The Mad Hatter would be proud

By George Hofstetter
English writer Lewis Carroll once wrote, "There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it; you need to be as mad as a hatter."  The place the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland had in mind is real; it's called the City of San Francisco. 
 
Start with the most recent event, when the San Francisco Board of Supervisors declared a " Day of Remembrance " to honor career criminal Mario Woods.  What had Woods done to deserve the honor?  Mario Woods was recently released from state prison, on parole for armed robbery, and had just used a knife to severely slash a random, innocent person.  The heavily bleeding victim called police, who tracked Woods to a nearby street, where he refused to drop the knife, proclaiming to officers "You better squeeze that ****and kill me."  As detailed in a story by Matier & Ross , when several beanbag rounds failed to disarm Woods, and he moved towards bystanders, officers opened fire and killed him.  
 
You might ask why tasers weren't used.  Because the City of San Francisco refuses to provide tasers to officers on the grounds that they are a health risk to those who are tased!  When this decision was reached in 2010, a 38-year police veteran predicted to the Police Commission the outcome seen in the Woods case:  "It's not if, but when, a taser is used to stop a knife-wielding suspect and a life is saved. Then you will see the results of your decision. Let us hope that same suspect is not shot dead because an officer lacked a valuable option to deadly force."
 
News reports recounted the backers of the 'remembrance' resolution stated: "while several supervisors and the chief of police have privately expressed their condolences, the city and county of San Francisco has not publicly apologized to Gwen Woods," (Mario Woods' mother). The official resolution declares Woods birthday be "Mario Woods Remembrance Day in San Francisco" and offers  his mother "sincere condolences for the loss of her son and apologies for the way in which she has been treated since her son's death."
 
In most cities, honoring a person who stabbed an innocent victim would be a "jump the shark moment"-in San Francisco it's "Tuesday."  Consider that San Francisco is the City where:
 
  • The San Francisco Public Defender's Office boasts about its acquittal rate in its yearly reports.  
  • The leadership was at the forefront in the passage of Proposition 47, which has led to increasing crime rates in San Francisco and across California.
  • The crime rate for both crimes of violence and property crime in San Francisco has soared, with car burglaries hitting tourists so hard that a special police task force had to be formed.
  • When federal authorities released a career criminal alien to the Sheriff's Department, citing a policy to not cooperate with immigration officials, they refused to return the alien to federal custody when his San Francisco case concluded.  Instead, released to the streets, that alien used a stolen gun to shoot and kill tourist Kate Steinle as she walked with her father on a city street. (No, San Francisco didn't honor Kate with a "Day of Remembrance.")
  • Former Board of Supervisor member Leland Yee was a noted gun control advocate---that is, until he pled guilty last year on gun trafficking charges.
Retired SFPD Inspector and union leader Gary Delagnes nailed it when he called the Supervisors idiots . In closing, a friendly word of advice when visiting San Francisco: don't leave valuables in your car, don't expect any sympathy from city officials if you are a crime victim-and don't bring San Francisco's lunatic ideas on public safety home with you to Los Angeles County.
 
George Hofstetter is President of the Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. ALADS is the collective bargaining agent and represents more than 8,200 deputy sheriffs and district attorney investigators working in Los Angeles County.  George can be reached at [email protected]. 

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