Police Charity Event for Fallen Officer Reportedly Canceled Because Republicans Were Invited

A charity event that had been planned in honor of an officer killed in a 2018 mass shooting in Southern California has since been postponed. Why? Because a police chief was upset Republicans were invited.

Seriously.

The Blue Bowl is a charity flag football game, the purpose of which is to raise money for the family of fallen officer Sgt. Ron Helus as well as other law enforcement officials killed in the line of duty.

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Helus lost his life on November 7, when a 28-year-old gunman allegedly open fired at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, killing 13 people and wounding many more before taking his own life.

Thousands of dollars had already been raised for this event, but those donations are being returned to donors because Thousand Oaks Police Chief Tim Hagel wouldn’t allow his police department to be involved due to the presence of  Trump supporters.

 

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‘I could not believe it’

Mike Randall, vice president of the Fallen Officers Foundation, said, told FOX 11, “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,”

“’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. And I went, ‘Wow, are you kidding me?” he added.

Obviously both Democrats and Republicans were invited to the charity, including Trump supporter Scott Baio, who went to the same church as the late Helus’, and singer Joy Villa, who also supports the President.

Randall added that Hagel assured him that if the Trump-friendly speakers weren’t disinvited, the department would have nothing to do with the event–even for charity. Then he made good on his promise and withdrew.

“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.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department said in a 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.”

Singer Villa called the whole controversy “disgusting.”

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‘This is prejudice’

“This is not OK. This is prejudice, hello?” Villa said. “You’re shutting down an event because of the way conservatives think, because I support the president? This is disgusting, I’m appalled, and in all my years being an out conservative, I’ve never seen something so despicable like this.”

Randall made a good point about the ridiculousness of the whole thing, saying, “Ron Helus was a true hero, he saved lives that night. Did he run in and go, ‘Are you Republican or Democrat or independent, I need to know before I help you?'”

“You’ve messed with the wrong person, you’ve messed with the wrong founder, you’ve messed with the wrong foundation,” Randall concluded.