This is a really strange story, and I still can't quite make sense of it.

A site called thefallenofficers.com, is a nonprofit for families of slain police officers, was planning an event to raise money for the family of sergeant Ron Helus, who was slain in the Borderline shooting exactly a year ago today. It was a charity flag football tournament called "Blue Bowl", and they had done similar events around the country in the past.

Last month, the Ventura County Sheriff's office cancelled the event, claiming it was "too political".

Why?

Because Scott Baio was planned to speak there, and Joy Villa was planned to sing the national anthem. Both are Republicans.

There is no indication that Baio or Villa planned to make any kind of political statement while there. It seems that their mere presence was what caused the event to be cancelled.

Here's an article about it: https://www.vcstar.com/story/news/lo...ed/3841717002/

The article seems to dance around the meat of the issue. Why exactly were Baio and Villa's presence considered so problematic? What was the concern? That isn't revealed in the article -- only that it was feared to be "too political", whatever that means. It should also be noted that another planned speaker was Wayne Bilowit, a Democrat appointee of Gavin Newsom, so this wasn't a Republican event disguised as charity.

My best guess was that they felt Baio and Villa were doing this for their own publicity, rather than caring about the cause. But that's not really for the city or county to decide. From what I can tell, Baio at least lives in the area, and most people in Thousand Oaks felt emotionally connected to the events, especially because it was compounded by the major (and unrelated) fire which struck the area 15 hours later.

Also, as Baio and Villa are not running for office, I can't imagine how their presence can be judged "political", even if they are known Trump supporters.

Mike Randall, director of thefallenofficers, claims that Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel is a staunch Democrat who bashed Trump to them during a September phone call, and that his personal hatred for Trump and his supporters was the real reason for the event's cancellation. Hagel is being investigated over the matter, according to an article published last week.

I attended a Jewish event in December 2018 which honored Sgt. Helus, where his son spoke.

Regarding the officer's family, his widow and son put out statements which appear to be reluctantly supporting the cancellation, but both seem to be indicating that they don't have all the facts, and might change their minds later. It sounds like the sheriff's office approached them and told them the event was going to be politicized and it should be cancelled, but now both are having lingering doubts if that was really the case.

I've tried to look at this from both sides. If there was any indication that Villa or Baio were going to politicize their appearance, I agree that they should have either been excluded or the event should have been cancelled. However, from what I can see, this only seems to be about their presence itself, which is baffling. This really does look like a political decision by Democrats in charge of Ventura County law enforcement, who simply don't want Trump-supporting celebrities gaining any kind of positive publicity.

The whole thing is very baffling to me.