Charles Cole Republican for State Assembly, California’s 37th District
Take a Stand, Not a Knee
Yesterday was Flag Day. While career politicians crawl over each other to ‘take-a-knee’ for the camera and appease the mob they have abandoned the defense of public safety in America. I will not witness, nor permit, the slow undoing of law enforcement personnel who protect what our flag represents. Nor will I witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which America has always been committed. There is no contradiction between supporting our law enforcement personnel and reforming police methods under civilian control. As one libertarian campaign supporter wrote to me in the wake of current beatings, riots, arson, looting, and killings:
“It is not inconsistent with the values of limited government, property rights and individual liberties to simultaneously oppose police brutality, excessive force, and racism, and at the same time, oppose looting, riots, mob violence and destruction of community businesses.”
To strike this balance of policing policy I have already met with Sheriff Bill Brown and will ‘ride-along’ with his deputies in both north and south Santa Barbara County. I will listen to those deputies as well as those they arrest suspected of crime. I have asked for the same from Ventura County Sheriff Bill Ayub and all the police chiefs of cities in the 37th Assembly District.
This week, I will meet with Charlton Heston’s son, Fraser Heston, to learn from him the values his father preserved and protected all his life. From what I understand, Charlton Heston never ‘took-a- knee’ to anyone except God. He marched in Washington with Dr. Martin Luther King. He defended the constitution’s Second Amendment so that nothing would happen to the First Amendment. He was a liberal Democrat until his Party ‘left him’. He was good to his friends and kept his promises. I will listen to his son Fraser; and I will learn.
So, I am here taking a stand, not a virtue signaling ‘knee’. Where is my opponent, Steve Bennett you might ask? What is his position on policing and civil unrest? What is his position on mob rule of our streets and even whole ‘no-go’ districts controlled by thugs? His silence is deafening. His absence condemns his supervisorial salary of $ 170,000.00. Were we lax enough to vote him into the California Assembly we will be treated to, as Winston Churchill said alliteratively of a liberal opponent in 1906, ‘…more years of dodge and dole and dawdle…tinker, tax and trifle’.
That is not leadership. That is capitulation to the mob and neglectful of elected oath to ‘preserve and protect’ which entails overseeing police stewardship while protecting peaceful assembly and demonstrations.
I will regularly update you on my conferences with both police and sheriffs on the one hand and private citizens on the other to craft both effective policing policies and defense of public safety issues on the other hand. This is not an either/or problem, nor will it admit of either/or solutions.
Please send me the contact data on individuals I should meet with towards finding such solutions. Here is my direct email: [email protected]
