The judge you spoke with is absolutely right, his actions should have been a huge red flag to all of Fresno. An this so called reformed man uses his faith as a cover of piety while he trains his pd to harass every black, brown, and/or poor person in this town. If he were truly a pious, Jesus-following man, he would not be opposed to community based policing, he would not justify the murders of 40 men in 8 years at the hands of his department, and he would not publicly refer to the poor as scum. You have every reason to mock his faith, it is an insincere sham.

Based on the news coverage of the accusations against Dyer I believe it is quite safe to say he committed that atrocity, but we all know he will never be held accountable. Please, continue to bring it up, we should never ever forget what sort of man is leading OUR police department.

And please, I hope you will join us in the fight to FIRE DYER!!

However, if by “innocent until proven guilty” you mean that you think that I think a person hasn’t committed a crime unless a jury says he has, then you are, indeed, jumping to conclusions. I don’t think that at all. If a person has committed a crime, they actually have committed the crime whether a jury or other fact-finder ever decides they did or not.

I am less certain of whether most people accused of crimes have committed them until all the evidence has been presented. (Do you believe O.J. Simpson is innocent, or that a jury simply failed to convict for other reasons, or do you believe he got away with murder? My feeling is that “I don’t know” and that drives a lot of people batty when they hear me say that.) Being less certain doesn’t mean I don’t have my suspicions.

And here’s the thing — as a judge (who for obvious reasons will remain nameless) said to me the other day during a discussion of this very issue concerning Dyer — “there are certain things in one’s history which should disqualify you from certain career choices.” As he went on to say, “This is one of them.” That particular judge actually likes Dyer and has personally interacted with him. His feeling — and mine — was that based upon the accusations and how the thing played out, Dyer should never have become the police chief.

My comments about Dyer have never noted anything other than that he has formerly been accused of a particular crime. And while I have some reason to think that these accusations are true, I wasn’t there and do not know if they are. What I do know is that Jerry Dyer rides a high horse in a fashion that appears to me to be very hypocritical. And if I’m doing nothing else on this blog, I’m expressing my opinion. (I can’t swear to this, but some day I think the dictionary definition of “blog (v.i.)” will include “to write, on the Internet, about one’s opinion.”)

As for mocking his religious faith, I do no such thing. While it’s true that I suspect anyone who reminds me of the Pharisees of at least giving the impression that their religious expressions are politically-based, I have no idea (as you noted) as to what’s going on inside Dyer’s head. I mock his behavior, not his faith.

My opinion is that if Dyer were truly desirous of modeling the behavior of the purported savior, he would speak and behave differently than he does. I believe, too, that he would also likely be unable to hold the position that he does in contemporary society, because the way he is expected to act would clash with his principles.

Finally, I’m not persecuting Jerry Dyer. Jerry Dyer suffers not one wit because of anything I say. I couldn’t persecute Jerry Dyer if I desired to do so, which I actually don’t.

I do desire to get Jerry Dyer — consistent with the principles to which he claims allegiance — to say the same things about other criminal defendants that he says about criminal defendants who also happen to be police officers.

When that happens, I will have fewer monkeys in my butt, I will be less cranky and you and I can perhaps share a drink and discuss this on a more philosophical level.