I can't speak for Oakland specifically. But when I see police departments with lots of fancy combat gear, but with minimal fitness standards and minimal training in things like unarmed combat, I can't help but feel like the people are not getting their tax money's worth.
Threatening to defund the police generally lowers the quality of your existing police. Pretend you run a business and say you are cutting salaries. Employees will look for other jobs or just be demotivated in general. Couple that with an increasing hostile work environment, you have the situation at hand.
Do you work as hard when you know management is gunning for your job?
So the excuse is that the police are allowing shootings and other crimes because they aren't motivated enough? Because they might be held to a higher standard? Because they might not get their awesome new toys? Stop treating them like children. I'm amazed when people will go to any lengths to excuse the police.