Still Dysfunctional

So Anthony Batts decided to get the hell out of Oakland while the getting was good.  We don't blame him.  Although it's not official that he is going to go to be San Jose's Chief of Police, the only reason for him to allow this information to be leaked to the media is because he will be going to the SJPD.  It's really unfortunate for the Oakland Police Department for Batts to be leaving, simply because he was a breath of fresh air for a department that is just continuously beat up; either from Judge Henderson and the NSA, the residents of Oakland, or Oakland's elected politicians.

Currently, no media outlets are running the true reason for Anthony to want to leave Oakland and work for San Jose, but our collective guesses are as follows: 1) Oakland sucks; 2) He's given no support from the City Council (laying off 80 cops doesn't help you do your job); 3) When Jean Quan announced her campaign to run for Mayor of Oakland, Batts realized he needed to get a new job, so he went job hunting and kept his potential transfer to SJPD quiet until after the elections, once he had a chance to meet and work with Jean Quan, he realized that there is no way he wanted to be around her and therefore announced his new employment situation: After all, when Jean Quan is going to appoint a police hating lawyer to "consult" with OPD, things are not going end well.  Those are the three ideas we've come up with; we suspect reason number three is probably the most accurate.

If Batts does leave Oakland, which he will, it will be really interesting to see what Jean Quan and Dan Siegel come up with as his replacement.  As we've said in the past, expect things to get worse for Oakland, not better.

[Oakland will suffer setback if police chief leaves]
[Police chief's San Jose interview surprises Oakland]