CA Police Chief Cancels Charity Event For Fallen Police Officer Because Republicans Were Invited

Fox LA has more details on why the charity event was cancelled:

A charity flag football event in honor of fallen Ventura County Sgt. Ron Helus, the deputy killed in the Borderline mass shooting in 2018, has been put on hold after organizers say a local police chief and a Democratic politician derailed it because they didn't want Republicans at the event.

  

Jerseys with Sgt. Helus' name were donated by the L.A. Rams and footballs with his image were ready to be signed by Rams players. Sgt. Helus' wife had already met with organizers and supported the event.

   

The Blue Bowl was supposed to happen at Newbury Park High School on Sunday. Thousands of dollars had already been raised for Sgt. Helus' family, but now all that money is being returned to donors after organizers say Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel convinced organizations to pull out of the event.

Mike Randall, Vice President of the Fallen Officers Foundation, which organizes the Blue Bowl, says things started going south when he allegedly got a text from Hagel saying there were serious issues with the event, specifically that the speakers would cause local political issues.

The Blue Bowl speaker list was bipartisan. It included Gov. Gavin Newsom's public safety liason, Trump supporter Scott Baio, who went to the same church as Sgt. Helus, as well as Trump-supporting singer Joy Villa, who was to sing the national anthem.

 

Randall says in a phone call, Hagel questioned why the Trump supporters were invited.

"He basically said over and over in the conversation this is not Trump country, that slogan 'Make America Great' is not favorable, popular, within 1,200 square miles, that we don’t want Republicans here, I could not believe it... We were totally floored by this comment, 'the only thing,' and I quote, 'the only thing you coulda made this worse, Mike, was to invite dick Cheney and Sarah Huckabee Sanders,' and I went...wow are you kidding me?" Randall said.

Randall told FOX 11 that Hagel also said he was contacted by Democratic Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin who was allegedly upset that her previous election opponent local Republican attorney Ronda Kennedy had been invited.

Randall says Hagel told him to get rid of the Republican speakers or else he would tell the Venturas County Sheriff's Department and local politicians to pull out of the Blue Bowl. When he refused, he allegedly received a text from Hagel saying that after speaking with the Sheriff, they were respectfully pulling out, then, confirmed the decision in a phone call.

"He goes 'yeah this ain’t gonna work for us,' I said you’re not gonna support this with the honor guard and he goes 'no we’re not bringing the honor guard we’re not coming we’re not going to be there, not supporting it'," said Randall.

Randall said that caused sponsors and politicians to drop out. The Blue Bowl is now postponed indefinitely.

When FOX 11 reached out to the Thousand Oaks Police Department to get a comment from Hagel, we were referred to the Ventura County Sheriff's Department and Sheriff Bill Ayub provided the following statement:

The "Blue Bowl" event was represented as a charitable flag football tournament to raise funds for the family of Sergeant Ron Helus. An event that would honor Ron’s memory and provide support to his wife Karen and son Jordan. As the event began to materialize, we became concerned with the behavior of some of the organizers of the event. Although I believe the organizers had good intentions, the event was moving in a direction we no longer felt comfortable supporting.The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office has worked with hundreds of organizations, businesses and individuals over the last year to organize and plan successful fundraisers for the Helus family. To date, every event was successful and lifelong relationships were established. I’m deeply saddened this event did not work out.

Breitbart also said:

Tim Hagel, the chief of the Thousand Oaks, California, police department, has canceled a charity event meant to honor a fallen police officer merely because Republicans were also invited to participate at the event.

The partisan chief told the organizers of the Blue Bowl charity flag football game that his department would not participate in the event over the GOP invites despite that it was set to help raise money for the family of Sgt. Ron Helus, a county sheriff’s officer who was killed in the line of duty in Thousand Oaks, Fox News reported.

Helus was killed on November 7 when a 28-year-old man attacked the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, killing 13 people and wounding a dozen police officers. The shooter also died that day of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

The Helus family has already lost thousands of dollars that had already been donated to the event, because the money has been returned to donors since the chief nixed the event.

Mike Randall, vice president of the Fallen Officers Foundation, told the media that Chief Hagel came straight out and said that his department would not support the event if any Republicans, conservatives, or Trump supporters were invited to take part.

“He basically said over and over in the conversation, ‘This is not Trump country, that slogan ‘Make America Great’ is not favorable, popular, within 1,200 square miles,’ that we don’t want Republicans here. I could not believe it,” Randall said.

The shocked Randall added that Hagel told him, “‘The only thing,’ and I quote, ‘the only thing you [could have done to make] this worse, Mike, was to invite Dick Cheney and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.'”