Fresno PD and Black drivers: Letters to the editor, March 17, 2021

Fresno police and unconscious bias

Kudos to Manuela Tobias for her excellent exposé on racial profiling by the FPD (The Bee, Feb. 28). Shame on Chief Paco Balderrama for minimizing the extent of it. Tobias points out that in 2020 Black drivers in Fresno were stopped at twice the rate of their share in the population, handcuffed disproportionately, and searched twice as frequently as whites, despite contraband being found more often on whites. 

Balderrama tries to blame the disproportionality on other factors, like police patrolling more frequently in Black neighborhoods. However, as Tobias explains, stops of Blacks are often for bogus reasons or no reason at all. Balderrama claims police are looking for criminals and gang members, but is a burned-out license plate light a reliable indicator of a violent criminal in the car? His explanations strain credulity. 

Balderrama says that unconscious bias among officers might play a minor role, but that it is not present in the vast majority of officers. Really? Studies by Pew Research and others show that unconscious bias is common in the general population. Is the FPD that much better than the general population? Get real, chief. Admit that unconscious bias in FPD is a serious problem with devastating consequences.

Just fine with Squaw Valley name

Your recent article about changing the name of our town, Squaw Valley, to something else in not accurate. Perhaps some small-minded people find the name offensive, they could do that with anything if they tried. I’ve lived here for 52 years and until recently there have been no complaints.

As I can research the people who started this, they do not live here but are “outside agitators.” They can be traced to Washington, D.C, big surprise! No one I have talked to is for a change. If the cancel culture doesn’t like it, they don’t need to come here.

The connotation they claim is not supported by the longtime residents or how we feel about our home. We love our area, but we heartily resent people who come in for the express reason to change our home to fit their expectations. We have homestead documents stating the name Squaw Valley in 1871. It’s 150 years of history. If the residents were to even entertain a name change, it is not up to Orange Cove, BLM, or various others who desperately need to get a life.

I think the supervisors may have a fight on their hands.

Stupidity to raise workers’ pay

 Council member Luis Chavez is proposing a $3 per hour increase in pay for all of the grocery and supermarket workers because of their need for “hazardous duty” working in these retail stores. This is clearly an issue that Mr. Chavez has not consulted with the Fresno city attorney on. It is totally outside the boundaries of the authority of the City Council. Electing people that are ignorant of the law is an issue in itself. 

This could be a union matter, but this would further penalize many people who already have a difficult time making ends meet, and should immediately be vetoed by the mayor if, by some ill-advised reasoning, it passes. In addition, some stores would close rather than endure this kind of government stupidity.

GOP is drowning, taking U.S. down

These are strange times. I look for the source of an insurrection propagated by a wannabe dictator and a political party that dutifully follows even as he lost the House, Senate, and the presidency in a mere four years. And I watch as that same party clings to his coattails hoping he can save them.

I watch as Republican senators try and fail to hold up a vote on a relief bill supported by 70% of Americans. I listen as these millionaires object to a $15 minimum wage and an extension of unemployment during the greatest health crisis since 1918; a pandemic they deny. Now I watch as Republicans in 47 states issue 220-plus bills to restrict voting rights under the guise of protecting the vote with zero evidence of widespread fraud. This is mind-bending stuff.

What is the source of all this sound and fury? In 1910 the U.S population was 88.9% white. In 1990 it was 80.3% white, and in 2020 its projected that number will be 60.1% white. I’m reminded of the drowning man who cannot swim, and I remember my dad’s advice — push him away because he will drown us all.

This story was originally published March 17, 2021 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Fresno PD and Black drivers: Letters to the editor, March 17, 2021."