Battered voter syndrome

A commentary on the abusive relationship between Oakland City Hall and Oakland voters: on leadership, crime, services, encampments, politics and accountability.

Why does a city as proud and resilient as Oakland, California keep tolerating dysfunction as if it’s simply the weather now? (Image source: Adobe Stock / Oakland Report)

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Editor’s note:

This commentary originally appeared in video podcast format in Gotham Oakland on Feb. 18, 2026.¹ We are publishing this revised version in article format with citations for Oakland Report readers to review and comment on.

We invite counterpoint commentaries from other leading voices in Oakland. Do you have something to say on this issue or others? Visit our About page for more information.

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BY SENECA SCOTT

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There’s a pattern of weaponized incompetence and voter abuse in Oakland City Hall. So why do voters tolerate it? (Image source: Adobe Stock / Oakland Report)

“Baby, I know I wasted the last tax increase, but this time will be different!”
— Oakland city government, probably

They stole the Mayor’s car

This morning, Gotham Oakland broke the story – hours before the San Francisco Chronicle – that Oakland Mayor Barbara “Blah Blah” Lee’s city vehicle was stolen from City Hall.²

Not from a dark side street in the Lower Bottoms; not from some forgotten corner in deep East Oakland. From City Hall. The Mayor’s whip.

Now remember: Oakland, California has one of the country’s highest rates of auto theft, with over 10,000 stolen vehicles in 2023, according to Oakland Police Department (OPD) data.³ In 2023, one out of 30 vehicles in Oakland were stolen, leading the nation.⁴

According to multiple sources, a thief camped out in City Hall on President’s Day and entered multiple offices – including the mayor’s office – took her keys and drove off in the city-owned SUV. The vehicle, a Ford Expedition, was quickly tracked and later recovered in Vallejo using license plate reader technology.⁵

Overtime abuse; gas-guzzling Ford Expeditions; use of Flock cameras to catch criminals? Rules for thee, but not for Lee.

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Let’s pause here for a moment. This is the exact same leadership that assures us that crime is trending down; the same City Hall that insists that public safety is improving.

Yet, inside the building that is supposed to symbolize order and authority, someone just walked in, grabbed the mayor’s car keys off of her desk and simply drove away.

They can’t even keep their home base safe.

Forgive my institutional memory, but wasn’t it just a short while ago that former mayor Sheng Thao’s vehicle nearly faced repossession because the city forgot to pay for it?⁶

There’s a pattern of weaponized incompetence and voter abuse in Oakland City Hall.⁷ So why do voters tolerate it? Why does a city as proud and resilient as Oakland, California keep tolerating dysfunction as if it’s simply the weather now?

Just like battered spouse syndrome, it’s what happens when citizens endure cycle after cycle of mismanagement, scandal, apology, promise and repeat. (Image source: Adobe Stock / Oakland Report)

Battered voter syndrome

I call it battered voter syndrome. And just like battered spouse syndrome,⁸ it’s what happens when citizens endure cycle after cycle of mismanagement, scandal, apology, promise and repeat. The tension builds, the crisis erupts, officials apologize, they blame, they love-bomb “structural issues,” and promise reform. And for maybe a brief moment, there’s calm – and then it happens again.

Over time, we internalize it. We lower our expectations and we tell ourselves this is just how Oakland works. We become hyper-vigilant but disengaged. We become angry but exhausted. We become hopeful but cautious.

That’s more than apathy. That’s trauma. That’s battered voter syndrome.

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Another example: I and other Oaklanders warned for years that former mayor Thao was corrupt and compromised, and lacked integrity. Many of the people still in power today – like Carroll Fife, Barbara Lee, Zac Unger, Barbara Leslie and others – defended Sheng Tao and told us she was trustworthy.

Now, where did they all go?

They didn’t go anywhere. They’re still in power. You see, they memory-hole their support for Thao while continuing the same destructive agenda – and we just accept that.

That’s battered voter syndrome.

The city and the unions that run city hall are now expecting taxpayers to approve even more taxes. This is after the last two ballot measures and tax increases were essentially sold to us under false pretense, only for the city to declare a fiscal emergency – which they did, allowing them to spend the money as they pleased.⁹

Oakland voters were probably tuned out. We’re probably going to approve that new tax. What is that? That is battered voter syndrome.

Oakland has no mandatory duty to follow its own policies. Oakland is covered in graffiti and covered in RVs – at least in the flatlands, not the hills. Encampments have dramatically harmed property values, public safety; and created a situation where we have open-air drug use, widespread illegal dumping, and very little rule of law. (Image source: Adobe Stock / Oakland Report)

Oakland’s approach to homeless encampments? More of the same.

Oakland City Council unanimously passed an encampment management policy back in 2020, creating a list of do’s and don’ts for public camping in a detailed plan to support and clean encampments compassionately.¹⁰

The policy was never truly implemented and the problem continued to explode. I sued to compel the city to follow their own policy.¹¹ And the very expensive result was learning that Oakland has no mandatory duty to follow its own policies.

Now, six years later, Oakland is covered in graffiti and covered in RVs – well, at least in the flatlands, not the hills. And the vast majority of these RV encampments are open-air drug markets. It looks like The Walking Dead. Encampments have dramatically harmed property values, public safety; and created a situation where we have open-air drug use, widespread illegal dumping, and very little rule of law.¹²

The RVs leak oil and sewage into the streets and into the bay.¹³ Many are Breaking Bad-style RVs, cooking meth and other drugs. Some are brothels where children are exploited and sexually trafficked.

Finally, after years of no action, City Council member Ken Houston stood up and created a new policy that would make these RVs and open-air drug markets illegal, just like San Francisco’s mayor recently did.¹⁴

This is an 80/20 issue with nearly every affected person wanting something done about it, including local businesses, churches, elders, and everyday Oakland residents.¹⁵

But what is Barbara Lee’s plan instead? Do more of the same. More nice words, more “compassion” – whatever that means. It’s basically saying that we’re going to do more of nothing, just like that media stunt about illegal dumping in January at Allen Temple Baptist Church that everyone already forgot about.¹⁶

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Oakland is not weak and not fully broken – yet

Battered voter syndrome: why do we keep taking this? When public officials fail, when standards erode, when accountability disappears, this isn’t faith. It is a choice. And these choices can be confronted.

Oakland is not weak and Oakland is not fully broken yet. But we are being tested. And this may be our final test before a full-blown collapse. And the question is not whether City Hall can protect the car. They clearly cannot.

The question is whether we, the voters, are willing to protect our city from complacency, from fear, from the quiet normalization of the chaos. Because you do not get what you deserve in politics or in life. You get what you demand. And demands come with consequences. So let’s begin.

City Hall facade. Oakland, California. (Image source: Oakland Report / Adobe Stock)

Be practical

“If you use drugs on our streets, we will arrest you. But with this new resource, we will also give those suffering from addiction a real chance to choose recovery.”
— San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie¹⁷

“I think morally, ethically speaking, it is an atrocity that in a country this wealthy, we have people just on the streets. And we should have a… we should insist on policies that recognize their full humanity – people who are houseless – and be able to provide them the help and resources that they need. But we should also recognize that the average person, you know, doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city in the middle of downtown. That doesn’t mean that we care less about those folks. It means if we really care about them, then we gotta try to figure out: how do we gain majority support and be practical in terms of what we can get through at this moment in time?”
— former president Barack Obama¹⁸

Barack Obama knows. San Francisco’s mayor Daniel Lurie knows. But does our mayor know? For today’s presentation, we’re going to be talking about Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s new approach to homelessness. We’re also going to be unpacking what I mean by battered voter syndrome; and most importantly, how do we get out of it.

San Francisco is making a comeback with real estate prices stabilizing and investments returning to the city. Meanwhile, the city of Oakland is backtracking because our leaders’ loyalty lies with their political ideology and their political agenda, Oaklanders be damned. I say this because the vast majority of us want to see what San Francisco is doing, but we can’t get that done.¹⁹

“Be practical,” former president Barack Obama says. Democrats need to change their approach on homelessness.

“The average person doesn’t want to have to navigate around a tent city and the party won’t have enough support to tackle the problem if they can’t build a working majority.”
— USA Today, Feb. 15, 2026

I guess they got some polling numbers that are worrying them a little bit. Maybe Barbara Lee needs to look at these polling numbers. But nope, that is not what “Blah Blah” Lee is doing. Our mayor seeks to scale back homeless encampment sweeps as others push crackdowns.²⁰

“Lee is famous for charting her own path in Congress. She wants to soften Oakland’s aggressive treatment of encampments, bucking national trends and some council members.”
— The Mercury News, Feb. 15, 2026

That council member being Ken Houston. Now at a glance, it may look like Oakland’s Mayor Lee is following the trends, but she’s not – or the nation.

“The icon amongst progressives has cleared homelessness faster than her predecessor since taking office in 2025, evoking ongoing sweeps in San Jose and San Francisco.”
— The Mercury News, Feb. 15, 2026

Whack-a-mole, but yes, they have been more aggressive. But behind closed doors, Lee is planning a new course. The mayor and a top official want to remove fewer camps and improve sanitation around them. They said in the above-noted interview with The Mercury News – “a recognition that people will continue to live beneath underpasses and on sidewalks in a city with diminishing resources to provide shelter.”

Not diminishing resources: more homeless people are coming. Our homeless problem is exploding, so that means that “resources are diminishing.” With every city around us cracking down on the open-air drug use that Lee refuses to talk about, more people are going to be coming here.²¹

Instead of hurrying to break up tents and scatter RVs, Lee said Oakland’s interim homeless chief, Sasha Hauswald – yet another homeless chief – wants city workers to focus on minimizing trash and human waste.

It’s going to come back the next day. Lee is also exploring paying homeless people to pick up litter, inspired by a program in Portland, Oregon.²² (Portland is not turning the right way on homelessness, either.²³)

“The strategy [Mayor Lee] expects to unveil in March appears to be radically different from neighboring leaders.²⁴ And with Oakland City Council’s own vision for homelessness, its members are pushing legislation to accelerate encampment sweeps and eliminate a long standing local requirement that the city offers shelter to residents when forcing them to move.²⁵”
— The Mercury News, Feb. 15, 2026 (citations added)

We can’t have drug tourism and encourage it with more shelter with our diminishing resources and a city seemingly going bankrupt.²⁶ That’s not the common-sense way to do things.

So let’s talk about fixing battered voter syndrome.

Figure 1. “Battered voter syndrome”: a cycle of civic dysfunction. (Image source: Gotham Oakland)

A cycle of civic dysfunction

First, let’s talk about what it is. Battered voter syndrome is a cycle of civic dysfunction. So when you’re talking about battered spouse syndrome, it’s essentially the same thing. It’s what happens with an abuser and the abused and the trauma bond that it creates. And it’s very difficult to escape.

“Eat the cake, Anna Mae. Eat the cake.”
— Ike Turner to Tina Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It?²⁷

First we have unmatched civic needs and unrevolved structural issues. (Sounds like Oakland.) Then rising anxiety, insecurity, and distrust of city government. Then seeking hope in a candidate or movement: (“Progressives!”), followed by temporary relief: this time it will be different. But then the leadership becomes ineffective, ideological and/or unaccountable.

Then more rising anxiety, insecurity and distrust. There are calls for unity and reconciliation – “give it more time,” “come together,” like Barbara Lee says.

Then things appear to go back to normal, but the underlying issues remain unresolved. And then we get back to our unmet civic needs and abuse and structural issues.

Wash, rinse and repeat. How do we break it?

Figure 2. “Immediate civic recovery”: going from chaos to clarity. (Image source: Gotham Oakland)

Part 1. Immediate civic recovery

Immediate civic recovery: going from chaos to clarity. We can fix battered voter syndrome by first creating a civic clarity plan. What are the power dynamics? Who are the decision makers over the policies that are currently afflicting you?

We have to break the information cycle. Our current media – as you know, if you watch Gotham Oakland – is nothing but dog-walked public relations for a failing administration and ideology that seeks to destroy Oakland. That’s just my opinion. If you’re here, you’re here for that opinion. I back it up with facts.

We need to rebuild real community connections: neighbors together Oakland. We need to demand transparency from City Hall. That’s why we made Gotham Oakland: to get transparency from people who are hell-bent on hiding as much information as they can because they’re stealing from us.²⁸

Figure 3. “Reframing and accountability”: challenge learned helplessness. (Image source: Gotham Oakland)

Part 2. Reframing and accountability

We have to reframe accountability. We have to challenge learned helplessness; understand how the political cycle works. When is the best time to strike? I believe in off-cycle organizing. If you’re waiting until election year, which is this year, to launch whatever idea you have, guess what? It’s too late. You’re probably going to lose.

You need to start on off-cycles and you need to measure outcomes of your elected leaders, not their rhetoric. The meeting is not the work. The rhetoric is not the work.

Outcomes happen from changing behavior, not continuing the same behavior as Oakland seems hell-bent on doing because again, their ideology depends on it.

Figure 4. “Long-term civic empowerment”: reclaim political independence. (Image source: Gotham Oakland)

Part 3. Long-term civic empowerment

This is how you go from isolation to collective power. All of this, if you’re paying attention, is what we did when we recalled the mayor and district attorney.²⁹ Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish the job entirely for a lot of reasons I’m not going to get into today, but I’ve talked about it in past episodes of Gotham Oakland.

We need to reclaim political independence and achieve post-partisanship. We need to build local coalitions. It’s all about local – if you can’t tell me the trees in your backyard and front yard; the names of your neighbors to the left, right, and front or across the street from you; the names of your school board member or your city council person – you need to go learn those things and get tapped into local politics.

We need to strengthen civic resilience – political resilience. That means being knowledgeable, and actually taking the time to gain new knowledge. But first you have to have information sources that are factual, timely, relevant, and give you the information you need to restore your agency.

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Thank you.

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That is how you get out of this dysfunction; this abuse. And we are abused as voters. We are battered and weary as voters. Stop letting these people take advantage of you.

Anyway, peace, y’all. I love you. Take it easy. Don’t take no crap from these politicians. Get in the political arena. Get involved.

We can save the city, but only if you don’t just click, like, comment, subscribe and share. (We need those, too, to raise awareness.)

Come to city council meetings. Make public comments. Do not let these people continue to abuse us. I love you. I will continue to fight for Oakland and I hope you will, too.

Peace, y’all.

“Yo, I swear it’s only up from here.”
— Cavalier / 7th Ward Spyboy, Up from Here

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The views expressed in our Commentaries do not necessarily reflect the editorial views of Oakland Report or its contributing writers.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Seneca Scott is a political strategist, writer, and organizer working at the intersection of media, power, and civic reform. Based in Oakland and Nashville, he has become a prominent voice on municipal governance and institutional accountability in America’s cities.

A national CBS contributor, Scott has appeared in local, national, and international outlets analyzing public-sector politics, urban decline, and political realignment. He is best known for his leadership role in the successful recall of Oakland’s former mayor — a grassroots effort that placed government accountability at the center of public debate.

Scott previously served as East Bay Director for SEIU Local 1021, representing thousands of public-sector workers and leading major contract campaigns and labor actions. As an organizing director for multiple unions across California, he built worker-led coalitions and negotiated complex agreements in highly charged political environments.

His writing has appeared in Newsweek, Compact Magazine, City Journal, and The Free Press, where he focuses on governance, fiscal policy, and the future of American cities.

A graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Scott ran for mayor of Oakland in 2022 on a charter reform platform advocating a stronger mayoral system, drawing on SPUR’s 2021 report, Making Government Work. During the recall effort, he founded Gotham Oakland, an independent media platform dedicated to exposing municipal corruption and challenging local political dysfunction.

Through consulting, media, and organizing, he works to advance transparency, fiscal discipline, and institutional reform at the local level.

Seneca Scott

1. Scott, Seneca. “Oakland Mayor’s car stolen from City Hall.” Gotham Oakland. Feb. 18, 2026.

2. Cassidy, Megan and Kate Talerico. “Suspected thief of Mayor Barbara Lee’s SUV was camping at City Hall for days, source says.” San Francisco Chronicle. Feb. 19, 2026. https://archive.is/2ENqH

3. Lin, Da. “Oakland police report auto theft epidemic; more than 10,000 stolen this year.” CBS News. Sept. 24, 2023. https://www.cbsnews.com/sanfrancisco/news/oakland-police-report-auto-theft-epidemic-10000-stolen-this-year/

4. Barned-Smith, St. John. “In Oakland, one car was stolen for every 30 residents last year. What’s going on?” San Francisco Chronicle. Jan. 5, 2024. https://archive.is/YilH6

5. Johnson, Sydney. “Arrest Made After Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee’s SUV Stolen From City Hall.” KQED. Feb. 19, 2026. https://www.kqed.org/news/12073856/oakland-mayor-barbara-lees-suv-stolen-from-city-hall-after-office-break-in

6. Ravani, Sarah. “Why is Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao riding in an SUV costing the city $74,500?” San Francisco Chronicle. Aug. 23, 2024. https://archive.is/TKLLw

7. Reinhart, Sean S. “‘Death and taxes’ - Oakland City Council is the one who knocks.” Oakland Report. Oct. 27, 2025. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/death-and-taxes-oakland-city-council

8. Wikipedia contributors. "Battered woman syndrome." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Mar. 14, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battered_woman_syndrome

9. Oakland Report contributors. “Oakland’s surplus mirage sets the stage for a $34 million tax increase.” Oakland Report. Feb. 28, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/oaklands-surplus-mirage-sets-the

10. City of Oakland. “Homelessness and Encampment Response.” City of Oakland website. Accessed Mar. 14, 2026. https://www.oaklandca.gov/Community/The-Unhoused-Community/Homelessness-and-Encampment-Response

11. Jarosz, Brooks. “Oakland activist vows encampment cleanup, safety, and accountability as mayor.” KTVU Fox 2. https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-activist-vows-encampment-cleanup-safety-and-accountability-as-mayor

12. Forte, Sanford. “Oakland should act quickly to restrict RV homeless encampments.” San Francisco Chronicle. Aug. 5, 2025. https://archive.is/1lLwr

13. Ho, Vivian. “The Californians forced to live in cars and RVs.” The Guardian. Aug. 5, 2019. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/05/california-housing-homeless-rv-cars-bay-area

14. Office of Mayor Daniel Lurie. “Mayor Lurie reforms Journey Home Program to help oeople reconnect with loved ones and access support.” City and County of San Francisco website. Jan. 22, 2026. https://www.sf.gov/news-mayor-lurie-reforms-journey-home-program-to-help-people-reconnect-with-loved-ones-and-access-support

15. East Bay Polling Institute. “Voters express urgency in addressing homelessness and improving housing affordability.” Survey of Oakland Voters - Q1 2026. Accessed Mar. 14, 2026. https://www.eastbaypollinginstitute.org/polls/oakland-q1-2026

16. Lee, Amber. “Hundreds demand accountability for Oakland’s illegal dumping ‘crisis.’” KTVU Fox 2. Jan. 13, 2026. https://www.ktvu.com/news/hundreds-demand-accountability-oaklands-illegal-dumping-crisis

17. Pena, Luz. “SF mayor signs legislation for officers to arrest drug users, send them to RESET Center.” ABC 7 News. Feb. 17, 2026. https://abc7news.com/post/san-francisco-mayor-signs-legislation-police-sheriff-deputies-arrest-drug-users-send-reset-center/18613975/

18. Palmer, Kathryn. “‘Be practical.’ Obama says Democrats need to change approach on homelessness.” USA Today. Feb. 15, 2026. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/02/15/obama-homeless-democrats-podcast-interview/88690324007/

19. Ibid. East Bay Polling Institute.

20. Stringer, Grant. “Oakland mayor seeks to scale back homeless encampment sweeps as others push crackdown.” The Mercury News. Feb. 15, 2026. https://archive.is/pq87a

21. Versteeg, Mila et al. “The new homelessness.” California Law Review. Vol. 113, April 2025. https://www.californialawreview.org/print/new-homelessness

22. Zielinski, Alex. “State, county leaders pour millions into Portland trash clean-up program.” Oregon Public Broadcasting. Jun. 13, 2023. https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/15/oregon-multnomah-county-fund-portland-trash-clean-up-program/

23. Malcolm, Kim. “Portland’s approach to homelessness enters a new era.” KUOW News and Information. Jan. 22, 2026. https://www.kuow.org/stories/portland-s-approach-to-homelessness-enters-a-new-era

24. Talerico, Kate. “Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee vows to cut street homelessness in half in 5 years. Can she do it?” San Francisco Chronicle. Mar. 14, 2026. https://www.sfchronicle.com/eastbay/article/homeless-oakland-city-mayor-lee-22071790.php

25. Ionescu, Diana. “Oakland Mayor, City Council offer ‘radically different’ plans for reducing homelessness.” Planetizen. Feb. 17, 2026. https://www.planetizen.com/news/2026/02/136969-oakland-mayor-city-council-offer-radically-different-plans-reducing

26. Reinhart, Sean S. “Oakland set to declare ‘extreme fiscal necessity’ again, coordinate with unions to increase property taxes.” Oakland Report. Feb. 10, 2026. https://www.oaklandreport.org/p/20260210-oakland-declare-extreme-fiscal-necessity

27. “Eat the cake, Anna Mae” is a famous, abusive line spoken by Ike Turner to Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock) in the 1993 biographical film What’s Love Got to Do with It. It stems from a scene depicting domestic abuse, where Ike forces her to eat cake to assert control, based on her 1986 autobiography.

28. Google Gemini. “pra lawsuit oakland.” Accessed Mar. 14, 2026. https://share.google/aimode/wrglFxZfoVIUMx5bO

29. Fernandez, Lisa. “Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County DA Pamela Price successfully recalled.” KTVU Fox 2. Nov. 9, 2024. https://www.ktvu.com/news/oakland-mayor-sheng-thao-alameda-county-da-pamela-price-successfully-recalled