and whether he’ll keep his job after being at helm of the beleaguered agency for just under two years.
But members of the East Oakland community, as well as the AAPI community in Chinatown, were concerned the chief’s departure could bring more chaos after finally seeing some stability under his leadership. "I was very shocked and I was very upset," said Brenda Grisham, whose son was murdered outside the family’s home in 2010.
She’s co-chair of the Oakland Violence Prevention Coalition and works with Ceasefire to reduce street violence in the city."For him it’s not just a job, it’s a mission for him to make his city a safer place because this is where he’s from," she said. Grisham said she and other community members are hoping Armstrong’s leave is just a temporary administrative matter, not a signal he is being fired.
"We are going to rally around him because he has touched so many lives in this city," Grisham said, while blasting the way the city has handled the situation. "They could have worked on this amongst themselves before they did this public display of disrespect."