How blue ribbons turned from simple coronavirus gesture of thanks to anger over police

Months ago, as the coronavirus crisis set in, Greenhaven resident Greg Alves tied blue ribbons on the trees in his front yard to honor health care workers on the front lines, a move many of his neighbors also followed.

At 11:53 a.m. Monday, Alves’ Ring doorbell camera captured a man walking up and leaving a note on his front door admonishing him for hanging a pro-police “Blue Lives Matter” ribbon that the note said “sends the message that you don’t care about the killing of civilians.”

The note included a Sacramento County email address at the bottom, and the Ring video Alves provided to The Bee shows the man was David Lynch, a high-profile assistant public defender who is currently representing Golden State Killer suspect Joseph James DeAngelo Jr.

“We put these blue ribbons up to make a statement about COVID-19,” Alves said Tuesday morning. “It’s not cool to sit around and make a judgment like that.

“I’m really intimidated by that. I’m not comfortable with this at all.”

Lynch, contacted Tuesday, said he was told the blue ribbons displayed on a street in the Greenhaven neighborhood next to a Black Lives Matter demonstration were Blue Lives Matter symbols.

“I delivered the notices the next day because I thought that it was likely that some people did not know that a Blue Lives Matter ribbon would send a message that they do not care about innocent citizens being brutalized and, for those that were open to debate, a few thoughts on why the blue lives matter movement misses the point,” Lynch said Tuesday via email.

“I offered a solution – material changes to police accountability investigations - and, because it is only right to do so, I gave my contact information,” he said.

The contact information was Lynch’s Sacramento County email address.

Lynch’s boss, Sacramento County Public Defender Steven Garrett, said Tuesday that the county office had no part in crafting the letter.

“He’s speaking as an individual,” Garrett said, calling the letter flap “an issue with his neighbors.”

Lynch, on Tuesday, said he received an email from one of the letter’s recipients explaining the intent behind the blue ribbons.

“He basically said I misunderstood and, clearly, I did,” Lynch said.

Alves said his entire neighborhood had posted blue ribbons out front to support health care workers, and that the one-page fliers had been dropped off at numerous homes, including one where the residents were so taken aback they pulled their ribbons down.

“I would never think of coming onto one’s property,” Alves said. “I’m 64, I grew up here, and this is not OK.”

The note left on Alves’ door appears to be related to the protests against the killing of George Floyd sweeping the nation, which has seen public defenders’ offices in many places take stands against police use of force.

On Monday in Sacramento, the same day the note was left on Alves’ door, public defenders staged a “die-in” in the courtyard of the Sacramento County Courthouse downtown to call attention to racial injustice and police abuses.

The note left on Alves’ door does not specifically mention the Floyd case, but mentions that “there are hundreds of examples of police officers intentionally using unnecessary deadly force and not even being charged with any crime.”

“People universally agree that officer lives matter and that killing police is wrong,” the note said. “And nobody decries the prosecution of someone who intentionally killed an officer.

“Accordingly, you blue ribbon doesn’t just send a message that you are against the killing of police (as are we all), it sends the message that you don’t care about the killing of civilians. Regardless of whether this is the message you want it to give, that ribbon gives it.”

The note goes on to say that most “good police officers have nothing to fear” from having misconduct complaints investigated.

“Whether you agree with these positions or not, your Blue Lives Matter ribbon is a message that you are not even open to discussing reform,” the note concludes. “That you simply don’t care.”

Actually, Alves said, the message the ribbon sent simply was to support nurses, doctors and others during the pandemic, and the fact that someone came onto his property to protest his feelings is insulting.

“I grew up in Sacramento,” Alves said. “Sacramento’s not like that. My response is that I put my American flag up for freedom of speech.”