Sheriff Scott Jones is right. You don’t want cops enforcing the COVID response debacle
It’s safe to say that I have been the harshest critic of Sheriff Scott Jones in the last five years so this is going to sound weird:
I agree with Jones’ refusal to use his officers to enforce county and statewide COVID-19 directives.
Jones is absolutely right. We don’t need cops – especially his cops – trying to shut down businesses that flout the ever confusing, ever contradictory COVID-19 directives of our poor excuse for a California governor. We don’t want Sacramento County deputies shutting down bars, stopping people on the street, arresting people, incarcerating people.
We’re only talking about the question of whether Jones’ troops should become the COVID police because Jones has COVID-19. That revelation this week spawned headlines that connected these ironic dots: The sheriff who refuses to police COVID-19 has COVID-19.
When that news broke, more than one friend tried to wind me up to dunk on Jones, but I refused. First, its not funny when anyone gets COVID-19. Second, pretty much every law enforcement agency in this region is refusing to use police muscle to combat our selfish, foolish, destructive refusal to mask up for the welfare of our neighbors.
And third, as I already stated, I don’t want local cops getting in the act. I really don’t want to see people taking to the streets to protest one of Jones’ cops actions while policing a COVID-19 violation.
Jones’ logical argument
Jones took to Facebook on Thursday to defend himself:
“...what level of force would be appropriate for officers to use to enforce them if folks resist compliance? And what if there is tolerance for SOME violations but not others – say a social justice protest versus a wedding? What if a public official violates them, as we’ve seen on the news, should they be arrested? Should violators be cited at the scene and left to continue violating, or should they be booked into jail? Should we use law enforcement to shut down businesses? What level of investigative resources should we dedicate to determine if someone is out of their home for an “essential purpose”? There are clearly more questions than answers.”
Those are all excellent points that I would argue have not been contemplated in detail by other public officials, media critics, the public, the governor, liberal elected officials and other Jones’ critics. The same people who would want Jones to enforce confusing COVID-19 directives would be the first to scream if something went haywire when he did.
“As for me, one Sheriff in one jurisdiction, I’m not going to put my officers in that position,” Jones wrote. “I am going to encourage folks to continue to call us when they need us, and assure them that we will show up and help in whatever way we can to make the situation better, not worse. I am going to continue as I have from Day 1 of this pandemic, educating folks when necessary so they can continue to make the best decisions for their and their family’s safety.”
Again, that’s a reasonable position and it demonstrates what we knew about Jones before he decided to become the Conservative Warrior Sheriff. Before he ran for Congress and lost in 2016, the point of demarcation in him becoming a conservative idealogue instead of just the sheriff, this was a guy whose company I enjoyed very much.
The sheriff’s evolution
Jones had a sense of humility, of reason and proportion that ultimately gave way to Trump-era grandstanding.
But he traveled to the White House and pandered to President Donald Trump about immigration. He trolled Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg for refusing to call the national guard after Jones’ downtown windows were broken. Jones locked the county Inspector General out of his building when the IG filed a report he didn’t like.
The cumulative effect of Jones’ bombast invites scorn now. If you act like a troll in public, and he has, chances are you’ll get trolled in public, and he is.
All I had to do was post The Bee story of Jones COVID-19 diagnosis on my Facebook for the raspberries to come hard and fast.
“Couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” was the refrain. It’s not right, but Jones invited that.
Misplaced anger
It’s ultimately misplaced, however. Jones is not the guilty party in this COVID-19 response debacle. No, this one is all on Gov. Gavin Newsom. Mr French Laundry has proved he is not up to this job when it got tough.
Today Newsom deserves scorn for eating at a fancy restaurant when the state tells us we shouldn’t. He deserves to be excoriated for sending his kids to a fancy private school, where classes are in session, while those of us with kids in public school watch them lose out.
Newsom has left returning to school up to each individual school district, which in this state means the California Teachers Association is running the show. In my district, the Sacramento City Teachers Association runs roughshod over our district. It pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into school board elections resulting in good people hounded out of office. Meanwhile, the racial achievement gap gets worse and lost learning becomes more pronounced among kids of color. CTA gets what they want.
Does Newsom give a damn about that? Does he lose sleep over that?
Journalism colleagues of mine point out that more than a month has passed since he seriously discussed the situation at our public schools.
Where is the leader of the state Senate? AWOL. Where is the Speaker of the Assembly? AWOL.
The legislature and the governor – Democrats all – have failed California in a pandemic.
Jones is right not to trust these people. The COVID-19 crisis in California is a political failure, not a law enforcement failure. Don’t blame Scott Jones for this one.
This story was originally published December 4, 2020 at 11:35 AM.
