I support a diversity of opinions and opportunities to learn from them. What I don’t support are people who take an oath of office and then repeatedly and intentionally fail to fulfill the requirements of their office.
Sadly, despite constructive feedback from The Tribune editorial board, me, and others, Mr. Dow has continued to fail to fulfill his oath to fairly apply the law. First, he advocates selective application of the law at a private gathering with his Tea Party base. Shortly thereafter, he appears at a state secessionist rally. Subsequently, in an apparent effort to defend against charges of selective prosecution, his office’s investigator gets called out for cajoling a witness to testify falsely about injuries from the civil protests. Most recently, the judge in the Tianna Arata case disqualified not only Mr. Dow but also the entire District Attorney’s Office for conflict of interest.
More concerns are on the horizon. The Board of Supervisors recently acted to have the District Attorney (not the independent state Fair Political Practices Commission) determine violations of local campaign practices. How can the community have confidence in Mr. Dow faithfully fulfilling that role when he has such a strong personal political agenda?
Enough is enough. Since Mr. Dow is not honoring his commitment to the entire community, the honorable thing for him to do is resign. As a private citizen, he’d be free to express his personal prejudices. However, such behavior is not consistent with the higher duty of District Attorney.
Don Maruska
Los Osos
This article appears in Dec 24, 2020 – Jan 3, 2021.
Mr. Maruska is in a snit because Dow failed to heed the “constructive feedback” that he, his friends and the Tribune offered him on how to run his office. Funny, but I recall that Dow was the person that voters elected, presumably to exercise his own judgment, and not to just act as a conduit for implementing the directives of the media and partisans.
Thank you Dan Maruska for clarifying by examples Dan Dow’s fundamentalist, right wing nationalist and politically extreme advocacies that have undermined his ability to serve justice for all of San Luis Obispo County. I will rally others to defeat him in the next election.
Maruska’s idea of “law for all the people” is actually “enforce the law only as liberal progressives see fit”. I guess when in public office people lose all rights to PERSONAL opinions? I sure don’t see you crying about the liberals when they take part in activities that are contrary to the constitution or that offend many others. Oh, I forgot, only conservatives have to suppress their right to their freedoms. Go over Dan’s record and you cannot besmirch it. He enforces the law with respect to the constitution and NOT to the whims of liberal progressives such as Maruska and the pathetic Tribune. How can you support Harmon with her “strong personal opinions”? You sir, are a flaming hypocrite
Jodi I assure you that Dan dow has done very harmful things to people. He has protected very bad police Behavior police brutality. In my case my dog was poisoned I called Grover Beach Police and I was arrested and the media was told by gang member as officer John Goodman and chief copsey told Michelle Mucci to tell kcoy that I sprayed Roundup in a girl’s face this never happened and when I saw the DEA walk into the courtroom I got all good he will catch all this and it will be turned around. No way miscarriage of Justice and the Appellate Court never got to hear the appeal. Please this man has done so much harm to the county it’s not even funny how much taxpayers have wasted.