Letters for August 2, 2018

Goodbye, Molly

Re “Making peace with fate” (Cover story, by Ken Smith, July 26):

Our dearly departed Molly Amick, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, considered it woefully unacceptable (and many others agree) that Butte County Behavioral Health isn’t funded at a level that would provide adequate psychiatric beds and supportive housing for seriously mentally ill patients living without shelter on our streets.

Meanwhile, the mayor of Chico is on public record as stating, “lack of housing isn’t a cause of homelessness” and that good and decent people assisting destitute humans in City Plaza are “selfish.”

Reckless governance has consequences and this year it rings to the tune of $4.9 million in one-time-only state assistance, which Butte County municipalities will lose if a shelter crisis isn’t declared by local jurisdictions in time for organizations to make grant applications this fall. It’s time to act now and stop the political kick-the-can charade that has stifled numerous requests for the city to act on declaring a shelter crisis.

Then again, perhaps I’m being selfish in wanting to see a dramatic decrease in the level of visible pain and suffering for the seriously mentally ill wandering, and dying, on our streets without shelter.

Bill Mash

Chico

Thank you to all who celebrated at Molly’s Soul Dance Release Party and Remembrance with me. Thanks to Kandis Horton-Jorth for her extreme hard work putting together the remembrance. And special thanks to Samantha Muntifering for creating the amazing shadow boxes of Molly’s life. Now let’s honor Molly by having happy, healthy, self-examined and civically engaged lives!

Sterling Ogden

Chico

Why lethal force?

Re “Seeking accountability” (Newslines, by Meredith J. Cooper, July 26):

Why ambush [Myra Micalizio] in her car? Thirteen shots? She was unarmed.

Why not shoot the tires to stop vehicle? Because they intended to kill her in cold blood, not stop the car. Can you really justify that? She was leaving as she was asked to do by the residents; she was not trying to harm anybody. Your officers simply messed up, panicked and ambushed her for no reason. She was unarmed and they knew that, so why kill her?

Really, neither cop needed to draw their weapon. Also, why not turn on your camera when you first got out of the patrol car? Saying there was no time is a bold-face lie.

Melody Rudy

Sacramento

Two views on editorial

Re “What were they thinking?” (Editorial, July 26):

I found the [Butte County Sheriff’s Office] video fun, entertaining and a good PR move. I also enjoyed similar videos from other jurisdictions—San Francisco Police Department as well as other sheriff’s departments. All are in good fun and show the law enforcement agencies as having a lot of heart, unlike yourself, apparently.

My friends in the Bay Area expressed a lot of pride in SFPD’s version and enjoyed our BSCO’s video and its “country” spin. The common theme is pride in our respective LE agencies, which you obviously lack. Your negative bias is obvious. Touting an emotionally charged lawsuit, which hasn’t been settled, was manipulative and irrelevant.

I find BSCO to be very responsive to problems occurring in our remote corner of the county. I think highly of the sheriff, his senior staff, dispatch team and all the deputies in the field. Sheriff Honea is a very intelligent, caring leader with utmost integrity. I heartily endorse his sanction of this fun video. You seem to imply that working hard and improving the department are mutually exclusive with light-hearted public outreach. Wow, talk about uptight. Your remarks are snide and petty. Get out of your stuffy ivory tower and smell the fresh air already.

Chris Sommers

Bangor

The taxpayers were ripped off. Unless the sheriff can prove the participants were doing this video on their own time, the taxpayers were ripped off.

Unless the sheriff paid for the video with his own personal funds, the taxpayers were ripped off.

The video is a pathetic attempt at improving public relations since there are multiple lawsuits currently active against the Butte County Sheriff’s Office. There are lawsuits for racism and killing civilians.

Why not spend time and taxpayer money on increased training of officers on crucial topics such as crisis intervention, de-escalation, cultural sensitivity and the moral and ethical conditions surrounding the use of force.

Scott Rushing

Ventura

‘Noxious and uninformed’

Re “Kindred spirits” (Second & Flume, July 26):

I enjoy reading the CN&R each week for the updates on local events and venues, but it has been increasingly difficult to peruse each Thursday due to the increasingly noxious and uninformed lecturing and ranting by Editor Melissa Daugherty.

Her screed this week, complaining and whining that our local Congressman Doug LaMalfa did not send her a free ticket to his recent fundraising dinner really is enlightening.

For an editor who regularly poses as the school marm about fact-checking, she might inform herself that Rep. Nunes is from the 22nd Congressional District covering parts of Tulare and Fresno County, not Turlock as she stated in her recent rant.

Moreover, it’s somewhat shocking, but I guess nowhere near surprising, that Daugherty was happy to insult the hundreds of thousands of residents of Stanislaus County (where I grew up) by implying we are all products of an “armpit.” Really, Ms. Daugherty? So much for liberal love and kindness. Funny how the liberal leftists love to insult and sneer at huge groups of fellow citizens. Editor, issue a correction and most certainly an apology to the 538,000 citizens of Stanislaus County that you just so smugly insulted. Of course, that will never happen, now will it?

Mike Birch

Chico

We get you don’t like conservative elected officials and the policies and positions they support, but I would kindly ask that you dig a bit deeper when researching the hometowns of the Congressman you are looking to disparage. Devin Nunes is not from Turlock, he is from Tulare. While both start with a “T” and have vibrant agricultural economies, one is north of Fresno and the other is south. One has a university and one has the World Ag Expo annually. Both are communities with residents who are proud to live there. I can also believe that neither appreciate being called an armpit either.

Colleen Cecil

Orland

Fact skeptic

What are the facts? Just because the CIA, FBI, the State Department, the generals, The New York Times, The Washington Post and most other media say it, does not make something a fact. Totally consumed with exciting U.S. citizenry for war with Iraq, they all used the “fact” of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the war.

Not much changes when it comes to U.S. government propaganda and militarism, and the role the U.S. media plays in sustaining it all. I am suspicious of all this anti-Russia hype. There are many real facts omitted from the establishment tirades against Russia.

There is never mention of the concrete assurances made to Mikhail Gorbachev by the George H.W. Bush administration in 1990 that NATO would not expand 1 inch eastward. There is no mention of the fact of the huge effort made by the U.S. to ensure the drunk, easily manipulated Boris Yeltsin would be re-elected when he had become very unpopular in Russia.

I am still disgusted that our local DNC superdelegate Bob Mulholland suggested that limiting superdelegate voting is part of a Russian plot, as reported in the Post. Obviously, he does not trust democracy, but blaming Russia?

Lucy Cooke

Butte Valley

Blowing smoke

Re “Women’s time” (Letters, by Roger S. Beadle, July 19):

Roger Beadle’s recent letter touting Audrey Denney with the idea that it’s “women’s time” struck me as being vague on which women he means. They differ, ya know. Audrey is no Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Opinions like this are why the left can’t gain traction, especially in districts like ours. It is predicated on the idea that we can win by dividing people, in this case, right down to gender.

The writer makes a feel-good point demonstrating how free he is about giving up patriarchy, but he creates a caricature of the left that is sure to energize people who love Trump and Doug LaMalfa. His letter isn’t about winning hearts and minds, it’s about blowing smoke up the asses of those whose hearts and minds are already voting for Audrey Denney, and it doesn’t seem to me that will help her.

I’m voting for her, but not because of her genitalia. “Men Suck, Vote for Women” isn’t a great campaign slogan, any more than the reverse would be. It is, in fact, sexist. Stupid won’t win this election, which could and should be ours to lose.

Jaime O’Neill

Magalia

Train wreck

Trump’s proclamation of “America First” is simply camouflage for “Party First.” The leader of the Republican Party is under suspicion of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” so loyal party members are attacking the structure of the judicial system: personnel placement and decision-making; employee retention and/or termination; due process; and judicial authority. They see their leader under attack, therefore their party is under attack, regardless of whether or not the potential criminal charges are related to actions that threaten the security of the United States.

The Republican Party—in particular, certain committees in the House—have repeatedly tried to discredit any and all allegations of illegal behavior by the Trump campaign, and by Trump himself. The administration’s communications continue to distort an honest narrative, and the current press secretary beats an endless drum of half-truths and outright lies.

At the recent VFW convention, Trump declared, “What you’re seeing and what you you are reading is not what’s happening.” A chilling echo from George Orwell’s futuristic novel 1984: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”

A continuation of this train wreck will destroy our democracy. Vote Democrat this November.

Roger S. Beadle

Chico

Lying eyes

“Just remember, what you’re seeing and what you are reading is not what’s happening,” Trump told his minions in Chicago last week. If not for the threat of protests, I have no doubts he would have continued, paraphrasing Exodus 20:2-3 by saying, “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of immigrants, out of the house of Democracy.”

Then he would have followed by taking credit for quotes of the Italian fascist dictator, Adolf Hitler’s ally, Benito Mussolini, in:

“The press of Italy is free … so long as it supports the regime.”

“Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.”

“We become strong … when we have no friends upon whom to lean, or to look to for moral guidance.”

Of course, at the end of World War II, the Italian people executed Mussolini and dumped his body in a public square in Milan.

Dean Carrier

Paradise

Note to council members

To the Chico City Council: Homelessness will not go away. Please give Chico Housing Action Team the go ahead to address this issue by allowing them to provide the tiny house option for Chico. Let CHAT have the land and time to prove this option is workable. It would help the entire community.

Mona Martine

Chico

Woke in Chico

My wife and I attended a barbecue event at One-Mile Recreation Area in Bidwell Park Saturday afternoon. It was a joint event, accepting donations for victims of the Carr Fire and also for raising awareness for last year’s police killing of Desmond Phillips.

We were dismayed that Chico police circled the event twice in two police vehicles. The attendees, including my spouse and myself, felt the police were trying to intimidate this gathering. Outside of a real emergency, there is no need for police to drive along bike/walkways as this only leads to public distrust of our community servants.

I attended as an average white dude with little understanding of what a person of color has to endure daily in this or any city in America. I left with my eyes wide open, now understanding the meaning of “woke.”

Andy Tomaselli

Chico

Correction and omission

In last week’s Second & Flume (see “Kindred spirits,” by Melissa Daugherty), Rep. Devin Nunes’ home city was mistakenly identified. He’s from Tulare.

Also, in Greenways (see “Untangling a mess,” by Josh Cozine), the California Coastal Commission was left out as an agency that leads a fishing line recycling program.

The articles have been corrected online. —ed.