San Diego's Deputy Sheriffs Try to Play the Victim Card
David Leonhardi, president of the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association of San Diego County, has weighed in on the state of police community relations with an op-ed at the Union Tribune featuring “We...have had enough” in the title.
In the second paragraph he gets to the heart of the matter: despite all the bad things people have been saying about police, San Diego Sheriffs are still showing up every day to do their jobs. Oh, and he implies (now corrected on-line) that 8 police officers have died in recent protests.
Leonardi goes on to say some very bad apples have done bad things and, as a result, his crew are not getting the support they deserve. Then he gets to the heart of the matter:
Our members — the men and women of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department — have had enough. I say it again: We have had enough. Many may think deputies and other law enforcement officers have the freedom to choose which laws they enforce and how they enforce them, but nothing could be further from the truth. Deputies are trained according to standards set by legislators in Sacramento, and we enforce laws that come down from politicians and others in the government. We do recognize the need for change in other areas throughout the country, but we can be proud of the fact that San Diego County is ahead of the curve when it comes to law enforcement training, practices and policies.
Five policy moves, dating back to 1990 and ending with the recent ban on cartid restraints are listed in the op-ed as proof of how reform-minded SD Sheriffs are.
My personal favorite out of the bunch is suggesting that the County Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) is some sort of progress. Tell that to the 22 people in county detention facilities or while being taken into custody whose deaths weren’t investigated because CLERB didn’t meet a legal deadline other oversight groups in the state say doesn’t apply.
I know that nobody with the Sheriff's Department ordered those cases not to be investigated, but I do know the culture of policing at the county level sees oversight as an intrusion, with elected officials who share that viewpoint being considered allies.
Speaking of legal deadlines, how about the 15 lawsuits filed in the past year accusing San Diego Sheriff Bill Gore and his deputies of wrongful death, excessive force and other civil rights violations?
How about the $1.8 million in settlements in the first five months of this year paid out after being presented to the County Board of Supervisors?
From 2009 to the May 2019, the county paid $7.9 million to resolve 30 legal claims filed by injured inmates or the families of people who died in San Diego County jails.
These payments come from taxpayer dollars because San Diego County is self-insured.
From the May 31, 2020 Union-Tribune:
The details change from lawsuit to lawsuit, but the same allegations appear in many of the complaints — excessive use of force, lack of training and failure to follow department policies.
Some of the lawsuits include lists of other suits, recounting the Sheriff’s Department’s alleged failure to protect the public or to discipline misbehaving deputies. Many of the suits accuse deputies of exercising force first, rather than as a last resort.
The department has known for years about the problems they have with operating jails in San Diego County.
The Union-Tribune published a six-month investigation examining deaths in San Diego County jails in September. The report showed the county has the highest jail-mortality rate among California’s six largest counties.
Journalist Kelly Davis has been writing about jail deaths since 2013. The department’s responses have included platitudes, denials, and increased opacity on releasing data. The “new policies and training” haven’t stopped two suicides this year.
I am perfectly aware that the Deputy Sheriffs association does not set standards or make policy for the department. But, again, they do make it a point to enable those responsible for this mess.
Blaming Sacramento and politicians for policies that the Deputy Sheriffs lobbied for or funded the candidates who wrote those policies just doesn’t cut it.
The Deputies Association fought hard against reform candidates for both San Diego Sheriff and County District Attorney in 2018. And the (constitutionally protected, but still distasteful) political activities of these sorts of organizations have acquired such a bad reputation that refusal to accept their campaign contributions are rapidly becoming a standard to which candidates are measured.
UPDATE: The San Diego County Democratic Party has declared that its elected officials and candidates should reject political contributions from Law Enforcement Unions and that those who have taken those funds contribute those funds to organizations who work in the realm of racial justice, criminal justice reform, or that elevate the Black community, Indigenous community, and other communities of color.
All this is not to say the Sheriffs don't work hard or work jobs with a higher level of danger, or that they’re not good people with families. Calling out misconduct and demanding a re-evaluation of how the biggest item in local budgets gets spent isn’t about the basic humanity of law enforcement officers.
Playing the victim, as the Sheriffs Association is trying to do in this op-ed, does not obliviate the underlying problems of policing in the United States.
This is a tone-deaf move, and the “had enough” part implies the local Deputy Sheriffs are ready to take things into their own hands.
Does “had enough” mean they support the officers in Atlanta who responded to charges being filed after a well-documented extrajudicial killing by not responding to calls? Does “had enough’ mean smearing a 75 year old activist (with a long and easily documented history of non-violence) unable to walk due to unnecessary force as Antifa?
Do tell, what exactly is “has enough” other than a threat?
How can one write about policing and the public outcry without mentioning the word “racism” once? And I’m guessing a nod to “Black Lives Matter” is just beyond the pale.
Deputy Sheriffs in San Diego had a horrible outing just a couple of years back, doing the absolute minimum as members of right wing extremist Proud Boys disrupted a peaceful and legal protest outside the County Administration building.
The lack of interest in responding to complaints about their conduct sent a very clear message, one that can’t be ignored as law enforcement overlap with social media groups dedicated to hate speech continue to be exposed.
Will this tough guy talk in the UT op-ed by Leonhardi inspire some additional “enforcement” aimed at protesters?
The ongoing protests and raised consciousness since the murder of George Floyd aren’t going away, and the public is aware that the time for more than cosmetic changes is upon us.
If the Deputy Sheriffs Association was really concerned about improved policies and practices, they’d understand that more than 9 in 10 Americans support requiring the police to intervene and stop excessive force by fellow officers.
This seems like a simple enough ask. Except that it cuts to the very heart of the problems with policing. A few “bad apples” are causing the whole bushel to rot, and nobody wants to do anything about it lest they be labeled as a snitch.
The laxness surrounding disciplinary records for law enforcement officers means an overly rotten apple can easily find a new home.
Sadly, when police find themselves under the microscope, the all-too-familiar victim card gets played.
One need look no further than the faux Shake Shack incident, where restaurant employees were accused by NYC police unions of deliberately poisoning police, only to have the accusation walked back upon further examination.
Libby Watson at The New Republic looked into the how and why of this tactic:
Cops lashing out against powerless and innocent McDonald’s employees, involving them in their grand ideas of a conspiracy against the boys in blue, makes sense if you recognize that what really matters to them is holding, exercising, and preserving power. It is desperate and pathetic to see—they are unhappy with merely being revered by most of society, and demand total subjugation.
When the cops stir up fake stories of poisoned milkshakes, they are not just complaining about a particular restaurant; they are trying to call the manager on American society, for the crime of being insufficiently deferential. It should be a scandal when public servants, who supposedly operate under the trust of the public, behave this way. But like so many bad restaurant bosses, instead of laughing them out of the store, we bend over backward to make them comfortable.
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San Diego? Maybe a good idea…
https://twitter.com/TopherJNeely/status/1273272810975236096?s=20
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