Properly Subversive/Sherman R. Frederick
It’s been hard on good cops post George Floyd. Our public discussion on policing too often threw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater. In particular, the “defund the police” movement grew into an anti-cop crescendo with little attention to the real world on the streets that cops face everyday on our behalf.
More’s the pity. And, sadly, many cops who could get out of law enforcement, got out.
One guy stuck around, however: Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle. We owe him a debt of gratitude. He took a lot of guff from those who tried to paint the Marin Sheriff’s Department as the local poster boy in need for police reform. He pushed back on that political masturbation to defend the department’s professionalism. Now he’s on the verge of retirement.
He has led the Marin County Sheriff’s Department for 26 years. As a newspaper, we sometimes bumped into the sheriff in the tussle over public information. But, despite his crusty edges, we found him accountable and responsible. A good cop dedicated to public safety.
Thanks for your service, Bob.
BETTER IDEA
A reader with inside knowledge of how Marin public schools work sent me this after reading last week’s column on Sausalito Marin City getting $712,000 for five years to create one – one!? – position to allegedly make the district into something called a “community” school.
The reader says: “Instead of paying one administrator $ 712,000 over 5 years, give each of the 25.4 Sausalito school teachers $ 5,606.29 per year for five years to spend on whatever strategies they thought would best help their students. Which do you think would produce the best results? “The first ‘can’ be an effective approach, the second ‘would’ be an effective approach.”
ASK DAY?
I found this to be a strange public service advisory. It’s from the Marin County Office of Education Facebook page.
“This Tuesday, June 21, is #ASKDay! It’s the first day of summer when kids often visit other homes and have less supervision. If your child is going on a playdate, ask if there’s a gun in the home.”
With a mom who asks questions like that, will that kid get any playdates? I wonder.
OH, THE HYPOCRISY
There is more than a bit of irony in the unfolding story of WNBA star Brittney Griner, who sits in a Russian jail after being detained for allegedly transporting hashish oil in her luggage.
Don’t get me wrong. This is not a condemnation of Griner, a seven-time WNBA All-Star and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year. She’s as much a political prisoner as anyone in the post U.S./Russia tension over the war in Ukraine.
But the WNBA as a sports league has for years used the freedoms cherished in this county to roast the United States for being a rotten country filled with institutional aggression against people of color. Many of the WNBA players and fans use the sport to denounce the ‘evil’ American status quo and for just about every liberal cause the sports leaders can think of.
Free speech exercised by the WNBA is, of course, wonderful. But it is ironic that the country that allows such tolerance is now the country the WNBA is begging to “do something” to get Ms. Griner back on U.S. soil.
Weird, right?
Griner wanted the WNBA to stop playing the National Anthem before games. That was then. Now she’s experiencing what a real “evil” country is like. The irony is compounded when you know that Griner appealed to the liberal Biden Administration for help, and no help came for months.
Griner’s wife told Good Morning America that she reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow 11 times and received zero response. Zero, she said. What kind of Embassy doesn’t return phone calls from Americans in trouble?
It wasn’t until the case reached national attention did the Embassy get involved. And, so far, the Embassy has failed to get the job done.
Look, Griner needs help. And, Biden should pull out the stops to get her released and returned to America. Whatever it takes, do it.
And, if it is not too much to ask, the WNBA might want to take an introspective moment and consider ending the nightly knee-bending ritual of calling America an evil, racist country.
Just a thought.
ONE MORE THING
– I will make no more Great Lakes jokes from Huron out.
– Men keep secrets better than women because they weren’t really listening anyway.
– What did Spartacus say when the lion ate his wife? Nothing. He was gladiator.
Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.
(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
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