Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick has publicly stated his disapproval of a Facebook post made by Jerry Threet, a former county law enforcement auditor. Essick has deemed Threet’s post as ‘racist.’
The Facebook post made by Threet questions whether or not Assistant Sheriff Eddie Engram, a Black man, is more loyal to the law enforcement profession than his race.
On Sept. 30, before the post was published, Essick announced that he wouldn’t run for re-election and endorsed Engram. This prompted Jerry Threet to write his Facebook post that Essick considered aggressive. As of Nov. 9, the Facebook post on Threet’s page is no longer visible for the public to see.
“Essick was leveraging Engram’s BIPOC status to keep the office within the control of the deputies’ union. Don’t fall for the ruse. Not all skin folk are kinfolk,” Threet’s post read.
Essick felt that the post was racially insensitive. “Essentially, it said, ‘Don’t be fooled, don’t fall for the ruse’…that even though [Engram is] Black, he doesn’t respect Black people,” he said.
Jerry Threet has been a vocal critic of the local Sheriff’s office, founding director of the county’s law enforcement oversight office, and formally served as the Chair of the Sonoma County Commission on Human Rights. Due to his status a local public figure, Essick has called on him to issue a public apology for his “racially biased comments.”
Threet concluded, “Engram will not be a leader who considers how the policies and practices of the Sheriff’s Office, a key player in a county criminal justice system characterized by White Supremacist tendencies, continue to harm the county’s BIPOC community.”
Engram talked about how Threet is making allegations about him, and portraying him in a certain way when, according to Engram, they’ve never held a personal conversation before.
Engram said, “Through my life, and through a lot of Black people’s lives, we’ve had instances where people who are not Black try to judge, or gauge or set Blackness based on who or what a Black person should be. Especially in my career, especially people who are not Black, put criticism on Black people in law enforcement as if we’re no longer Black.”
Many leaders have tried to address the ongoing problem of racial tension in the county; however, most have stepped down. Meanwhile in Santa Rosa, Vice Mayor Natalie Rogers recalls the time she was working as a mental health clinician and a man came in speaking about how he did not want to work with her because she is Black. Subsequently, he requested to work with another clinician, and was actually allowed to. High-level supervisors told Rogers that clients have a right to say they don’t want to work with a particular employee due to their race.
Derrick Neal withdrew from his position as Texas Health Administrator and Sonoma County asked him to take over its $275 million health services department. Neal declined the offer due to concerns about the experiences and treatment of department heads of color.
There have been many efforts by BIPOC to make change happen, but the real question is how the County of Sonoma is treating Black employees to the point they have to step down from the racial bias and microaggressions made for the county untenable for people of color. Without many BIPOC leaders to represent them, many wonder how the people of color in Sonoma County will feel protected.
