There may not have been many people attending a Recall Sheng Thao rally on Tuesday in Oakland, but it’s making headlines anyway, as a businessman walking past was yelled at from onstage, confronted the speaker, and mayhem ensued.

With one week to go before the November 5 vote whether to recall Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao and Alameda County DA Pamela Price, a group of activists behind the recall effort held a Tuesday rally outside Oakland City Hall to draw attention to the cause. While the rally had about 20 people onstage, the video below from independent journalist Michelle Dione shows that there were only about four audience members in attendance, one of whom was seemingly there just to heckle.


But as Oaklandside reports, the rally quickly devolved into a shouting match when a passerby was called out by name by rally organizer Seneca Scott. That passerby was Ray Bobbitt, co-founder of the African American Sports and Entertainment Group which is buying the Oakland Coliseum. Seneca Scott, meanwhile, ran against Thao for mayor in 2022 and finished in seventh place, and has had a couple misdemeanor gun charges against him.

Bobbitt told Oaklandside that the ralliers started “taunting” him, and so in his words “I walked over and I was gonna take the mic and have a dialogue.”

Dialogue, indeed. KTVU has video of the fracas, and Scott can be heard yelling, “Get away from me! Get away from me!”, and “You’re a loser!”, and “Security! Security!”

Several other ralliers get in Bobbitt’s face, and after a few minutes of back-and-forth, Bobbitt is escorted away.


“I came here for business and was walking by, and they see me walking by, and started yelling my name,” Bobbitt told reporters afterward. “So I just went up and see if maybe they wanted to have a dialogue. I’m not here for any other reason than just to finish my transaction. I’m not over here to have a confrontation.”

A spokesperson for the campaign opposing the recall told Oaklandside that “This is an example of the sort of chaos the recall campaign seeks to create in Oakland,” adding, “The mayor is working on the most significant investment and opportunity for East Oakland in our lifetime. Foot traffic is up in downtown Oakland.”

Bobbitt’s AASEG has revised their Coliseum purchase deal to pay more money but spread payments over a longer timeline, which has raised the ire of recall advocates.

Related: Sheng Thao Insists She Was Not a Target of FBI Raid in Fiery Chronicle Interview [SFist]

Image: @RecallShengThao via Twitter