Support Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi for Social Justice in San Francisco

Last November Ross Mirkarimi was democratically elected by the people of San Francisco to be our next Sheriff. This is to urge our elected leaders to honor the will of the voters and not take any action to remove him.  On March 20th, after Ross pled guilty to a misdemeanor charge, which happened off the job, prior to him assuming the office of Sheriff on January 8th, 2012, Mayor Lee charged him with “official misconduct,” suspended him, and appointed retired Chief Deputy and Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security Head Vicky Hennessy Sheriff. This is not in the best interest of San Francisco, of democracy, or of social justice.  

 

I have been a resident of District 5 since 1983.  Ross Mirkarimi represented my district from 2004 to 2011 and because of his effective public safety track record, I wholeheartedly supported him for Sheriff.  When he took office, District 5 was being ravaged by an epidemic of youth homicides.   Thirteen months after he took office, there was a double homicide in my parking lot, and an average of another youth homicide every month for quite some time, but by the time he left office, seven years later, the epidemic had dramatically subsided.   He angered many law enforcement professionals when he fought for community policing and foot patrols, but he was so committed to his constituents, and to improving public safety and helping the youth in our district that he was not deterred. He legislated, advocated, and collaborated with the community and the violent crime dropped significantly.  Ross fought hard for his disenfranchised constituents, but that fight came at a high, personal cost. He pissed off the wrong people: people with a reactionary agenda. 

 

At his inauguration, he condemned the overrepresentation of Blacks in our city’s jails and quoted Michele Alexander, saying “Incarceration is the new Jim Crow.”  He also said that, in a city where the Black population has shrunk to only four percent, the Black population in our county jails stands at fifty percent, and that this is unacceptable.  He is correct and he has the ability to change it for the better. With effective rehabilitation programs, skills training, and mental health counseling, and other serious efforts at re-entry, we can transform the formerly troubled lives of those born to prejudice and disadvantage, and prevent the creation of more victims.

 

The state’s “realignment” plan is now transferring more prisoners from state prisons to our county jails, and more are remaining.  Sheriff Mirkarimi has the public safety experience to ensure a smooth transition and successful implementation of the realignment process, and the rehabilitation and re-entry of many of these prisoners, who have been incarcerated for low-level, nonviolent offenses. 

 

After the election, an alleged event on New Year’s Eve turned Sheriff Mirkarimi’s office and private life into a public spectacle. This should have reached a swift and low-key resolution, but because the powers that be resented the fact that progressives had actually won one city-wide office, they opportunistically violated every law, procedure, and civil right that we previously knew, and enjoyed, to commence a witch hunt against our democratically elected sheriff.  Despite scarce public resources, they recklessly squandered tax dollars on the political prosecution of a marginal offense, if it was an offense at all. A moment of family dysfunction, that warranted therapeutic intervention, was instead transformed into this city’s crime of the century. 

 

Make no mistake about it: this incident has been blown way out of proportion. Indeed, whatever “offense” occurred in that fleeting New Year’s Eve moment quickly dissipated, and pales in comparison to the agony, isolation, pain, and torture that Ross Mirkarimi’s wife Eliana Lopez has endured since 01/13/12 to the present day and beyond. From 01/13/12 through 02/08/12, the courts even traumatized their innocent toddler son by unjustifiably denying him any contact whatsoever with his Daddy, who loves and adores him. To suddenly tear a toddler away from his father is not only legally questionable, but morally unfathomably and indefensibly cruel. Who would do this?  Traumatizing a child, at this critical juncture in his development, could pre-dispose him to other problems later in life. I know Ross Mirkarimi, Eliana Lopez, and their son, and their son is doing great in spite of all this.  But, that is because his parents both show him so much love, not because of a vengeful DA who claims to be acting “in the best interest of the wife and child,” but in fact this is not the case.

 

I have raised three children as a single mother, and I know that children are resilient. Indeed, even if their son was momentarily unhappy with his parents’ argument, within five minutes, he’d have forgotten it, and moved on. But not being allowed to see his Daddy, not even allowed to communicate with him on Skype, as he was accustomed to when they were geographically apart, for nearly a month, has been far more traumatic.  Crafting that kind of a restraining order, for political purposes, takes a special kind of evil and cynicism.  Gascon is a brute, who should not be trusted with a dandelion.

 

The Mayor, the DA, the courts, and good-hearted, but in this instance, misguided domestic violence professionals, have all infantilized and marginalized Eliana as if she were just an object to be used for their own agendas, then discarded without a second thought. They showed no respect for her as a woman, or, as a human being.  They have capitalized on this isolated incident with the Sheriff, who has consistently proven himself for many years to be an ally of the people, and a good and decent man.  They have unjustly made him the poster boy for the scourge of domestic violence. 

 

Regardless of Gascon’s profoundly flawed take on this, there is reason to believe the Sheriff is factually innocent; many innocent people take pleas in order to avoid risking harsher penalties. EVERY DAY INNOCENT PEOPLE ARE CONVICTED, AND EVEN EXECUTED FOR CRIMES THEY HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH!  The “Innocence Project,” was born to rectify the wrong of convicting innocent people of crimes that they did not commit. Ross may be guilty of having a bad temper, but not of a crime.  However, San Francisco has a DA with a political agenda, and a flush, taxpayer supported budget, and powerful political allies who were determined to destroy Ross no matter what it took.  The sky was the limit for their bad behavior, and their budget, and they tormented him and his family with a vengeance.   They repeatedly violated Eliana Lopez’s “victim’s” right to privacy by leaking evidence, and the press even published her home address, in spite of the fact the whole world knew that she was now home alone with a toddler.  If that is how law enforcement deems it is “protecting” me, as a woman, then thanks, but no thanks! 

 

Taking a plea was expeditious for Ross, in that it promised to end his wife and son’s daily torment, and his own trial in the press, most of all the San Francisco Chronicle.  And to reunite him with his family, and allow him to return to his job and support them. Of course the legal expenses were also staggering, and not taxpayer funded.  Now he has been not only suspended, but suspended without pay, while his temporary replacement, Interim Sheriff Vicky Hennessy double dips, drawing down both a six figure city pension and his Sheriff’s six figure salary at the same time.  What this added financial strain is doing to the Mirkarimi-Lopez family, I can only imagine. 

 

Ross Mirkarimi’s agreement to plead to a misdemeanor gave the DA an unwarranted victory, bolstered his standing with his Republican base, and forced Ross to take responsibility for his actions. That should have been the end of it.

 

And now that Ross has been sentenced for a single act he pled guilty to, can he not serve as a positive role model for other men? If he can go to counseling, etc., let that serve as an inspiring example to others! If the domestic violence professionals truly wanted to help victims and stop domestic violence, they would commend Ross, and work with him to continue the good work they’ve collaborated with him on for many years. He is accepting the consequences of his action, but anything beyond what the court has ordered, is disproportionately harsh.

 

As posted in the comment sections on FogCityJournal’s journal’s coverage of Paula Canny’s press conference 03/20/12:

”Just like the US is sending Predator Drones into Afghanistan in order to ‘protect’ women and children from the ravages of a misogynist Taliban, so is Gascon attacking a family to ‘protect’ women from domestic violence.

 

How much more paternalistic can you get when a male dominated legal system marginalizes the sentiments of a woman under the auspices protecting her? Since when do we treat alleged crimes as statistical affairs instead of addressing the facts of the case on the record? When have you ever seen the name of a minor child splayed across the media waves before which will follow him through out his Googleable life?”

 

Indeed, exposing Mirkarimi’s wife and toddler child to the unrelenting scrutiny, the unprecedented release of the evidence to taint the jury pool, and to turn Ross’s base against him, is reprehensible and irresponsible.

 

As bleak as all this is, there are people who believe in Sheriff Mirkarimi, as a man, and as our elected Sheriff, and are fighting for what is right: keeping him in office. We know he is more than qualified to do the job, and nothing that he pled guilty to precludes him from doing so. He did not commit official misconduct by any means, and our esteemed outgoing Sheriff Hennessey stated that some of the best employees he ever hired were people with records who turned their lives around and went to work for him. If we believe in redemption, and rehabilitation for others, why not for Ross? He has been a dedicated public servant most of his life, and while he has some human flaws, as we all do, he certainly has learned much, and experienced significant personal growth in the last two months.

 

The people of San Francisco elected Sheriff Mirkarimi with our blood, sweat and tears. People volunteered their free time, used their leave time from work, missed time with their family, etc., all to help elect Ross as Sheriff.  We deserve to have him in office and he deserves the chance to maintain the office he won, and to implement the policies and programs that will make San Francisco a safer and more equitable city.

 

If you agree, then please sign the petition and let our other elected leaders know that we still have faith in Ross and to cease and desist in their efforts to subvert the will of the people.