RUTHFULLY YOURS

Convicted criminal Kevin Limbaugh, 48, known for violence toward co-workers, thought the Davis, California, police department was attacking him with “ultrasonic waves.” On Thursday January 10, the unhinged criminal gunned down Davis police officer Natalie Corona, 22, a rising star in the Davis police department. The community hailed Corona as a hero who had dedicated herself to law enforcement and paid the ultimate price. The Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission (ECAC) at UC Davis didn’t see it that way.

A photo of Corona, clad in an elegant blue dress and holding the “thin blue line” flag, went viral on social media. The Commission’s Facebook post, now deleted, said, “this flag represents an attempt by law enforcement to undermine the Black Lives Matter movement.” And Blue Lives Matter was “an effort to evade accountability and critical awareness of police treatment of communities of color.”

The Commission’s post drew criticism from UC Davis student body president Michael Gofman, the economics and political science major who last year drew attention to anti-Semitic fliers on campus. Students for Justice in Palestine opposed a campus seminar on anti-Semitism to be held by the Anti-Defamation League.

Last year, Gofman also opposed a mandate to remove the American flag from meetings of the school senate. After the flag flap over Natalie Corona, Gofman said in a post, “I am ashamed that some of these same people, protected by the very officers that they are condemning, have the audacity to politicize the loss of a young officer. Her only crime was being a police officer.” Gofman urged the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs to take down their “disgusting post,” and issue an apology.

The Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission is “responsible for investigating and recommending policies and programs concerning under-represented communities at UC Davis.” The student group’s goal is “to represent historically marginalized groups who face barriers in terms of institutionalized, internalized, and systemic oppression. We are here to propose legislation and support events that honor different ethnic, racial, and cultural backgrounds.” And the Commission seeks to “empower cross-cultural interaction in order to represent and bring awareness within our communities, student body, and the University of California, Davis.”

Last October, the UC Davis newspaper The California Aggie reported, Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Rina Singh and Senator Ko Ser Lu Htoo refused to work with Michael Gofman, charging that he “did not hold the commission’s values of inclusion and equity.” According to Singh, who chairs the Commission,  “There’s so much stuff happening: racism, assault is all taking place, but we don’t even know about it.”

Htoo charged that Gofman is “disrespectful to members of the LGBTQIA community.” Thoo also Gofman “is racist and refuses to use gender-inclusive language. He had conducted interviews with unfairness and injustice.” As it happens, UC Davis has a record in that department.

UC Davis medical school reserved slots for blacks and Hispanics, but in 1973 and 1974, the school twice rejected Vietnam War veteran Allan Bakke, a person of no color. His academic qualifications were outstanding, and he had never discriminated against anyone, but school officials rejected his admittance because of race. In 1978, Bakke sued and won, but the University of California continued to discriminate.

In 1996, voters passed the California Civil Rights Initiative—Proposition 209—which barred racial and ethnic preferences in state education, employment and contracting. Despite furious opposition from the quota lobby, the measure passed by a vote of 54.6 percent vs. 45.4 percent and the disaster that opponents predicted never occurred.

As Thomas Sowell noted in his 2013 book, “Intellectuals and Race,” the number of African Americans and Hispanics graduating from the UC system increased and the number graduating in four years with a GPA of 3.5 or higher rose 55 percent. Even so, UC Davis remained a citadel of political correctness and diversity dogma.

Jennifer Beeman, head of the UC Davis Campus Violence Prevention Program, falsified sexual assault statistics to draw down federal money. In 2011 Beeman was convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to five years of felony probation.

Meanwhile, after the murder of Natalie Corona, Trina Allen of the local Black Lives Matter posted that the phrase blue lives matter “is simply a racist, reactionary clapback to the very real human rights struggle of the Black Lives Matter movement.” The blue lives matter movement “is simply repackaged Nazi propaganda. They are not trying to protect officers from those who would harm them (namely white nationalists), they are spewing anti-Black, ultra-authoritarian, toxic-masculine, and fascist ideologies.”

The post charged that “white Supremacy and toxic masculinity are the pillars of both are current criminal justice system and the violent crime they claim to contest.” The post showed a photo of the shooter Kevin Limbaugh but not fallen officer Natalie Corona.

In similar style, the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission referred only to “the police officer.” At this writing, the Commission has yet to issue an official apology for the post on the Natalie Corona photo with the thin blue line flag.

The Davis Police Department has established a memorial fund for Corona and plans to create a scholarship in her memory.