A Halloween Trick at the San Diego City Council

Like having a fox guard the henhouse, only sleazier..

Update —Monday, 4:45pm —former San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore has withdrawn his name for consideration of a position with the Ethics Commission.

The past meets the future at city hall on Tuesday morning as the City Council hears public comment regarding the proposed appointment of former County Sheriff Bill Gore to the Ethics Commission. 

Gore abruptly retired as sheriff in 2022, simultaneously with the release of a scathing state audit on county jail deaths concluding that the agency "has failed to adequately prevent and respond to" the problem.

Gore’s tenure included bad practices at the jail beyond the state report’s purview, including shackling inmates while in labor, failing to provide mental health care, allowing private prison companies to exploit inmates and their families, enabling vaccination denialist practices, and failing to protect transgender inmates from violence.

There was also the matter of illegal firearm sales at the Sheriff’s Department’s Rancho San Diego substation. And the payouts for sexual harassment and assault.

The sheriff's department during his term was a nationally recognized practitioner of copaganda, i.e., manipulating public opinion to shape expectations of law enforcement. His agency responded to critical reporting by claiming to have already addressed issues raised and saying a highly respected auditor in charge didn’t know what he was talking about.

They were one of the first law enforcement organizations claiming officer exposure to fentanyl caused harm, a performative fraud still being carried out by police departments nationwide, despite scientific pushback.

Gore’s stunt was so famous that it warranted an entry at the National Library of Medicine:

• In August 2021, San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore released a dramatic video allegedly depicting a deputy overdosing on fentanyl following incidental exposure during an investigation in the field. The film asserts the deputy only survived thanks to the swift action of his colleagues, who administered four doses of intranasal naloxone, first two within seconds of his collapse, then again minutes later. Blowback from experts came swiftly: toxicologists have found it is impossible to inhale or transdermally absorb enough fentanyl to quickly overdose (Moss et al., 2018). The deputy’s symptoms were inconsistent with an opioid overdose, and the video’s narration contained inaccuracies about overdose identification and response. Misinformation about the risks of incidental exposure to fentanyl has proven to be persistent among U.S. law enforcement (Attaway et al., 2021; Beletsky et al., 2020). It is critical to correct these misconceptions and ensure appropriate response. 

The former Sheriff was nominated to the Ethics Commission by Councilmember Jen Campbell, responding to memos from Mayor Todd Gloria’s office about impending vacancies and requesting nominations.

The Ethics Commission has not had a full board since the final term of Kevin Faulconer’s administration. With 3 out of 7 positions vacant as of a month ago, the city’s enforcer of campaign-finance and other rules was legally unable to act against violators.

Gore’s nomination has been met with negative comments, from both the public and local media.

The Union-Tribune (which endorsed Gore several times for reelection) wrote an unusually strong editorial opposing the nomination, headline: “Gloria’s nomination of Gore to ethics board isn’t just tone-deaf. It’s off the wall.”

The subhead was even stronger:

• The former sheriff has so much baggage it would clog an airport carousel. Yet the mayor thinks he’s the right person to be an arbiter of ethics in City Hall?

An aide in the mayor’s office responded to a message from the UT editors notifying them about their position and offering a document proving his lack of judgment:

• “That’s almost comically stretching to make past jail operations relevant.”

The OB Rag reposted other criticism, including letters to the editor of the city’s newspaper of record.

Gore’s nomination is further proof that local governments are well along the road to becoming a kakistocracy, i.e.,  being run by the worst, least qualified, or most unscrupulous citizens.

It’s a good thing that Bill Gore’s tenure is being recognized as a bad thing. It’s not a good thing that his actions are being considered as individual failings. 

There’s a collective aspect to elected officials’ endorsements over the years of the man widely known for treating pretrial incarceration, and involuntary imprisonment in lieu of treatment as punishment. 

Inmate deaths these days are simply collateral damage of sanctioned violence and/or neglect used as a means of revenge for existing as an “other.”  In a world where those making demands for reform are treated as agents of chaos, operating a shop of horrors is the ultimate eff you.

Practically speaking, copaganda is also about deflecting attention from data suggesting that current practices are inefficient and/or ineffective. We should all be pondering the results of a study showing that releasing SD jail inmates during the pandemic had no consistent impact on crime. Needless to say, police officials have a litany of reasons why this study is bunk.

Much of law enforcement views themselves as at war with electeds, and the non-MAGA portion of voters. This is part of the larger conflict in progress between advocates for secular democracy and a theocratic autocracy.

Locally, observers who appreciate this reality are saying this nomination (along with the molasses-like implementation of a police oversight mechanism approved by 70%+ of voters) proves the city administration’s fealty to the SD Police Officers Association.

Whatever. Gore’s nomination is just another bit of evidence proving the influence of the same-old, same-old wise guys. I suspect that item# 330 being removed from “consent” items on the City Council agenda means somebody’s nervous about this particular nomination. The former sheriff, should this appointment fail, will ride off into the sunset claiming he was “canceled,” impervious to the pain and suffering by so many families.  

(Share your views online with the council -by 8 am Tuesday, no longer than 550 words- on item #330 here. * For more information on San Diego’s Ethics Commission, go here.)

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And in Other News

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Why the Mayor Didn’t Attract a Major Opponent Via Scott Lewis at Voice of San Diego’s Politics Report.

• So why didn’t Gloria attract a prominent opponent? Yes, Larry Turner, a police officer who will be raising money this weekend in Sunset Cliffs is running and certainly could make an impact on the race. But it won’t be easy or cheap and he has almost no name recognition.

• The short answer, I’m sure, from the mayor’s camp is that he’s just so great that nobody even wants to run against him and few people would support anyone who did.

• But it is more interesting and complicated than that.

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Commonly Used Herbicide is Harmful to Adolescent Brain Function Via UC San Diego Today

• The authors reported that 2,4-D was negatively associated with performance in all five neurobehavioral areas, but statistically significant associations were observed with attention and inhibitory control, memory and learning, and language. Glyphosate had a significant negative association only with social perception, a test that measures the ability to recognize emotions, while DEET metabolites were not associated with neurobehavioral alterations.

• “Hundreds of new chemicals are released into the market each year, and more than 80,000 chemicals are registered for use today,” said Suarez. “Sadly, very little is known about the safety and long-term effects on humans for most of these chemicals. Additional research is needed to truly understand the impact.”

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The Christofascism of Mike Johnson by Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice:

• Does the Bible tell you to say “shut up” when confronted with your past history of totalitarianism, science denial, bigotry, ignorance, and general awfulness? If you’re Mike Johnson it probably does, because for Christofascists the Bible says whatever they want. For the new speaker of the House, that means dinosaurs on Noah’s Ark. It also means punishing you (and you too) if you have sex outside of marriage. It means overthrowing elections when godly dude Mike Johnson is unhappy with the results. It means lying about Mike Johnson’s positions when it’s convenient for Mike Johnson to do so.

• And why not? It’s all for the greater glory of God, after all. Specifically, the greater glory of a God who looks remarkably like the new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.

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Here’s yer earworm for the week. It’s gibberish, but the dancing is cool.