☆ Perspectives: Ellenberg twists language, logic to defend County record
Image by Laurel Leaf Farm
Author Ellery Adams famously said that "Words have power, and all things of power are dangerous." Many of our readers and contributors were struck by that notion while reading the transcript of County Supe Susan Ellenberg's recent State of the County address. We're all used to politicians tap dancing, but Ellenberg's formulations struck many as reaching a new level of spin altogether. A collection of edited reponses is below, from the greater Opp Now community. An Opp Now exclusive.
Ellenberg claim: “Safety ... is having vision and opportunities to work and create and dream. Safety is not camouflaging our challenges – hiding or locking people away who present challenges. Safety is not predicated on punishment. ... Safety is people working together, never leaving anyone behind.”
Analysis: For the sake of reference, here's the dictionary definition of "safety:" the condition of being protected from or unlikely to cause danger, risk, or injury.
That's a pretty long way from Ellenberg's definition, which chooses to ignore the key concept of protection and instead reformulates safety as an infinitely expansive concept that inevitably leads to social programs aligned with her legislative agenda: "food access, supportive and affordable housing, healthcare, social services, and second chances."
Notably, Ellenberg ignores the notion that safety might also include the concept of providing residents security from lawbreakers, as is the common sense understanding of the term. Perhaps this is because this understanding of safety may run contrary to Ellenberg's penchant for criminal justice reform of the sort that has contributed to the rising crime rates in cities like Oakland and San Francisco. In fact, the only time Ellenberg mentions law enforcement in the context of safety is to express a desire to reform the police such that we have "[l]aw enforcement officers that understand how to respond in crises regardless of the race or economic status of those involved."
Ellenberg claim: When discussing what the County has done to alleviate local mental health crises, she offers up the following: "Last year I said we would build out bed capacity, workforce pipelines and treatment slots. Since then ... We broke Ground on a 77 Inpatient Psychiatric Facility for Children, Adolescents and Adults at VMC – another project championed by Supervisor Simitian.
Analysis: What's left unaddressed in the Supervisor’s speech is why the County isn’t doing much more, much faster, and much more cost-effectively to address the needs of the 9,000+ unhoused population despite statewide mandates like CARE Court. Many of the people on our streets suffer from severe mental health issues, and important subsets of that group will now need treatment beds under SB43. But the County has only subcontracted out 81 new mental health beds and is finally building the decade-overdue 77 inpatient bed Psychiatric Facility for Children at VMC. In a county with over 1.9 million residents, the minuscule additional capacity is a slap in the face to those who are waiting for treatment.
Ellenberg claim: Similarly, when discussing the substance abuse epidemic ravaging the county, Ellenberg notes: "The County contracted with San Jose Behavioral Health to add 53 Additional Inpatient Beds to our inventory. The County opened in partnership with Momentum for Health a 28 bed adult residential facility. In our efforts around substance use treatment, we added 3 Beds at the Camp Recovery Center for Youth, and 3 Beds at the Parisi House on the Hill for Social Detox."
Analysis: Even more puzzling is how the County thinks that providing 6 more beds for drug detox patients will even make a dent in our drug addiction epidemic. These efforts are shamefully blind to the facts on the street.
Neither mental health, drug addiction, nor public safety will be solved by surveys of how “people feel about public safety." Sadly, it looks like the County will keep their posture of: hear no evil, see no evil, and do very little to address the major issues we face of mental health, drug addiction, and rising crime.
Read the transcript of Ellenberg's address here.
Related:
Ellenberg, far-left groups float discredited decarceration tropes in county jail debate
Opinion: CA'ns sick and tired of pols soft-pedaling State's crime uptick
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