Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood is claiming that he wants to make Kern County a "law and order" county. He's asking Kern County supervisors to declare Kern County a "non-sanctuary" county. Specifically, he wants to make sure that Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) agents can continue to use Kern County's jails to sweep up undocumented residents, so they can be deported when they are released from jail.
As I pointed out in an earlier response to local community members, I have several problems with Sheriff Youngblood's "law and order" claim.
Let’s make this real simple.
Donny Youngblood
can’t claim to be a “law and order” sheriff if he’s refusing to honor or sign U Visas, which allow members of our undocumented population to stay in our
country as witnesses / victims during criminal trials. If anything, denying or
ignoring U Visas works against the efforts of law enforcement by making it
clear that “the law” isn’t really interested in your testimony, especially if
it reserves the right to arrest and deport both witnesses and victims during a criminal
proceeding.
Also, what kind of
message does Sheriff Youngblood’s proposed "symbolic" action say to those inclined to
commit criminal acts against our undocumented population? It says one thing, loud and clear: go ahead and do what you want in the undocumented community, because they're going to be too afraid to come forward to report, or testify in court, about the crime.
Where's the law and order there?
On another level, we shouldn't be so cavalier about what’s really happening here in Kern County, California ...
During the height of
the Proposition 187 lunacy, I had a student in my class (CSU, Bakersfield) with blonde hair and blue eyes who
always remained calm and mostly quiet during student discussions of Prop. 187.
His support for Mexicans, and his opposition to Prop. 187, took many by
surprise.
I learned from him
about 5 years later that he was an undocumented Canadian, and that he knew if
Proposition 187 passed (it did) that he too could be swept up. He made it clear he
also understood he wasn’t the target of Proposition 187, and that he could
always hide behind his whiteness, which made him feel safer. But he also felt
disgusted by his little corner of safety. He saw Prop. 187 for the race-bating
initiative that it was, and it embarrassed him. Not as an Anglo, but as a
decent human being.
He knew what was really behind the proposition.
My student passed
away about 10 years ago (cancer), but before he did he told me that he never
felt closer to people in America than he did to Mexicans during this time. Race-baiting
and hate have a way of making strange bedfellows.
Kern County deserves
better than Donny Youngblood and what he’s trying to do here.
Making an already weak and powerless community cower in fear because you think you're going to become the next Joe Arpaio is hardly inspiring. It's also not going to bring law and order to Kern County.
There's more, but I think I'll leave it there. For now.
- Mark
2 comments:
The idea that we need Sheriffs, a concept that goes back to the Norman Conquest of England, is long past the time it should have been abandoned. Politically, they are an embarrassment (i.e., Youngblood in Kern County, Sheriff Clarke in Milwaukee), and economically a waste of money and resources. Police Depts. can do everything a Sheriff's department can do and it is answerable to Mayors or Country Boards of Supervisors. Sheriff's are not. Merge the Sheriff's Departments into the police department and be done with them.
A.J.
I am proud to be a Kern County resident. We have a fabulous conservative community that cares about their residents. I grew up in So Cal but moved here in 1990. The central Valley of California is as conservative as it gets and the rest of the country forgets that as does the rest of our state.
Sheriff's are needed for the law enforcement of unincorporated portions of any state. California sheriffs, for the most part, tend to be tougher on crime than do their PD counterparts. They are elected officials so it's their community that put him/her there. I'm proud that he is standing up for his constituents and community and doing the right thing.
One last tidbit of info, Donny Young blood is the current president of the California sheriffs association. That alone should tell you something.
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