With Philadelphia’s general election less than a month away, David Oh, the city’s Republican candidate for mayor, discussed the recent looting in Philly, his stance on stop and frisk as well as questions about his military service.
How David Oh would've handled the recent looting in Philadelphia
While speaking with NBC10’s Lauren Mayk for a recent episode of her Battleground Politics podcast, Oh shared his thoughts on the looting that occurred hours after peaceful protests were held in response to murder charges being dismissed against the officer who shot and killed Eddie Irizarry.
“We can anticipate that after a peaceful demonstration, there is a very specific group of people that like to piggyback off of that to vandalize, loot in the name of justice,” Oh said. “And what they think is – and why they think it – is because it has been communicated to them that if you loot and vandalize, if you break windows and steal things right after a peaceful protest, that you will be treated very leniently and in fact that is true. And so I think the important message to send to them is that will no longer be tolerated.”
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Battleground Politics with Lauren Mayk
Oh described how he would’ve dealt with the looting if he were mayor.
“I would’ve anticipated it, put out a show of force, of police officers and vehicles, drones, which is what I will use to line the areas where we know it’s going to happen,” Oh said. “It’s going to happen in Center City. It’s going to happen in West Philadelphia. And it’s going to happen in the lower northeast. And that’s where it has happened continuously.”
David Oh's stance on community policing and stop and frisk
Oh also spoke about the distrust between Philadelphia Police and the community in the aftermath of Irizarry’s death and the initial police report of the shooting that both surveillance and body camera videos later proved was false. Oh said he viewed community policing as a solution.
“I’m very much an advocate of community policing which really begins with this. The attitude of the police department is one of service,” Oh said.
Oh also revealed his stance on stop and frisk.
“It is the duty of officers to protect the rights of every citizen in our city and every visitor,” Oh said. “Constitutional rights. Civil rights. That is why I think it is critical that we do not employ stop and frisk tactics, particularly in neighborhoods that have a bad relationship with our police officers.”
Oh described how the relationship between police and the community impacts public service in general.
“Because when our police arrive – we need 1300 new police officers – and when they arrive in communities that have not been policed and have not had the adequate policing that they need in Center City and our tourist areas and our subway system and our schools and every other place, that should not be anything but good news,” Oh said. “And so when the police arrive, so does street cleaning. So does cleaning up the neighborhood. So does taking care of vacant lots. All of these things arrive with the police.”
Oh also talked about the potential consequences of police violating the rights of citizens.
“If police violate people’s rights, if we send out the police to have conflict and friction, which is completely our fault for instructing the police to violate people’s civil rights, then you can’t have community policing,” Oh said. “Because community policing and public safety is a marriage between the community, which are the residents and the businesses and everyone else, with the police who are there to protect them and serve them.”
David Oh addresses Green Beret controversy
Towards the end of the interview, Oh addressed a controversy that’s followed him for more than a decade; accusations that he falsely claimed to have served in the United States Army Special Forces (SF), also known as the Green Berets, due to their distinctive headgear.
While running for Philadelphia City Council in 2011, the Philadelphia Daily News reported that Oh falsely claimed to have served as a Green Beret. Oh told the Philadelphia Tribune that year that the Daily News’ article was based on a misunderstanding over military language and terminology.
Oh addressed the controversy once again while speaking with Lauren Mayk.
“There are articles written every time I’ve run since 2011 that said I did not serve in the Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets. And that has resurfaced this year,” Oh said.
Oh insisted that he did serve in the Green Berets while further explaining the reason behind the confusion.
“I served in the U.S. Army Special Forces. I served in the Green Berets. The issue is, did I claim myself to be Special Forces qualified? I have never claimed that,” Oh said. “And so the confusion arises, if you serve in a Green Beret unit, are you a Green Beret? If you wear a green beret, are you a Green Beret?”
Oh said there was different terminology when he served.
“Well the terminology when I served was different because every soldier in Special Forces, a Green Beret wore a green beret,” Oh said. “So obviously we did not distinguish each other with the term ‘Green Beret.’ We distinguished by Special Forces tab, tabbed, or Special Forces qualified, qualified, Q course qualified. This is the language that occurs. But when the uniform changed in ’93, which I was not aware of, the terminology changed. So in 2011, I’m still using the terminology of 1989, 1990 and 1991.”
Oh said that while he served in the Green Berets, he was not an “SF qualified Green Beret” during that service.
“There are three things that a Green Beret is,” Oh said. “One, it is a hat. The second thing it is, it is a unit. The people that wear the hat belong to a unit. And the third thing that it is, it represents a qualification. So it depends on which one you’re saying. So trying to take my words, and say that, ‘David Oh claimed to be a Special Forces qualified officer,’ I never did that. What I said is I served in the Special Forces and that’s absolutely true. And I also – as most veterans and Special Forces soldiers here understand – I always state that I was not SF qualified, which in the stories they try to make it as though if you weren’t Special Forces qualified, you weren’t a member of the unit. But that is their inability to understand the military unit.”
During the interview, Oh got up and grabbed documents which he claimed proved he served as a Green Beret.
“You look at the top,” Oh said while showing one of the documents to Lauren Mayk. “There’s a unit there. It says C Company First Battalion 20th Special Forces Group Airborne.”
Episode 7 of Battleground Politics with Lauren Mayk
Oh spoke on several more topics during his interview with Lauren Mayk, including his potential pick for Philadelphia’s new police commissioner, his thoughts on the shooting of Eddie Irizarry, Philadelphia’s ghost gun and gun shop lawsuits, his stance on the proposed 76ers arena and who he plans on supporting during the 2024 presidential race.
You can watch Episode 7 of Battleground Politics with Lauren Mayk in the video embedded above or listen below.
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