Good Riddance, Lee Baca!

As I write this, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca is announcing his resignation from office on live television.

All I can say is, "Good Riddance!"

Baca has been an incompetent boob in office. He first caught my ire back in 1998 when he backed Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's ordinance banning gun shows on county property, i.e., the Los Angeles County Fairgrounds, where the Great Western Gun Show was held for decades.

I remember attending one meeting of the Board of Supervisors where the ordinance was discussed and Baca was grilled by Supervisor Mike Antonovich. Baca couldn't give a straight answer when asked why he is supporting the gun show ban when his department had a recruitment booth at the gun show.

Unfortunately, the liberal majority on the Board of Supervisors passed the ordinance.

The Los Angeles Times earlier reported:

L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca, who faced a tough battle for reelection amid scandals in the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, plans to annouce his retirement, law enforcement sources told The Times. 

Baca's decision comes a month after federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against 18 current and former sheriff's deputies accused of beating jail inmates and visitors, trying to intimidate an FBI agent and other crimes following an investigation of corruption inside the nation's largest jail system. 

The timing of his announcement remains unclear. But it was confirmed by multiple sources, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The last great sheriff L.A. County had was Sheriff John!

Above, George Reeves and Sheriff John.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-sheriff-baca-plans-to-retire-source-say-20140106,0,2296941.story#ixzz2pjm6TMfZ

Sheriff John's Passing Reported Around The Country

His show ended in 1970, but he remained behind the microphone for KTTV-Channel 11 in Los Angeles as an announcer until 1981.  Yet people from around the country are remembering "Sheriff John" Rovick.

Newspapers from around the country are reporting on Rovick's death at the age of 93.  The tributes are coming from Seattle, Windsor, Savannah, Miami and many others.  His passing is being reported by the Huffington Post.  He is being called "a Los Angeles icon."

It must be that baby-boomers who grew up in 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles moved on to other places around the country, but remembered the kindly kiddie show sheriff who had celebrated birthdays and led the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

Other Los Angeles kiddie show hosts have passed on, but I don't recall any (with the exception of "Captain Kangaroo" Bob Keeshan, but his was a nationally televised show on CBS) from Los Angeles that had this kind of coverage.

LA Observed wrote:

John Rovick was still being contacted by fans from Los Angeles. What's remarkable about that is that he stopped appearing on TV as Sheriff John in 1970. He told the local paper in Boise in 2005 that the doctor who saved him from a heart attack was a Sheriff John fan. So was his dentist. "So are three of the people at the clinic where I get my eyes checked," he said. "I was walking in to a store the other day, and a woman gasped and said, 'Sheriff John!' It just doesn't stop. 

"It's amazing that it's been so many years ago and people still remember the impact the show had on their lives."

In a 2005 interview article with the Los Angeles Times, it was reported:

One father wrote a letter of thanks and told him how his young daughter learned to say the Pledge of Allegiance: "... with liberty and justice for all, and now to our first cartoon."

That's not a bad legacy to leave behind.

Goodbye, Sheriff John

Above, Clark Kent (George Reeves) meets Sheriff John in 1953.

Another piece of my Los Angeles-based childhood is gone.

KABC in Los Angeles reported:

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Local TV icon John Rovick, better known as Sheriff John, has passed away. He was 93 years old.

Anyone who grew up in Southern California in the 1950s or 1960s likely remembers his signature "birthday" song on his television show for kids.

"Sheriff John's Lunch Brigade" was on the airwaves until 1970.  His show, "Cartoon Time" received an Emmy in 1953.



 To read the full story, go here.

Superman Meets Sheriff John

Superman historian John Field came up with this photo of George Reeves (as Clark Kent) with kid show host Sheriff John on his show in 1953 on KTTV-Channel 11 in Los Angeles.

To view the full version of the photo, go here.