By Steve Pomper
I think we need a new story file cabinet because the one for “you can’t make this stuff up” is so crammed full we can’t shut the drawers. So, the first item to file in the new cabinet comes from—where else? —San Francisco, of course.
You know how speakers often begin a speech with a joke? Well, why should they have all the fun? How about writers? So, in that spirit, I came across a tidbit I couldn’t let go without sharing.
First, this discussion is about a crazy anti-cop politician named Hillary Ronen who sits on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. While we are concerned with her anti-police activities, and we’ll ignore her other political items that have her in the news recently, which have people wondering just how crazy she is on all manner of public policy.
Oh, right. Back to our introductory joke. I came across a 2019 ad for a keynote speech Ronen gave at the Mental Health Association of San Francisco Conference.
I have no clue what her speech contained because I couldn’t get past the title. It was just so unintentionally spot-on, there was no way I couldn’t share a chuckle.
Hillary Ronen: Redefining Crazy
Now, with the frivolity out of the way (well, honestly, with this San Fran crowd, I can’t promise there won’t be more), let’s get to why we’re here. To start things off with intrepid journalist Andy Ngo who, living in Portland, Oregon, knows a thing or two about crazy, here’s a tweet.
“San Francisco city official @HillaryRonen begs police for more police officers in her district after previously voting to defund police during the 2020 BLM-Antifa riots.”
According to KATU 2 News, Ronen “is outraged after city officials allegedly told her there are ‘no officers’ to send to her district.”
It’s not only the hypocrisy that’s stunning but also just how wrong their ideas are. She seems completely out of touch that the lack of officers she’s “outraged” about aren’t there, in part, because of her efforts. The same thing happened in Minneapolis and likely other anti-cop cities, as reported by CNN.
In July 2020, Ronen tweeted, “I have been trying to defund SFPD to fund all the critically underfunded services in SF for years. I’m with you and appreciate your activism.”
Ronen was responding to Defund SFPD Now, who’d tweeted, “Hey! We aren’t just activists. Do you really think we could turn out this many ‘radicals’? Most San Franciscans understand that police does not mean public safety. And we have specific pragmatic cuts at http://defundSFPDnow.com. Let’s do this.”.
Ronen also praised the anti-cops, tweeting, “I’ve read this carefully and my staffer is analyzing your suggestions deeply. Appreciate your work a lot!!!
Now, according to Breitbart, “with crime rampant in the city, Ronen is singing a different tune, ‘begging’ the city to send more police to her district instead of prioritizing retail theft. Fox News quoted her speech last Wednesday: ‘I’ve been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence all year long. And I have been told time and time and time and time again there are no officers that we can send to Mission.’” [link added]
Let that sink in a moment. She seems to say it without the least bit of irony, embarrassment, or apology. Her call for more cops is just pretend for reelection purposes whenever her constituents disturb with reality the serene socialist Utopia that exists in her mind.
As the title of that 2019 speech pointed out, Ronen is the one redefining crazy. Who campaigns for defunding the police and then cries foul when her constituents start demanding the police she got yanked from their neighborhoods?
Easy answer. A crazy person does.