Aman dressed in dirty rags emerges from “fentanyl island”, watched as he shuffles past by Seneca Scott, an Oakland native who rarely travels to this strip of blighted wasteland underneath an underpass without a Smith & Wesson at his hip.
“We don’t have rule of law in Oakland right now,” Scott says as he tours a city that is perhaps America’s most left wing, but is littered with drug encampments which have become a breeding ground for violent crime. Scott, 44, a former candidate for mayor and activist, passes drug addicts and dealers living cheek-by-jowl among burnt-out cars and trucks. Even liberals have had enough, he says, finally accepting that violence has soared in the face of “progressive” drug policies that have seen addiction soar. The Times.
