FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, July 26, 2022
Statement from Council President Nikki Fortunato Bas On Improved Safety Response in Oakland’s Little Saigon
OAKLAND, CA – “The recent senseless murder of Kon Patrick Fung has caused pain and trauma for so many of our neighbors in Little Saigon, Chinatown, and throughout Oakland. To support Patrick’s family as they grieve, my office has been working closely with OPD’s Victim Support Services unit, community organizations such as Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council and Asian Health Services, and leaders in our Little Saigon neighborhood, where the homicide occurred. This has included working to connect Patrick’s family to resources for burial, counseling, and housing supports.
My office has also requested increased and coordinated safety responses from OPD and the City Administrator. This includes increased OPD patrols in the area of the homicide since it occurred and additional measures to increase safety in Little Saigon through Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design assessments and focused inspections and investigations.
I have also personally requested OPD Chief Armstrong to assign a Vietnamese speaking officer to Little Saigon, to address the escalating violence in this area, at the heart of Beat 19 in my District. I am pleased to share that a fluent Vietnamese-speaking officer has been identified, and my office is convening introductory meetings with the new Vietnamese Liaison Officer and OPD, together with Little Saigon small businesses, leaders, and neighbors, to build increased trust and safety in the short and long term.
My office is also helping to coordinate the establishment of an OPD Watch Office in Little Saigon, as requested by the community.
Thank you to Oakland Chinatown Improvement Council for leading on grassroots fundraising efforts for Patrick’s family, and to all in our community who have contributed nearly $90,000 so far.
Thank you to the Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce for leading on fundraising efforts for private cameras, beautification projects, and public art to improve wellbeing in the Little Saigon neighborhood.”
###
About Council President and District 2 Councilmember Nikki Fortunato Bas
Nikki Fortunato Bas is President of the Oakland City Council and represents District 2, one of the most diverse districts in the city. Since taking office in 2019, she has championed community-centered policies and budgeting. She led the passage of the strongest COVID-19 eviction moratorium in the State of California and a COVID-19 grocery worker hazard pay $5 wage bonus covering 2,000 workers in Oakland’s largest grocery stores. She created a fund for community land trusts to prevent displacement and create permanently affordable, community-owned housing, introduced a progressive corporate tax which will be on the ballot in 2022, and led a task force to reimagine public safety in Oakland. She led a budget team that passed a biennial budget which invests millions in violence prevention and alternative crisis response. She also serves on the National League of Cities’ inaugural Reimagining Public Safety Task Force. For two decades prior to being elected in 2018, Bas pushed for worker, environmental, gender and racial justice. She organized immigrant garment workers to win their wages back in Oakland and San Francisco Chinatowns, and she worked in coalitions to raise Oakland's minimum wage with paid sick leave, create living wage jobs on the Oakland Army Base redevelopment project, and reduce diesel truck pollution at the Port of Oakland. Learn more at oaklandca.gov/officials/nikki-fortunato-bas.