf said.

By the way, Newman, California Police Cpl. Ronil Singh was gunned down by an illegal immigrant during a traffic stop on Wednesday. Singh left behind a wife and five-month-old son. The suspect remains on the loose.

Police have yet to release the suspect's name, but I can't help but wonder if he might have been in Oakland (which is about an hour and a half away) back in February when Schaaf blew the whistle on the ICE raid?

Schaaf should have been charged criminally back in February and should not have been allowed to stand for re-election in November.

Barry Richard is the host of The Barry Richard Show on 1420 WBSM New Bedford. He can be heard weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. Contact him at barry@wbsm.com and follow him on Twitter @BarryJRichard58. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.