Progressive Prosecutor Removed From Office After Historic Vote

Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price (D) appears to have been recalled from office in California. Local election officials said all precincts had reported, and the recall vote was ahead by nearly 30 points.
Price, who has been DA since 2023, originally ran for the office on a criminal justice reform platform, focusing on not charging minors as adults and holding possible rogue police officers accountable. Price’s detractors criticized her for being soft on crime, holding demonstrations against her and ultimately leading an effort to remove her. The prosecutor responded by saying she was being “targeted.”
It is the first time Alameda County, which borders the San Francisco Bay and includes the cities of Berkeley and Oakland, has recalled its prosecutor. Local county supervisors will appoint an interim district attorney to serve as her replacement until 2026.
Former Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, Price’s predecessor, publicly backed Price’s removal and worked for the recall vote to succeed.
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) also backed Price’s removal, saying she failed families who suffered from violent crimes. Price said previous district attorneys discriminated against Black, Jewish and gay jurors, and Swalwell, a former deputy district attorney in Alameda County, took offense to Price’s comments. Swalwell announced his support for Price’s removal in October.
Price reopened investigations into eight killings by police last year. In a press release announcing the move, she cited the uproar over the lethal beating of Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man in Memphis, as her inspiration. In the same release, she also announced she’d establish a public accountability unit tasked with investigating police officers and other public officials accused of misconduct.
Price joined demonstrations in Oakland last year following Nichols’ death.
O’Malley was appointed to office in September 2009, eight months after the death of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Black man shot and killed by Bay Area Rapid Transit Police at a train station on New Year’s Day. BART officials and an Oakland City Council member condemned O’Malley for not pursuing criminal charges against Anthony Pirone, an officer who was present at the time Grant was killed. Pirone was seen on video punching Grant in the face before he was shot by another officer, Johannes Mehserle.
O’Malley announced in 2021 that she would not seek reelection, after a decade holding the office.