by Katya Rapoport Sedgwick at legalinsurrection.com
When a high profile anarchist dies in a robbery, what is there to do but to say a prayer for Oakland?
On Monday, Angel was sitting inside her car behind a bank on Webster Street in Oakland when a thief broke into the car and grabbed her purse. The robber darted into a getaway vehicle that was waiting nearby, police said.
“The victim exited their vehicle and attempted to retrieve their stolen belongings from the individual. While the victim struggled for their belongings, they were knocked to the ground and sustained injuries,” the Oakland Police Department told KRON4.
The passage describes the circumstances under which the 48-year-old Jennifer Angel of Oakland, CA sustained life-threatening injuries. It happened in broad daylight—during the lunch hour, as a matter of fact—in the Lake Merritt neighborhood that twenty years ago was considered up-and-coming and was updated with heavy duty bike lanes during the lockdowns.
After being dragged fifty feet by the driver of the getaway vehicle, the victim was rushed to Highland Hospital where brain swelling was detected. She passed away three days later.
Angel was once an editor of Maximum Rock-n-Roll and the now defunct Clamor glossy. Twenty years ago, Unte Reader named Angel and her publishing partner one of their “30 under 30” generational leaders. Give yourself a point for each magazine you haven’t heard about. Before her untimely death, Angel ran a media company and a bakery, as well as producing shows at the communist KPFA radio in Berkeley.
By all accounts she comes across as an optimistic, can-do American who, in pre-Soros philanthropy days, would live her life as a quirky eccentric. I mean it approvingly. No doubt she was proud of her knowledge of obscure zines and her efforts to promote underground content creators. With money pouring into her causes, she was more successful than anyone could anticipate in the 90’s—and to her own detriment.
The victim was a veteran social justice warrior. Syndicated activist program Democracy Now! memorialized her as “actively involved in antiwar and anti-capitalist struggles through the years, including Occupy Wall Street.”
After her passing, the anarchist’s friends issued a lengthy statement that had as much to do with her as it did with her views on criminal justice—even if it’s unclear if her dying wishes might have been different. A sample:
If the Oakland Police Department does make an arrest in this case, the family is committed to pursuing all available alternatives to traditional prosecution, such as restorative justice. Jen’s family and close friends ask that the media respect this request and carry forward the story of her life with celebration and clarity about the world she aimed to build.
Jen’s family and friends ask that stories referencing Jen’s life do not use her legacy of care and community to further inflame narratives of fear, hatred, and vengeance, nor to advance putting public resources into policing, incarceration, or other state violence that perpetuates the cycles of violence that resulted in this tragedy.
This, of course, is an expected opinion from a lifetime lefty activist and her comrades. Angel probably voted for the new Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price, and I’m sure Pamela Price will oblige by her presumed wishes.
Price is one of many George Soros DA’s who in recent years dominated the down ballot races across the United States. Since assuming office in early January, in a move commonly implemented by the Soros DA’s, Price went after the human capital. She put veteran prosecutors on paid leave and fired two former investigators. In their place, the former employment and civil rights attorney brought in friends most of whom had no relevant experience as well as the staff members of former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin who was recalled in June last year.