Suspended sheriff should resign
Myself, as well as my friends with whom I've had a chance to discuss the Ross Mirkarimi situation, have reached a consensus that this individual needs to resign for the greater good of San Francisco, its sheriff's department, and its reputation outside of our beloved 49 square miles. I could not agree more with the letter to the editor by Ryan Clary in your April 5 issue. The "pro-Mirkarimi," post-scandal forces are heavily treading upon a whole lot of LGBT history to obfuscate the true issues at stake here. Curiously, however, none of them even discuss the allegations of witness tampering and evidence suppression that went on by agents for and with the full knowledge of an individual man named Mirkarimi (for whom I voted as did most of my friends) who says he can still conduct with integrity the duties and obligations of the office of sheriff. How, by continuing to intimidate witnesses and trying to suppress evidence?
As to the LGBT spokespeople for Mirkarimi at this point, how dare you compare the domestic violence claims of this case to the centuries-long history of scurrilous and untrue defamation that millions of LGBT people suffered, many of whom to their deaths? Do you doubt that this "sheriff" abused his wife in front of his 2-year-old son? And, to say that because Mirkarimi once championed, for his political gain, the noble rights of LGBT folks here in San Francisco, that we should let him slide on this one "bite-of-the-apple?" Well folks, that is the most cynical of political reasoning imaginable and unparalleled since the great and gay architect Philip Johnson's later-regretted endorsement of Nazism before he became aware of the then nascent regime's plans to extinguish gays as well as Jews, Africans, and all the other so-called inferiors about which Johnson once knew nothing.
Certainly, Mr. Mirkarimi is nowhere near as evil as Nazism and Hitler, but when his post-scandal supporters throw about the term "lynching" so cavalierly, what other hyperbole will be misused to devalue the real and numerous victims of such real barbarities, as opposed to the process of justice which was so hyper-inflated in this case, not because of some conspiratorial vendetta, but because Mr. Mirkarimi's own admitted arrogance employed a cadre of attorneys to attempt to make his offenses disappear? That legally talented cadre was only partially successful in a plea bargain; but the supervisors, who have been elected by the people of our great city, will be watched closely as they review the undeniable evidence, and this great city's people will not be fooled this time.
Tom Cardellino
San Francisco