Frederick Column: New thinking required to mitigate California violence

Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive

The shootout in Sacramento that left six dead and 10 wounded once again underlines the irrefutable fact that one-trick-pony progressives who blame guns first for everything do not have a common-sense answer to California violence.

Look, with each episode over the years of mass violence in the Golden State, legislators have enacted ever-tightening gun laws.

Yet, Sacramento still happened. 

Why? 

Because none of the laws in place make any difference. It wasn’t assault guns, it was handguns. And it wasn’t legally purchased handguns, but illegal handguns. So, if I may be so bold as to say, controlling the legal purchase of guns – outside of outright banning them, which is unconstitutional – California is clearly on the wrong track.

Gov. Gavin Newsom immediately blamed guns. How the hell would he know since he phoned in that assessment while on vacation at an undisclosed location in South America? President Joe Biden woke from his afternoon nap to say the same thing. They both did this without knowing a damn thing about what happened. 

It’s now a week later and police are still working the investigation. Rival gangs are strongly indicated. Shocker. Here are news accounts of two of the people allegedly involved: 

SMILEY MARTIN

Brother of Dandrae Martin, below, Smiley posted a live Facebook video of himself brandishing a handgun hours before gunfire erupted. He was arrested while hospitalized with serious injuries from the Sacramento massacre. Martin was released from prison on probation in February — less than a year after prosecutors implored the state parole board not to release him early from a 10-year sentence, noting his convictions for possessing an assault weapon, thefts and beating a girlfriend he encouraged to be a prostitute. “Martin’s criminal conduct is violent and lengthy,” a Sacramento prosecutor wrote in a letter. “Martin has committed several felony violations and clearly has little regard for human life and the law.”

DANDRAE MARTIN

This 26-year-old habitual criminal was convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence upon a spouse or partner in Riverside County and sentenced to 30 days in jail. Two years later, he was convicted of attempting to commit aggravated assault in Maricopa County and served a stint in an Arizona prison. Two years after that, he was convicted of criminal damage, but another charge — assault causing fear of physical injury — was dismissed.

You tell me: Are guns the problem or is the system that lets these kinds of bad apples out into society the problem? Clearly, we need some new – and less politically driven – thinking on American violence. California coddling of criminals ain’t workin’. Time to do something different.

BAD TIMING?

In the “Bad Timing” file I point out that Valerie Biden Owens, the younger sister of United States President Joe Biden, will appear in-person in Marin at the Leadership Lecture Series presented by Dominican University of California in partnership with Book Passage. 

She’ll be here on Monday (April 18) as talk of the indictment of her nephew, Hunter Biden, swirls wildly in the winds of Washington, D.C. If he’s indicted, will she show? If she shows, will she get a question from the moderator while on stage? 

As a sidebar on how Facebook and Twitter pulled a punch on the Hunter Biden laptop story, the Washington Post reported: “Amid new reporting by The Washington Post, verifying the authenticity of thousands of emails purportedly from the laptop of Hunter Biden, and the New York Times, which authenticated some messages in the cache, the social media giants are facing fresh scrutiny.”

As they should. Facebook and Twitter not only look bad in this revelation, they look untrustworthy. 

WAR CRIMES

The Associated Press – one of the few remaining news sources still reliable on the worldwide front – is reporting horrific stories “tumbling out of Ukrainian towns like Bucha in the wake of the withdrawal of Russian troops.” The depravity is on “a scale  recalling the barbarities of Cambodia, the Balkans, World War II.”

The AP reports: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the killings as “genocide” and “war crimes,” and U.S. President Joe Biden said Vladimir Putin was “a war criminal” who should be brought to trial.

So why are we not more swiftly moving against Russian forces in Ukraine to end the horror?

It makes no sense. If war crimes are taking place – as the president says – then we or the United Nations has gotta move in to stop it, don’t we? Right now, Joe Biden looks Neville Chamberlain-ish to me. (Google it, if you must.) 

ONLY IN MARIN

At a recent public hearing on housing in San Rafael it was stated that a household of four earning less than $91,350 in Marin County is considered “very low income.” A household of four earning up to $146,350 is considered low income. Take that in for a moment.

ONE MORE THING

– A bad lemon is still a lemon. So, what’s a good lemon?

– I dropped a jar of Hellmann’s on my foot. I had to go to Mayo.

– I love putting on warm underwear fresh from the dryer. Plus, it’s fun to look around the laundromat and see who they belong to. 

Thanks for reading. Until next week, avoid soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.

(“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman Frederick for the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Frederick  is a long-time 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.)