Gov. Gavin Newsom contines to find himself out of step with the law enforcement community in the state. Now he is having a war of words with Fresno County’s chief prosecutor.

Last week in my column I addressed how Newsom persistently makes political hay out of tragic shootings, pointing his finger at conservative gun policies as the problem. I opined that his leadership is to blame – failure to build more prisons to keep up with both an increase in population and an increase in crime – as well as his policy of releasing prisoners before their sentence is up. I noted how Newsom attacks “any American institution or individual who wants the ability to protect one’s home and property with a gun. This at a time when our soft-on-crime governor bends over backwards to let dangerous felons out of jail.”

Last week I nearly wrote that Newsom has “blood on his hands” but I stopped short – even though it is true. The Fresno DA must have been reading my mind.

Just hours before my column went to press Tuesday night, I hadn’t yet heard about the 24-year-old Selma Police officer who was shot to death in Fresno County by a dirt bag let out of prison early.

Fresno County District Attorney Lisa Smittcamp blasted away at Newsom, saying he had blood on his hands. She also accurately blamed “every legislator in the state of California who supports this over-reaching phenomenon they try to disguise as legitimate criminal justice reform.”

The street vermin in this police homicide, 23-year-old Nathaniel Dixon, was an admitted gang member who hadn’t served anywhere near his 5 years and 4 months in state prison in March 2022 for robbery, weapons and drug charges. Dixon was released in September 2022, having served only seven months and was walking around on the Post Release Community Supervision program!

Smittcamp stated: “because of laws passed in the last few years that give additional credits for time served in local jail, and other new laws which allow for arbitrary ‘accelerated time credits’ upon entry to the prison system, his release date was set for August 23, 2022, a mere five months after his original sentence.”

She went on: “The Governor and certain members of the California Legislature have created a warped system that allows active and violent criminals to receive arbitrary ‘time credits’ in an effort to reduce the state prison population to reach their goals of closing more prison facilities. The governor and his political allies who continue the quest to close state prisons are increasing the incidents of violence to everyone who lives in, or visits, the state of California. No city or county is safe from the wrath of this misguided thinking, and this mismanaged prison system.”

We definitely have the wrong person in the governor’s office. We need someone like Smittcamp who understands that you cannot have a safe society when you release animals onto the streets.

Whenever the heat is turned up on Newsom, his viciousness becomes visceral.

Newsom, as always, demonstrated his arrogance and feigned outrage by smugly deflecting any criticism for his policies. Instead of addressing her complaint with logic – probably because his policies cannot be defended – Newsom attacked Smittcamp at a press conference, saying: “She should blame herself. I’ve been listening to this for years from her. She has the prosecutorial discretion. Ask her what she did in terms of prosecuting that case. I’m sick and tired of being lectured by her on public safety. Sick and tired. So, with all due respect to her statement, she should be ashamed of herself, and she should look in the mirror.”

Smittcamp fired back: “Governor Newsom continues to demonstrate his ignorance and lack of understanding of how the criminal justice system works. His arrogant and defensive response is proof positive that he is attempting to deflect responsibility for his failed policies, but he also proves, once again, his lack of understanding of the sentencing structure and process in which criminal cases are handled in the Superior Courts of the State of California.

“As he often does, Governor Newsom failed to answer the question posed to him. He is the biggest proponent of the early release of criminals, and enhanced time credits for inmates and regulations allowing additional accelerated time credits to be arbitrarily granted to inmates when they are sentenced to prison. These policies are a constant threat to public safety.”

During the pandemic, Newsom enacted a policy for the early release of prisoners under California’s zero-bail order which was put into effect to reduce inmate populations as a way to fight the spread of COVID-19 inside jails. One such inmate released, Alexander Valenzuela was released early on July 27, 2020 and killed Joseph Rivera, 46, in the 600 block of Bystrum Road in December. Sheriff’s officials learned that Valenzuela had been released early from San Quentin prison because of the state accelerated release program due to COVID-19. Sheriff Jeff Dirkse noted that Valenzuela was not scheduled to be released until Dec. 13, 2020 and commented: “I don’t think it is a stretch to say that this murder would have been prevented if he would have served his full sentence and not been released early due to COVID-19.”

So yeah, the blood is on Newsom’s hands.

The Assembly Republicans have a list of questions for the governor, which you should expect he’ll not answer:

• How many murders have been committed by California CCW holders in the last decade?

• Why is your focus on restricting law-abiding firearm owners rather than criminals who commit gun crimes?

• You recently signed laws to effectively end sentencing enhancements for gun crimes - what message does that send?

• There’s a backlog of nearly 25,000 illegal gun owners (10,000+ active cases) in the DOJ’s Armed and Prohibited Persons System - why is your administration focused on new gun laws rather than reducing that backlog?

• Would the proposal you’re discussing today have prevented any of the mass shootings we’ve seen in recent weeks? If not, why is this your focus?

• A cartel or gang killed six people in Tulare County recently, including a 10-month old baby, and you have said little, if anything, about it. Similarly, when it became clear that last year’s mass shooting in Sacramento was instigated by gang members, your administration went silent. Why does gang violence get such little attention from your administration relative to its impact on public safety?

• Previous state budgets have provided substantial dedicated funding for the APPS program. If gun violence is a priority for you, why are you not dedicating any additional funding this year?

• A similar law in New Jersey to limit concealed carry was found to be unconstitutional - do you have any confidence that this law would hold up in court?

The voters of 28 counties voted to recall Newsom because of his boundless arrogance and failed policies. Unfortunately he was spared by voters in large cities and those fooled by his slick performances.

* * * * *

It’s a depressing thing to be a conservative living in California because there is no silver lining. The voters are just not paying attention and continue electing the wrong lawmakers.

Dark clouds are on the horizon for conservatives as 89-year-old Senator Diane Feinstein – some aides say she is cognitively declined – is expected to retire after 31 years in the U.S. Senate seat and a sane replacement likely is not forthcoming.

There is not a snowball’s chance in hell of a Republican taking that seat given that Democrats outnumber Republicans in California two to one. In the U.S. Senate election held on Nov. 8, Democrat Alex Padilla garnered 6,621,616 votes (61.1 percent) to Republican Mark P. Meuser’s 4,222,025 votes (38.9 percent). So you can see the bloodbath that awaits any brave Republican.

You could run Jesus Christ on the ticket and he would lose to a Democrat in California.

Even more depressing is that two of the Democrats salivating over her seat are complete dolts – Rep. Eric Swalwell of the 14th Congressional District who handily defeated his Republican challenger in November by a margin of 69.3 percent to 30.7 percent; and Rep. Adam Schiff of the 30th Congressional District.

Swalwell, of course, was at the center of a 2020 scandal when it was learned that he had slept with a suspected Chinese spy named “Fang Fang.” Of course, Swalwell denied – as most politicians do, unless you’re Gary Condit and you don’t deny but repeat over and over that your private life is your private life. Swalwell was removed from the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker Kevin McCarthy, claiming that he “openly lied” about Russian election interference. McCarthy said that “Swalwell can’t get a security clearance in the private sector. I’m not going to give him a government security clearance.”

Schiff was also removed from the committee by Speaker McCarthy. Schiff, you should remember has a reputation for lying, established during his years-long effort to smear President Trump as a colluder with Russia. In March 2017 he stated that he had personally seen “more than circumstantial evidence” that President Trump and his team had colluded with Russians to influence the 2016 election. That was a lie, but as chairman of the secrecy-shrouded House Intelligence Committee, Schiff was able to continue with his lie for years in an intentional effort to mislead the American people about Trump. 

Special Counsel John Durham showed that the Russian collusion story was an utterly fictional creation by agents of the Hillary Clinton campaign – who acted through a law firm so their work would be hidden by the secrecy of attorney-client privilege – Schiff pivoted to claiming he has seen evidence that former President Trump is guilty of crimes in connection with Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol incident.

In March 2019, when the Department of Justice released a summary of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report, the nine Republicans who served with Schiff on the intelligence committee signed a letter formally calling for Schiff to step down as chairman: “Your willingness to continue to promote a demonstrably false narrative is alarming,” they wrote. “The findings of the Special Counsel conclusively refute your past and present assertions and have exposed you as having abused your position to knowingly promote false information, having damaged the integrity of this Committee, and undermined faith in U.S. government institutions.”

How either man could advance to higher office is puzzling.

* * * * *

If you stayed to the end of the Jan. 23 Ceres City Council meeting you heard Mayor Javier Lopez do a bit of name dropping as he told of attending the United States Conference of Mayors held in Washington, D.C. Jan. 17-20. The mayor said: “I was at the White House and got to meet the president and also got to meet Mr. (Senator Bernie) Sanders.”

I approached the mayor as he was leaving the meeting and asked if he had any photos of the encounter as I know the White House press office takes such photos. Well, the mayor explained he didn’t actually meet Biden as in greet and shake hands, more of being in the audience at the East Room.

Still an honor, nonetheless.

* * * * *

I don’t like it when people ask me what I do for a living.

My doctor asked me last week and when I told him he gave me a quizzical look and quizzed me about what exactly I cover and the need to do so in this age of social media. Yeah, everything thinks newspapers are on par with the 8track and rotary dial phone.

On Thursday another fellow, the manager of a fast-food chain restaurant, asked me what I do for a living. He followed up with: “Do people read newspapers anymore?”

“Well, the informed ones do,” I should have answered. 

I’m sure he was imagining only blue haired grannies in their rocking chair as our primary audience. Not true.

He asked if we are online, to which I said, of course. We have become a nation of headline readers though and few want to get past the photo and details. That’s precisely why our country keeps electing folks who are only making life worse for us while they profit from position.

There are alarming trends in our country:

• According to Wordsrated.com, over half of Americans haven’t read a book in the past year;

• According to the National Center for Education Statistics, one in five U.S. adults (21%) have low literacy skills, translating to about 43.0 million adults.

• According to the U.S. Department of Education, 54% of U.S. adults ages 16-74 lack proficiency in literacy, reading below the equivalent of a sixth-grade level. That is about 130 million people. (Forbes)

• California, New York, Florida, Texas, and New Jersey are the 5 lowest states in term of literacy rates in 2022. (World Population Review)

• The U.S ranks 125th for literacy rate among all countries. (IMSE Journal)

• Low literacy is said to be connected to over $230 billion a year in health care costs because almost half of Americans cannot read well enough to comprehend health information. (American Journal of Public Health)

• Low literacy also costs the U.S. at least $225 billion each year in non-productivity in the workforce and loss of tax revenue due to unemployment. (IMSE Journal)

• According to Forbes magazine, low literacy levels among U.S. adults could be costing the economy $2.2 trillion a year. Literacy is correlated with personal income, employment levels, health, and overall economic growth. (Forbes)

Consider what Pam Allyn, Senior Vice President of Innovation & Development at Scholastic Education said recently: “Read–aloud is a prescription for lifelong success for the child and a dose of deep well-being for the family.”

This column is the opinion of Jeff Benziger, and does not necessarily represent the opinion of The Ceres Courier or 209 Multimedia Corporation.  How do you feel about this? Let Jeff know at jeffb@cerescourier.com