Justice Was Served but Concerns Remain

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                In the view of most of us, I believe, the Derek Chauvin jury got it right. You had to be cut off from contact with civilization not to have seen the heartbreaking video images of George Floyd pleading for his life and crying out to his mother before his life ebbed away under the knee of the disgraced former Minneapolis police officer. Justice requires that Mr. Chauvin pay a heavy price for his callous indifference toward a human being in his custody who was obviously no longer resisting and for whose safety he was responsible. The case was unique in that the deadly encounter was captured on video for anyone to see and police officials, including Chauvin’s chief, actually testified against one of their own.

                Under our justice system, an accused person must be considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, no matter how obvious the evidence against that person may appear. The accused is entitled to a fair trial and to be represented by competent counsel who will endeavor to ensure the rights of the accused are fully respected. The prosecution must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. The defense is not required, under our system, to prove its client’s innocence. Since Mr. Chauvin was charged with second and third degree murder and manslaughter, intent was not an issue in this case. Jury selection must exclude persons who have already pre-judged the defendant or who have been influenced or intimidated by news coverage, statements by officials or threats of violence if the “wrong” verdict is delivered. That must have been rendered particularly difficult in this case because of the extensive media coverage, demonstrations and public anger that followed the murder of George Floyd.

                Legitimate questions were raised regarding whether or not Chauvin and the other three policemen involved could get a fair trial in Minneapolis where racial tensions and anti-police sentiment were high. The defense, accordingly, argued for a change in venue but was denied. I doubt that the verdict would have been any different if a change in venue had been granted, so why wasn’t it? Then it was announced that the city had settled a civil case with Mr. Floyd’s family resulting in an award of $27 million, an event that was apparently not shielded from the jury. Of particular concern was an outburst from California’s Rep. Maxine Waters who travelled to Minneapolis to attend a demonstration during which, she told a crowd that  if the verdict went “the wrong way, we’ve got to not only stay in the street but we’ve got to fight for justice.”

                But what the 30-year member of Congress and Chair of its Finance Committee was saying amounted to a fight against justice and an attempt to intimidate a jury. It also could be construed as an intrusion by the Legislative Branch into a judicial matter. Ms. Waters is well-known for such outbursts. She famously delivered one in 1992 after the police beating of Rodney King precipitated a riot in Los Angeles in which dozens were killed. Republican Representative Marjorie Greene of Georgia was stripped of her committee assignments for outrageous racial remarks. Instead of Waters being stripped of hers, her remarks were supported by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

                 Judge Peter Cahill, who presided at the trial, said that he wished public officials would refrain from comments while the trial was taking place and that the defense might now have grounds for appeal.            Nevertheless, on the day before the verdict, President Joe Biden announced that he was praying for the “right verdict” and that the evidence “was overwhelming”. The jury was sequestered at the time but this was another example of an unwarranted intrusion, this time by the Executive Branch and the President, no less, into a judicial matter.

                While there is no doubt in my mind of Chauvin’s guilt and that justice prevailed, it was not justice’s finest hour and it’s not over yet. Mr. Chauvin won’t be sentenced for six or seven weeks. Three others will stand trial in this case later in the year. Can public officials and activists just refrain determining “the right” sentence and from judging the three other officers in the court of public opinion and let the justice system to its job without interference or intimidation? Many activists are saying that it took a summer of violence to finally get a cop convicted of killing a Black man. Can we expect violence, then, every time a Black person is killed by a police officer regardless of the circumstances?   

                Justice for George Floyd was the demand of millions of protesters in the eleven months since his murder. But it’s too late for justice for Mr. Floyd so what it’s really about is justice for those of us who grieve his loss and whether we like it or not, under our system, justice for the accused. The trial of Derek Chauvin delivered that justice, but it’s unfortunate that it will be remembered also for some of the clumsy attempts to influence its outcome.

April 29, 2021

China’s Path to Global Leadership

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                Shortly after Inauguration Day, the Biden Administration announced to the world that America is back, implying a return to global leadership. The world answered with a collective yawn. Consider some reactions.

                Germany went right ahead with its plans to import Russian natural gas through the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline, contrary to U.S. wishes, supplying Europe with an abundant source of energy but bolstering Russia’s shaky economy. Europeans don’t care that much anymore what America wishes for and, meanwhile, China has overtaken the U.S. as the EU’s biggest trading partner, its economy having recovered from the COVID-19 restrictions faster than ours. Russia, for its part, stepped up military activities on its border with Ukraine which it considers lies within its sphere of influence.

                Iran told the Biden Administration, eager to rejoin the 2015 nuclear agreement, “Not so fast”. The U.S. must first lift all sanctions against Iran. And while U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was preparing to meet with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, Iran’s Nantaz nuclear facility was attacked, destroying centrifuges and causing other damage. The attack was apparently carried out by Israeli without bothering to alert the U.S. which fears the attack will endanger prospects for rejoining the nuclear agreement. Israel opposes the agreement because it only imposes a temporary limit on Iran’s ability to acquire nuclear weapons.

                Longstanding American efforts to broker a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute appeared to run out of energy owing to lack of interest in the aftermath of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan as a counter to Iran’s influence in the region. That effort was facilitated by Trump advisor and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

                U.S. plans to withdraw its troops completely from Afghanistan hit a snag when the Taliban backed out of participating in a U.S.-backed conference in Turkey which was then postponed indefinitely. The Taliban figures it is already winning on the battlefield, according to a report by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). And since the U.S. plans to withdraw its troops in September anyway, why should it participate? The DNI expects the threat of terrorism to increase after the troops are withdrawn.

                China greeted the new administration with less than affection. Displaying a new sense of confidence and belligerence, it declared it is now close to economic and military parity with the U.S. and expects to be treated as equals. In a meeting of top diplomatic ministers of both countries in Anchorage, Alaska, Beijing’s foreign minister lectured the U.S. about its racial policies and extolled the virtues of China’s one-party system under which, things can actually be accomplished. He bluntly warned the U.S. about any U.S. interference in what it regards as sovereignty matters, including re-unification with Taiwan.

                The U.S. is committed by the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act to helping Taiwan maintain its autonomy under the “One China, two systems” concept. We saw how well that worked for Hong Kong and neither we nor the UK did much of anything about it. Mr. Biden has said that he plans to strengthen economic and political aid to Taiwan, a long-time U.S. friend and ally, its tenth-largest trading partner, the world’s 20^th largest economy and a primary source of microchips and other technology. While Beijing speaks of re-unification, Taiwan, a thriving democracy, has never lived under Communist rule and doesn’t wish to now. China is increasing its military forces including its naval, missile and nuclear capability. Its navy, at 355 ships, has more ships than ours at 296. Moreover, it is building an average of ten warships per year while we struggle to build five.  China’s military buildup is clearly designed to enable China to enforce its sovereignty claims in the South China Sea, expand its presence and influence globally and to facilitate an invasion of Taiwan when they deem it necessary. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned Beijing against invading Taiwan but what do you think we would actually do about it? What did we do when Russia invaded Georgia or Crimea?

                We should have drawn a firm line on the matter of Taiwan’s sovereignty but China has preempted us by drawing theirs first. Xi Jinping is fully aware of our recent history of not enforcing lines in the sand. It’s clear that China’s ruling Communist party believes that the U. S. is a declining power, beset and preoccupied by domestic problems and struggling to maintain a posture of global leadership. It sees itself as successor to our role as the world’s preeminent power as we join history’s lengthy list of former great powers.

                Democrat fixation on Russia as our primary enemy and source of all evil has only driven Moscow closer to Beijing. Russia is certainly not our friend and remains a serious cyber warfare threat, nuclear power and general mischief maker but it could never develop the economy to displace us as global leader. That role will belong to the People’s Republic of China if we don’t reverse current trends.  Abdicating global leadership might seem like no big deal to many Americans who are unhappy with their country and its not-always-admirable history but they would probably not enjoy living in a world dominated by the Communist Party of China, intent on exporting its system and values throughout the world. Americans can reverse our decline but it won’t come easily or cheaply. We have the capability but do we have the will?

(Kelly, a retired Navy Captain and bank executive, is a freelance writer based in Coronado, Calif. He teaches naval ship handling, seamanship and navigation at Naval Base San Diego.)

April 23, 2021

Biden’s Broken Border Problem

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                As the crisis on the southern border steadily worsens, the Biden administration continues to blame the previous administration for the surge in immigrants trying to cross into the USA including thousands of unaccompanied children. In fact, it has refused to refer to it as a crisis which Mr. Biden created by reversing Trump administration restrictions on immigration and asylum policies, resulting in that surge which responsible officials knew, or should have known, was coming.

                While the attention of Americans is focused mostly on the plight of the unaccompanied children entrusted to human smugglers by desperate parents fleeing poverty, crime and gangs, there has been an accompanying surge in adult illegal border crossers, many of them repeat offenders who had been deported under the Title 41 immigrant expulsion policy, seeking work to feed their families. And with the time and resources of the Border Patrol being diverted to caring for, and in some cases rescuing, children, more criminal activity along the border, including drug trafficking, is increasing. There is one word that best describes conditions at the border: chaotic.

                Already more immigrants have died in the first three months of 2021 than in all of 2019, the last full year before the Covid-19 restrictions were put in place. Nineteen of them were in two SUVs loaded with immigrants involved in horrific collisions. One of them, designed to seat eight safely, contained 25 human beings stacked like cordwood. In another incident, several immigrants were thrown from a moving vehicle trying to evade authorities. Others, abandoned by smugglers, drowned in the Rio Grande trying to cross at night.

                These migrants are mostly good, decent people fleeing what they say are intolerable conditions in their home countries. They come mostly from Central America, particularly Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, countries which are crime- and gang-infested, with governments too inept or weak to control the crime and the gangs or to facilitate an economy that can provide enough work for its people to escape grinding poverty. In desperation, they pay human smugglers what little they have or can earn to help them make the perilous trip north across the length of Mexico to reach our border. Some come looking for work to feed their families. Others seek asylum, usually not in the countries they pass through because they perceive that conditions there aren’t much better than those they just left, but in the USA, a country with a new, immigrant-welcoming president who they hear has reversed Trump’s hateful immigration and asylum restrictions.

                Some send their children on alone because they also hear that Biden won’t send them back if they can only make it across the border. They entrust them to human smugglers who care only for profit and treat immigrants as human cargo. Some of the children will be abused along the way. One border “expert” estimates that 25% are. President Biden was absolutely right when he said that we can’t and won’t just send them back to starve and face more danger. Of course we can’t but perhaps he should have thought that through before his actions opened the floodgates.

                Over 18,000 unaccompanied children are, as of this writing, in U.S. detention facilities and the number is growing. Most are being detained in crowded, prison-like facilities not meant to house children. Some have tested positive for COVID-19 but most haven’t been tested at all. The situation is so bad in Texas, that children are being flown to other locations including San Diego, where the Convention Center has been emptied of its homeless population and re-purposed to house unaccompanied girls, aged 13-17. This might just encourage more desperate parents to send their unaccompanied daughters to the California border where they will be put up and cared for until they can be re-united with parents or relatives or sponsors can be located.

                These migrants deserve to be treated with compassion and dignity but here’s the thing. This surge is probably just the tip of the iceberg. There are millions more wanting and waiting to come and not just from Central America and Mexico but from all over the world. For all our problems, America is their destination of choice. But it should be obvious even to the most compassionate among us, including the religious charities that feed and welcome them, that we can never accommodate everyone who wants to come. No nation could. So what’s the plan, Mr. President? Handing the problem off to Vice-president Kamala Harris seems to be the only strategy in place at the moment. What’s her plan, then? As of this writing, neither of you has been to the border to see up close what even the liberal media is calling a worsening crisis and warns of disturbing TV images of children lying on concrete or dirt floors or being dropped over the wall by smugglers.         

                So here’s a radical thought. They need to be discouraged from making that perilous trip north.   If we can’t, or won’t, get control of our own southern border, perhaps we should make an offer to Mexico and Guatemala to send troops to help them control theirs, if they can’t or won’t do it themselves. At 541 miles, it’s a lot less to cover than ours at 1954 miles. It wouldn’t be the first time we sent Marines to Central America to save lives.

                Here’s the other thing. With all the focus on domestic issues like the immigration crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, proposed election reform legislation and soon-to-be-announced multi-trillion dollar plans for infrastructure and green energy, is anyone paying close attention to the rest of the world where China is eating our lunch economically and perhaps militarily? Secretary of State Antony Blinken said just recently that “We’re not trying to contain China.” Perhaps that’s because we no longer can. But that’s a topic for another day because we’re out of space here. Remember, Mr. President, you asked for this job, and the multiple challenges and long days that come with it.

April 13, 2021

Things that Help Make a Fine City Finer—-

                A commentary

                By J. F. Kelly, Jr.

                The last of the light towers came crashing down last week at the Mission Valley stadium where once the San Diego Chargers, Padres and San Diego State University’s football team entertained fans from around the county and elsewhere. The stadium, built in 1967, also hosted annual Holiday and Pointsettia Bowl games, a World Series, three Super Bowls, two baseball All Star games and countless concerts and other events. It was home to the San Diego Soccers and the huge parking lot accommodated plenty of parking and tailgate parties. Now it’s a pile of rubble to be cleared away to make room for a new, smaller 35.000-seat football stadium for SDSU. Only memories remain of some great moments in sports and entertainment.

                The stadium, variously known as Jack Murphy Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium, SDCCU Stadium or, more informally, the “Murph” or the “Q”, was easy to access, served by four major freeways and a trolley station.  At 54 years old, it was by no means an eyesore, at least not to those of us who loved the venue, but it lacked some of the features that newer stadiums began offering. Even so, visiting sports announcers often gushed over the venue until they were probably reminded that the team ownership was seeking a new stadium. But negotiations with the city didn’t go at all well. At one point, the team offered to finance building a new stadium on the site in return for the land it sat on plus some adjacent space for commercial development. It seemed like a good deal to me since the area sits in a flood plain, is subject to flooding, is located near a fuel farm but could still generate a lot of revenue for the city. But discussions between the then-city attorney and the team’s legal counsel became contentious and apparently doomed further negotiations.

                While I was foreman of the San Diego County Grand Jury, I urged the city to work with the county to fund a new or refurbished stadium, since the team was a regional asset, with supporters from around and beyond the county. Cities much smaller than San Diego were building stadiums. Surely the nation’s eighth largest could find a way to keep the team. Nothing came of that. That same year, the Grand Jury issued two separate reports, one finding that the city misused the City Box perquisite and the other criticizing the notorious Charger ticket guarantee agreement which was not a good deal for the city.

                With the prospect of losing its coveted National Football League (NFL) franchise growing, the city still failed to reach an agreement with the team to build a downtown stadium and the rest, as they say, is history. Mayor Kevin Faulconer became the mayor on whose watch the city lost its valuable NFL franchise and the team moved to Carson, Calif., soon to become the Los Angeles Chargers, one of LA’s two NFL franchises. Thankfully, for area baseball fans, the Padres got their state-of-the-art stadium downtown, a great place to watch baseball if you can afford the price of tickets, parking and food and drink for the family. But the NFL franchise is gone, probably forever.

                To be sure, it isn’t just sports teams that make a city a great place to live, but they do provide a lot of wholesome entertainment for much of its population even if they can only afford to watch their home teams on TV. They are a great source of community pride and they tend to bring people together. Cities less than half the size of San Diego boast NFL, National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) franchises as well as major league baseball teams. San Diego has only the Padres and they would have lost them, too, had not McDonalds’s owner Ray Kroc rescued the team in 1974. The city does have a minor league hockey team, the Gulls, which is a farm team of the Anaheim Ducks. The last time I looked, the Ducks were in last place in their division. In addition to being unable to support more than one major league franchise or get stadiums built and potholes filed, the city hasn’t displayed notable skill in negotiating real estate deals, the latest examples being the purchase of the asbestos-contaminated former Sempra headquarters on Ash St. and the purchase of expensive motels for the growing homeless population. This is the city that once had the opportunity to purchase what is now the Miramar Marine Corps Air Base for an airport for a token amount. It declined because it was considered too far away from the city. Who knew any better back then? Well, almost anyone with a vision.

                With a Mediterranean climate, the area has the best weather in the world and I’m truly grateful to live here. It’s got a lot of things, including beeches and other natural attractions, going for it but multiple major league sports franchises aren’t among them. They are part of what adds to a city’s appeal and reputation. Most people in the rest of the country tend to think of San Diego as a somewhat distant suburb of Los Angeles down by the border with a very small, single runway airport and a large naval base. They hear it’s a very nice place to visit but much too expensive to live there and look surprised when you tell them that it’s the eighth largest city in America.

                But it’s a major league-sized city with minor league vision. I once referred to it, affectionately, in a column as “America’s biggest and finest hick town.” That got me invitations to live elsewhere if I didn’t like it. I did. I live in Coronado. And I never said I didn’t like San Diego. It’s got Balboa Park, interesting museums and a really convenient airport. And it’s a nice place to visit.

                Go Padres! (Not literally, of course.)

April 10, 2021