The effort to recall Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price is moving forward.
A group called Save Alameda for Everyone, or SAFE, on Tuesday submitted 127 signatures to officially file a notice of intent to recall the district attorney.
Price, who also faces accusations of nepotism, is seven months into her tenure as the county district attorney. She ran on a platform to reform and transform the justice system, but critics accuse her of being soft on crime.
Virginia Nishita is a member of SAFE and a widow of a murder victim said enough is enough.
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"I don't want any family to suffer what we have suffered," Nishita said. "I don't want anyone to go through this. I don't want anyone to struggle each day with the trauma.
SAFE is made up of community leaders, activists, residents and victim's family members.
Nishita's husband, Kevin Nishita, was a security guard who was shot and killed in 2021.
Members of the recall group blame Price's progressive policies for an increase in crime and fear Nishita's case and others are not being prosecuted aggressively.
"She has to change her ways and think about us, the victims," Nishita said. "We are the public. We are the people she needs to be protecting. That's what the DA is supposed to be for. She is not the public defender."
Lorie Moh’s lost her son after he was shot and killed during a theft at a Home Depot in Pleasanton, where he worked as a security guard.
“To think that my son’s case could go to trial with Price at the helm, it destroys me,” she said.
Moh fears her progressive policies surrounding enhancements will result in a reduced sentence.
“She is only charging possession of a gun, she is not charging death and discharge,” she said. “This woman shot my child.”
Price stands for criminal justice reform but her critics believe her strategy to make the justice system fair by reducing certain sentences, and declining to charge certain suspects-amounts to being soft on crime.
“Committing a small crime and not facing any consequences, they will go on. And the thing is, when all these crimes are happening, most of them are repeat offenders,” said community leader Carl Chan.
The Alameda County District Attorney's Office referred NBC Bay Area's request for comment on the recall effort to Price's campaign, which did not respond.
Price now has 10 days to respond to the recall notice. After that, a committee can start gathering the more than 90,000 legal signatures required to put the issue on a ballot. The group expects recall efforts to cost around $8 million.
