There is a vast gulf between looking and sounding like a leader and acting like a leader…

One would think that the first obligation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff, the highest local elected officials in the state, would be to ensure the safety of his own personnel so they can continue to protect the population during times of emergency.

Yet, we see the Los Angeles County Sheriff silent -- and not demanding that his entire department be tested for the SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 ) antibodies regardless of whether or not they are displaying the symptoms of the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) disease. Including periodic re-testing of previously negatively tested front-line personnel. Those who test positive, but who are without symptoms, should be grouped together and away from those who test negative. Since most of the department’s patrol and front-facing officers are likely to be younger and in good physical shape, one might expect that they have a better survival rate than senior citizens who are likely to occupy administrative positions.

Truth-be-told, this should be mandatory for all first responders and those involved with designated critical infrastructure.

Unfortunately, this is the Sheriff who is preoccupied with denying ordinary law-abiding citizens access to weapons and ammunition in violation of the Constitution’s Second Amendment while concurrently releasing allegedly non-violent criminals and illegal aliens back into the very communities he is sworn to protect.

"We are going to shut down gun sales and ammunition sales outside of law enforcement and private security organizations," Villanueva said. Villanueva's order applies only to the gun shops in the unincorporated areas of the county where the sheriff's department provides law enforcement. It's up to the individual chiefs of police in other cities to decide if the doors will stay open. Villanueva says he's trying to discourage panic gun-buying; his intent isn't to stop the sales of guns, but rather to address the large crowds recently seen gathering at gun stores.” <Source> [OCS: The sheriff has stated that he took the action of declaring gun shops as non-essential businesses to “minimize the threat posed by first-time gun buyers panic-purchasing weapons at a time when homes are crowded, raising the possibility of suicides and domestic violence.” Sounds like a convenient excuse to me.]

Approximately 1,700 inmates have been released from Los Angeles County jails in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the local sheriff's office announced Tuesday, reducing the inmate population by 10%. So far, no one in the county's jail system has tested positive for COVID-19, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said in a news conference Tuesday. The inmates who were released were all serving time for non-violent crimes and had under 30 days left on their sentences, a sheriff's spokesperson told CBS News. <Source> [OCS: It appears that Los Angeles County is restricting testing to those who are exhibiting the active symptoms associated with COV-19]

Something is drastically wrong when the Los Angeles County Supervisors are seeking to remove the Los Angeles County Sheriff, Alex Villanueva, as the head of the county’s emergency operations center. Is it a political power play or a lack of leadership on the part of a sheriff who continues to hold his own daily update press conference separate from the daily brief from other county officials?

Is anyone surprised when there was mass confusion about the stay-at-home order when the drafting, dissemination, and explanation of the order was muddled by multiple voices, all of whom claimed to have the authority to speak to the subject?

Bottom line…

Press conferences where all of the politicians and other elected officials push the subject-matter experts to the back of the line while they all take bows and thank everybody for their participation in the ongoing crisis annoy me. Most people simply tune out and essential information is lost in the unnecessary political noise.

What I don’t understand is that almost all of the officials acknowledge that the City and County of Los Angeles were unprepared for the current emergency. This is bullpucky given that a region-wide natural disaster would produce many more urgent injuries coupled with significant damage to property – and especially to critical infrastructure involving services such as communications, sanitation, etc. Yet year-after-year, the combined agencies tell us that they are preparing for “The Big One.”

With the support of the Los Angeles County Operational Area partners, including Federal, State, County, local municipality departments, and non-government agencies, the County of Los Angeles Chief Executive Office, Office of Emergency Management (LAC OEM) coordinates and conducts disaster preparedness drills, exercises and trainings utilizing a variety of scenarios. These drills, exercises, and trainings serve to test plans, reinforce response and recovery management protocols and procedures in identifying areas of strength and improvement, as well as promote better interagency collaboration. <Source>

Well, the "big one" is here, and there are few excuses for what we are seeing from our elected officials. When we must not fool ourselves into thinking we are prepared, it turns out that we were the easiest to fool – having placed our reliance on public officials while we went about our daily business. It appears that we must, of necessity, watch the watchers and check the checkers. The mainstream media is also at fault, politicizing and sensationalizing everything as they prove once again how quickly their taking heads can turn from being constitutional experts on impeachment into expert epidemiologists and virologists.

We are so screwed.

-- steve