New sheriff in town
Little background. Former sheriff is corrupt. Resigns because of it. County selects new sheriff. Instead of cracking down on corruption in her department, she cracks down on those few who happen to be luck enough to get concealed carry permits in Cali. The former sheriff advocated shall issue and the new sheriff seems to think his manner of giving out permits showed corruption.
June 19th, 2008 at 11:42 am
I asked myself, “How can a practice of shall-issue licensing be open to corruption, even under a demonstrably corrupt chief?”
It is clear that “may-maybe-might-issue” can clearly promote bribery, unjust denial to unfavored groups, cronyism, etc.. But “shall-issue” means everyone who qualifies under the objective state standards gets a license.
So to corrupt the “shall-issue” policy, the chief would have to approve licenses for folks who apply but who are not qualified under state law to get a license. That would include those who did not complete the requirements, those who meet the requirements but are otherwise disqualified (domestic violence convictees, for example), and possibly those who got a license without adequate background checks being performed on whether they met the requirements or not. If you can think of any other way to corrupt a “shall-issue” policy, please add it in to these comments.
I would suggest that reviewing and revoking some illegitimately gotten permits is lots easier to do than going after other possibly past corrupt actions, by the chief or officers, in other areas of policing. After all, there is a solid paper trail for each licensee which allows a quick review and solid, objective conclusions about the legitimacy of each license. Going after other, less easy corruption issues is both less likely to reveal prosecutable offenses and takes more than a paperwork review. Plucking low-hanging fruit is a traditional way for a new administration to make itself look competent.
In my jobs, the first thing I did when taking over someone else’s prior work was review their documentation to see what they might have missed, glossed over, pencil-whipped (faked), or done incorrectly. I always found something. I’m sure my successors did the same with my work. It’s easy, productive, and actually adds value over the long term.
That the new chief has a “may-issue” policy is likely a secondary issue in the review of the past corrupt administration.
What is the legal basis for revocation of a valid license, properly applied for, fully documented, signed off by the prior chief, and held in compliance with all applicable laws? I would think revocation under such conditions would be an opening for a lawsuit for suppression of rights under that old favorite of libertarians, Sec18.242 (or whatever that federal law is).
All it will take to make this new chief’s handgun carry license review is for an unqualified or disqualified person to have gotten a carry license under the previous chief. Since he was known to be corrupt, what is the likelihood he kept this one segment of his official duties absolutely legitimate?
If she starts revoking permits based on her new “policy” without just cause, before they come up for renewal, then that is a new and different story.
June 19th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Welcome to Kalifornistan. Please surrender your rights, common sense, and higher reasoning powers at the border.
June 19th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
What little I’ve been able to read suggests that the previous sheriff gave permits to folks who donated to his re-election, which means they didn’t donate to the new sheriff.
Which means they don’t get to keep their permits.
June 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Apparently the way it works here in Kalifornistan ( Too lazy to look up the actual legal verbage) is that you must present a “valid” legal reason, ie: I deliver large sums of cash to my stores in South Central LA, or I am a fully licensed bounty Hunter. Even then you will most likely be denied, LA County population just under 10,000,000 CCW’s issued 1626 permits, 0.017% issuance. Orange County, Population 2,939,500 CCW’s issued under Mike Corona, 1287 permits, 0.044% issuance.
Data from http://californiaccw.org/forums/list.page
Here, you either bankroll the sheriff/chief or your are an upstanding Hollywood star (Sylvester Stallone) to get your CCW.