October 22, 2017

Sheriff Scott Israel

Broward Sheriff’s Office

RE: “Hate dies in silent darkness” – Some comments on your mini Op-Ed on freedom, I think, in today’s Sun Sentinel.

Sheriff Israel,

Let me quickly add that your nostrums are lifted en toto from the dog-eared modern American playbook, the one that gives talking points to non-thinking true believers. That’s the one that says, broadly speaking, all social problems – the heartbreak of psoriasis, teenage bullying, teenage obesity, income inequality, drowning polar bears, lack of low priced sustainable public transit, lo-fat zabaglione, and free premium cable – can be solved if men of good will reach across the aisle and turn their swords into plowshares and have men of good will get some solutions to our problems. Remember, the War on Poverty solve poverty more than 50 years ago, right? 

Since we know God is in the details the specific problem of how free free speech is, is tempered by whose Gore is being oxed.

Por ejemplo, when Cossacks, disguised as SEIU thugs, invaded the Wisconsin legislature and greeted all the female members with a hearty “Fuck you, cunt”, the silence from the modern American Left was deafening.

Nat Hentoff, noted jazz critic, free speech advocate, and strident abortion foe said in his book “Free Speech For Me But Not For You”, it depends.

Would the Sheriff’s office defend my right to wrap the Koran [Why is it always “sacred” while the Bible, an older book and the main source of material for the Koran, be it sacred or profane, is not accorded the same exalted status?] and the Bible in the American flag and set it ablaze on the steps of the courthouse. Naturally, I would have pail of pig pee nearby should the blaze get out of control// And yes, I would take a knee during the ceremony.

I hope you are a member of the BSO “rubber gun squad”. I don’t want you out there with live ammo.

You say “hat is killed by silent darkness”. Maybe yes, maybe no. One thing for certain. Sunlight always kills it. 

Who gets to pick what is hate speech, what is not hate speech, and what tips one into the other? If I were to say “Black Lives Matter insofar as All Lives Matter” would that be hate speech per se? If I were to say, Hands Up; Don’t Shoot” is a racist lie would that make me a hate monger?

You close by espousing “enduring values of decency and equality” as if you had them memorized. Can you send me a list of them so I will know? 

In all the picking and choosing of what is good, what is bad, what is offensive, and what is “good” keep in mind the eternal words of Juvenal, a noted DWEM, who said

Quis custodeit ipso custodies?

Kevin Smith

PS – Go to the African-American Library and ask where you can find a copy of Dick Gregory’s excellent autobiography. Don’t mention the title lest some feral Black youth take umbrage.