© Casey Christie/ZUMAPRESS.comKern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood was looking for an endorsement in 2006 when he posed the question, "When a deputy shoots somebody, which way is better financially? To cripple them or kill them for the county?"
"Kill them?" someone off camera asks before Youngblood answers "Absolutely."
"Because if you cripple them you have to take care of them for life and that cost goes way up," he said.
The damning video was released Monday by the Kern County Detention Officers Association, one of three officers' unions that had endorsed Youngblood's upcoming election opponent and chief deputy Justin Fleeman.
Officers said that the county force, once labelled "America's deadliest police," was "in desperate need of positive changes."
The Guardian profiled the county after 13 people were killed by police in 2015. The county had less than 900,000 residents at the time, but more fatal shootings than New York, which had nine the same year.
Monday's video, reportedly taken during an endorsement consideration interview, also saw Youngblood turn the loss of life at the hands of the police into a matter of dollars and cents.
"When a guy makes a bad shoot on somebody and kills them, $3 million dollars and the family goes away," he said, comparing it to a jailhouse beating where many officers are present.
Youngblood then went on to compare the costs of killing someone versus wounding.
The sheriff told Bakersfield.com after the video release that his words were taken out of context and that he "never inferred that we should shoot to kill."
He added that he wishes he had used different words, though Chris Ashley, the director of the KCDOA, told the Daily News that the comments were an example of "poor leadership" that has included shutting himself off from the union as well.
"They were not taken out of context. If he meant it or not you'd have to ask him ... but his feelings and his comments in no way represent the members of the Kern County Detention Officers Association," he said.
Reader Comments
But there are legitimate (exceedingly rare) situations where a cop is in a gunfight not of his making, etc. Then, he should follow firearm basics.
Firearm Rule #1 All guns always loaded.
#2. Do not point gun at something you do not intend TO DESTROY.
He never inferred that cops would "shoot to kill?" Say what? That's what they should do in the right cases (which represent less than 20% of all police shootings these days but used to represent 80%.)
Maybe the Lone Ranger shoots guns out of hands, but that's Hollywood. Cops are trained to shoot twice in the center of the body mass and once at the head, (supposedly, although you wouldn't know from the typical shootout where cops miss criminals and kill kids, dogs, etc.)
Whatever. He'll lie as he believes the hearers want to hear. What an evil assh*le scumbag Gestapo.
R.C.