February 10, 2023

Anti-incarceration SJW activist dies after brutal robbery in Oakland

By Thomas Lifson

The large and influential social justice warrior community in the San Francisco Bay Area is reeling with the news of the death of one of their prominent members, 48-year-old Jennifer Angel. Ms. Angel was the founder and owner of a well-known bakery in Oakland, Angel Cakes, and was an outspoken and active proponent of left-wing causes, as acknowledged in a statement issued by family and friends following her death.

YouTube screengrab (cropped)

We know Jen would not want to continue the cycle of harm by bringing state-sanctioned violence to those involved in her death or to other members of Oakland’s rich community. 

As a long-time social movement activist and anarchist, Jen did not believe in state violence, carceral punishment, or incarceration as an effective or just solution to social violence and inequity. The outpouring of support and care for Jen, her family and friends, and the values she held dear is a resounding demonstration of the response to harm that Jen believed in: community members relying on one another, leading with love, centering the needs of the most vulnerable, and not resorting to vengeance and inflicting more harm. 

Jen believed in a world where everyone has the ability to live a dignified and joyful life and worked toward an ecologically sustainable and deeply participatory society in which all people have access to the things they need, decisions are made by those most directly affected by them, and all people are free and equal. 

The robbery that was to cost Jennifer Angel her life was described in the San Francisco Chronicle this way:

Angel Cakes owner Jennifer Angel was leaving her parking spot in the garage of the Wells Fargo on the 2000 block of Webster Street on Monday afternoon when a car pulled up in front of her and blocked her from leaving, her fiance, Ocean Mottley, told The Chronicle. A robber then broke her passenger side window and grabbed something from the car, after which Angel ran after the thieves, suspects, Mottley said.

In the process of trying to chase them down, Angel, 48, got caught in the door of the fleeing vehicle and was dragged more than 50 feet before falling in the middle of the street, hitting her head multiple several times, Mottley said.