Call it what is: murder
EDITOR: The riots have been a long time coming. Over the last 60 years, the police have murdered poor and working-class Americans of color without consequence. Over the same period, standards of living have plummeted for poor and working-class Americans. Wages have stagnated while the 0.1% has grown rich from their labor. The American dream is now impossible.
Since March, 40 million Americans have lost their livelihoods and health insurance. Democrats and Republicans have refused to help during a pandemic and economic depression. The people were already desperate.
Then the Minneapolis police murdered George Floyd.
The riots were preventable. The American people have tried to affect change through voting and nonviolent protest. The ruling class have ignored our needs and demands.
Dr King told us that a riot is the language of the unheard. The ruling class can no longer ignore the voices of poor and working-class Americans. It is time for those who run our country to listen. We demand justice and far-reaching criminal justice reform. We demand an economic system that works for all Americans, not the wealthy.
If our needs and demands remain ignored, then we will continue to shout in the language of the unheard.
Timothy Ulcoq
Sebastopol
A murder close to home
EDITOR: It’s been six months since David Ward’s “death by police,” at the hands of two Sheriff’s deputies: Charles Blount “retired,” likely with a full pension, and Jason Little. Both have previous complaints, and Blount is a “Brady Bill” witness, ordered recorded as such by a sitting judge.
Now comes the George Floyd “murder,” and I quote Speaker Nancy Pelosi in saying that “What we saw on camera was a murder.” Four cops were fired the following day and will most likely be prosecuted.
So I say that what we saw in the video of David Ward’s killing was the same, “murder,” by cop.
I call for the firing (removal of pension/benefits) of both Charles Blount and Deputy Jason Little and that they be prosecuted for the documented murder of David Ward. Deputy Little has been enjoying a paid vacation at our expense for over six months, I believe.
On a related note, IOLERO was created to investigate Citizen complaints and forward them to the Sheriff. IOLERO has only the power of “insistence” that the Sheriff make changes, and apparently “insisting” is insulting to Sheriff Essick, resulting in the “resignation” of our original director. The new director publicizes Art Nights at the jail and shares what a great job the sheriff is doing protecting our incarcerated residents from COVID-19 — in other words, an “apologist” for the sheriff and his team. Information about David Ward’s killing and what is going on with that, six months later? Not so much.
Keith Rhinehart
Santa Rosa
Grammar please
EDITOR: I’m all for cutting some slack for typos in the Sonoma West Times, but I draw the line at Rollie Atkinson’s statement in the latest edition, beginning “In 1995, me and my family became owners of….” That’s not a typo; that’s just very poor grammar, especially for a newspaper publisher (not to mention the editor who missed it). I keep hoping the digitalization of the news world won’t mean regression to the (very low) standards of Twitter or Instagram, but it looks like it’s already too late.
Misty Angelo
Sebastopol
See you in the funny pages
EDITOR: A while back Gene Nelson spoke of the Times publishing full color comics in 1945 and wondered which they might have been. I knew the answer was probably in the archives at The West County Museum, but it was shelter in place time.
I had to go in today, so I checked. The Friday, March 30, 1945 edition had a six side or three page color insert. Page one:2/3 “Mutt & Jeff” by Bud Fisher;1/3 “Cicero’s Cat” same artist; page 2 “Don Winslow” by Frank V Martinek; page 3 “Miss Fury,” a cat suited heroine by Tarpe Thills (the artist’s name is hard to stylized and hard to read; page 4 :Life’s Like That” by Fred Neher; page 5 “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson; page six (black and white)ads for the local folks/firms sponsoring the comics.
Steve Stedman
Western Sonoma County Historical Society
