The truth is out there
The letter writer (“Who’s telling the truth?, Sept. 23) is looking for the truth. I can help with that. He claims Trump has claimed “crime is running rampant” in Democratic cities. The implication is he’s incorrect.
Trump is referring to cities like Portland, Seattle, Chicago, New York, Minneapolis, etc. These cities all have Democratic governors, mayors and city council members. They stand back and watch their cities destroyed and handcuff the police by not allowing them to do their jobs. At one point the Washington governor famously claimed he was unaware of any trouble in Seattle!
Locally, we may have more conservative leaders but your Democratic governor has released thousands of criminals back onto the streets and will soon release thousands more. There’s the reason crime is going up in Kern County. If we didn’t have conservative leadership we could easily become like one of the aforementioned cities. Thank your lucky stars we’re not in that situation.
— Jeff Spinner, Bakersfield
DON’T STOP PEOPLE FROM OWNING CHICKENS
Nobody’s got a problem with people having dogs (remember the golden retriever that viciously bit 8-year-old Leilani Rivera on the face?) but mention the idea of people being allowed to keep chickens on their own property and everyone loses their mind.
Bakersfield allows residents to keep venomous animals (yes, your next door neighbor might actually have 100 diamondback rattlesnakes in his house) but if you want to have some harmless birds as pets that also make food you can eat you are a health and safety risk?
Give me a break, people. You don’t care about health and safety. If you did you’d make it so people can’t keep animals that actually ARE dangerous. I don’t see anyone waving their arms around about Fido. Quit harassing the chicken people and mind your own business.
You don’t want chickens? Don’t get them. But just because you don’t want them doesn’t give you the right to prevent other people from responsibly owning them. Bunch of hypocrites, if you ask me. — Michael Thompson, Bakersfield
WEAKENING LAWS MEANT TO PROTECT MINORS FROM SEX ABUSE
This letter is to bring to the public’s attention what is happening in the state Legislature and also being signed into law by Gov. Newsom with little information being given to the public. Unless a friend had told me about SB145, I would not have known. Yet we will
suffer the consequences.
Sen. Scott Wiener, San Francisco, and supported by Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey, introduced a bill changing the sex registration requirements for a predator having homosexual sex acts with a minor as long as the sex is consensual, the victim is 14 or older, and the perpetrator is within 10 years of age of the victim. There was substantial opposition to this bill; however, it passed and on Sept. 11, the governor signed this bill into law. Therefore, a judge has more discretion on who has to register as a sex offender.
Everyone should know and I believe most people would agree a 15-year-old girl or boy being persuaded to have sex with a 24-yearold man is NOT consensual. Also, this would affect employers hiring someone with a sex offense conviction but who is not registered. This significantly weakens the state laws designed to protect minors from sexual abuse at the
hands of adults. Rather than passing a law to treat homosexual and heterosexual acts the same, this law puts all children in danger.
The Founding Fathers always pointed to the people to preserve the Constitution and our freedom. We must speak out against injustices. We have forgotten how much our ancestors sacrificed to provide us the protection and freedoms we have. We must speak out against the unjust immoral actions of our government. I still have hope that people will continue to let Gov. Newsom know of our opposition to this bill.
— Betsy Gosling, Bakersfield