Corruption in California, And Why Liberals Won't Fix It

California is one of a small number of states that still has a discretionary concealed handgun carry statute that grants nearly unlimited discretion to a sheriff or police chief whether to issue a permit or not. When this law that when first passed in 1923, it was part of a bill that was explicitly stated by supporters as part of a strategy to disarm Hispanics and Chinese:

it will have a salutary effect in checking tong wars among the Chinese and vendettas among our people who are of Latin descent.

This is not really a surprise; racism is one of the three pillars of American gun control law.

There have been problems for my entire adult life with California sheriffs issuing permits to political supporters and big campaign contributors, as my friend Jim March has documented in detail here.

The corruption is ongoing--not just history. Los Angeles County Sheriff Baca has pulled some pretty sleazy stuff in this area, as this June 15, 2007 MSNBC report discusses:

It is not the first time that Tinseltown's sheriff has been criticized for being too cozy with the Hollywood crowd. Baca plays golf with actor Michael Douglas, and has received campaign contributions or endorsements from the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Les Moonves, Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman and Steven Segal. The sheriff has issued concealed-weapon permits to such actors as Ben Affleck, and in 1999, less than a year after being sworn in, he set up an “executive reserves” unit that allowed celebrities to wear a badge and carry a gun. All they had to do was take 64 hours of training and pass the department’s background check.

Critics of the program, who said it was nothing more than a sly way for Baca to pay back friends and supporters, were incensed when, less than a month after the unit was initiated, one of those reservists—Scott Zacky of the Zacky Farms chicken dynasty—was stripped of his badge for drawing a gun outside his Bel Air mansion after mistaking a couple on a date for car thieves. The unit was suspended in late 1999 after one member, a wealthy Baca supporter who owns a jewelry store, was arrested for money laundering.

Baca has a long history of questionable financial dealings that seem to involve his use of office, as this December 1, 1999 L.A. Weekly report describes:

A FEW MONTHS AFTER LEE BACA TOOK OFFICE AS SHERIFF OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY, HE moved up to a tony San Marino address. He left behind the Pasadena bachelor's condo he'd been living in since his 1994 divorce and bought a rambling Mediterranean-style home for himself and his soon-to-be bride, Carol Chiang.

Baca's real estate upgrade has raised questions, however, particularly in regard to the sheriff's relationship with a wealthy Beverly Hills mortgage broker named Robert "Bob" Weiss. Weiss, through his company, the Richland Group, helped arrange for Baca to buy the $750,000 house for no money down, which several experts interviewed for this article called an unusually generous financing package.
At the same time, Baca took it upon himself to help Weiss promote a new program marketing home loans directly to cops, called the PRIDE Program. Baca joined the PRIDE Program's so-called "Advisory Board," and lobbied county officials to let Weiss' marketing teams set up sales booths and make presentations in department facilities across the county. Baca also talked up Weiss and the PRIDE Program to other top law-enforcement officials across the state.
"Something stinks here," says Bud Treece, head of the department's largest employee union. "Why would a professional cop want to endorse a commercial enterprise?"
Even one of the sheriff's inner circle seems taken aback by the arrangement. "I don't think Lee should get involved in something like that," says Dan Bryant, a Pasadena real estate broker who calls himself Baca's "personal, political and spiritual" adviser. "I don't know what the hell he is doing that for."
Baca, for his part, isn't saying. His spokesman, Captain Doyle Campbell, says the sheriff has "no comment" regarding his relationship with Weiss, his endorsement of the Richland Group's products or his lobbying on the company's behalf.
Likewise, after the Weekly made repeated attempts to contact Weiss and other Richland executives by telephone, a spokesperson for the Richland Group said that the company had "no comment" on his relationship with the sheriff, and declined to provide any information about his company.
But a review of real estate records, court documents, financial-disclosure filings and other public records, supported by interviews with key participants, confirms Weiss' role in financing Baca's house, and Baca's activities on behalf of Weiss' PRIDE Program.
Moreover, in the glad-handing and back-scratching circles of police boosterism, it's not hard to turn up anecdotes about Weiss' relationship with the sheriff. Weiss has worked hard to ingratiate himself -- and his company -- into that world. And Baca has worked those same networks, using his office and its prerogatives to help those who help him, while cultivating political and financial supporters across the Southland.

Now the FBI in investigating Sacramento County Sheriff Blanas, according to this August 9, 2007 Sacramento Bee report:

The FBI is looking into concealed-gun permits issued by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, according to documents filed in a lawsuit that alleges former Sheriff Lou Blanas issued permits as political favors.
Documents filed Friday in the federal civil rights suit say FBI investigators have requested gun permit documents from the department, which include a permit Blanas issued to Sacramento businessman Edwin G. Gerber. Gerber gave $3,500 to Blanas' election campaign, election records show, and bought a vacation home with Blanas in Reno in the fall of 2005, according to property records.
The former sheriff signed Gerber's gun permit a day before leaving office last summer. He issued the approval without following the department's usual procedure, which calls for a three-person committee to review applications from people asking to carry a loaded gun in public, according to interviews and court documents.

When I lived in Sonoma County, Sheriff Michaelsen issued concealed carry permits more freely than his successor--but his own deputies told me that some of the people getting permits were big campaign contributors--and at least one was issued a permit before the background check was complete--and the guy had a felony conviction! Yet even as freely as Michaelsen issued permits to people that would not pass a background check, it wasn't because Michaelsen issued permits to any law-abiding adult in the county. It was a very dirty business.
Yet in spite of the corruption that this discretionary permit process creates--and that the standards are actually more lax than in non-discretionary states--California's legislature won't fix it. Why? Because as much as a lot of gun control advocates claim to oppose putting guns on the streets, gun control advocates are often those with concealed carry permits!
Thanks to Dan Gifford for bringing several of these news reports to my attention.