There is something about political campaigns for law enforcement offices that makes them particularly vicious. Maybe it’s that some candidates who see themselves as the champions of law and order tend to see their opponents as villains. The result is self-righteous campaigns that cross ethical boundaries. The use of crime victims for political purposes—especially without their consent — certainly crosses ethical boundaries, and that is exactly what the campaign to elect Kevin Jensen has done.
The Deputy Sheriff’s Association and the group that represents County Jail guards, put out a mailer assigning responsibility to Sheriff’s Laurie Smith for so-called “blunders” within investigations at the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department. Ironically, those blunders were, in fact, committed by the members of the very organization doing the criticizing, the Deputy Sheriff’s Association.
In addition to the hypocrisy is something even more serious, pulling innocent victims into the mix when they’ve already been brutally victimized. Take the family of Audrey Pott, the teenage sexual assault victim who committed suicide after being tormented on a social media site. A personal friend of the Pott family called out the authors of the mailer on Facebook, criticizing their use of the Pott Family’s name. Lisa Pott commented her family did not give permission to have their name used on the mailer, nor do they endorse Kevin Jensen. (see a larger image of above here.)
Lisa Pott: “No, the Pott Family does not endorse! Also, all their facts were wrong. Terrible.”
Yet, they were dragged into a vicious campaign accusation. Friends of the family are calling for Jensen to apologize.
Holding public office is serious business and the campaigns to run for those offices should be serious as well. But the campaigns should not cross the line of decency, especially when it comes to those whom law enforcement is supposed to be protecting.
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