Police—or, as I prefer to refer to them, white supremacist gangsters—alone in our society, are empowered to use even deadly force against other people in peacetime situations. Even when they do not resort to violence, the threat of violence implicit in the weapons they carry colors their every action. They stridently resist accountability when they get it wrong. They have their own rules, their own rigid hierarchies, and like any other street gangs, their own colors. And they are notorious for disproportionately stopping, injuring, investigating, arresting, and killing people of color.[1]
I lived in Graton, an unincorporated community near Sebastopol, California, for many years. I keep an eye on the place because my mother is still there and, indeed to this day, I keep a mailbox in Sebastopol for the degenerate case where I have to return for an extended period of time.
So it caught my eye when the Sebastopol white supremacist gangsters pursued and arrested a diabetic, Jeffrey Callaghan, a white man, who was having a medical emergency, breaking his arm in the process, whom they were convinced was driving under the influence. Two of the gangsters have since left the force, but one remains, and the town[2] “looks forward to defending its officers in court and responding to all allegations through the legal process.”[3]
I expect better of Sebastopol. It’s a liberal kind of place—mostly, and definitely not if you’re homeless and asking for help on a street corner. But these gangsters were desperate to justify their actions: The gangsters were informed by emergency medical technicians at the scene of the crash that ended the pursuit that Callaghan was having a diabetic emergency and these gangsters nonetheless concocted charges to file against him—which the Sonoma County district attorney dropped. Apparently, “a nurse at the hospital asked the officer, ‘Why are you doing this? He’s a Type 1 diabetic.’”[4]
It's a damning account, formed from a legal complaint filed against the gangsters and the town.[5] It definitely does not show these gangsters living up to the motto “protect and serve.” It shows them, rather, acting with malice.
And they’ll probably get away with it. Because too many folks are too desperate to grant these gangsters impunity.
[1] Steven E. Barkan, Criminology: A Sociological Understanding, 3rd ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006); Wesley Lowery, “Aren’t more white people than black people killed by police?” Washington Post, May 31, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/31/time-toss-bad-apples-excuse/; Jeffrey Reiman, The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison, 7th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2004).
[2] Laura Hagar Rush, “Lawsuit filed against Sebastopol police for excessive force, false imprisonment and conspiracy,” Sebastopol Times, August 1, 2025, https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/lawsuit-filed-against-sebastopol
[3] Mary Gourley quoted in Laura Hagar Rush, “Lawsuit filed against Sebastopol police for excessive force, false imprisonment and conspiracy,” Sebastopol Times, August 1, 2025, https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/lawsuit-filed-against-sebastopol
[4] Laura Hagar Rush, “Lawsuit filed against Sebastopol police for excessive force, false imprisonment and conspiracy,” Sebastopol Times, August 1, 2025, https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/lawsuit-filed-against-sebastopol
[5] Laura Hagar Rush, “Lawsuit filed against Sebastopol police for excessive force, false imprisonment and conspiracy,” Sebastopol Times, August 1, 2025, https://www.sebastopoltimes.com/p/lawsuit-filed-against-sebastopol