Will OCBOE & OUSD Recall Candidates Condemn ‘Hothead Ken’ Williams’s Choking Someone?

We know that OC Board of Education candidate Ken Williams will not condemn himself for his choking assault on a 20-year-old driver who had been following his Escalade and then, when both exited their vehicles, tried to take a photo of the Escalade’s license plate. (Yeah, “things Escaladed quickly.”) We can be confident that his victim did not pose a threat to him if there was no arrest and report to the Sheriff’s office — with which Williams himself worked.

Graphic depicts Dr, Ken Williams in the act of choking someone
Note: Dr. Williams was choking a young man, not a little girl (as in this artist’s depiction, but it is surprisingly hard to find pictures of Hothead Ken choking anyone at all. With children, he prefers choking off their access to useful information and school funding that he wants redirected to letting charter schools brainwash them for profit — some of which goes to his campaign!

But we’d really like to know whether the two other candidates on his Hothead Ken’s governing slate — Jorge Valdes and Tim Shaw (!) — think that what he did is OK. (We’ll presume that his challenger the magnificent Dr. Nancy Watkins and the other OCBOE challengers, respectively Beatriz Mendoza and David Johnson, would agree that this is not how adults — especially ones entrusted with making policies involving children — should behave.)

But hey, we have two other school board members on the ballot as well right now! So, OUSD’s recall targets Madison Miner and Rick Ledesma — same question to you. Are you OK with Williams rushing a driver, physically disarming him (of his oh-so-dangerous smartphone camera), and choking him?

Voice of OC reported receiving an email from Williams on Feb. 14 saying, “I have an unsullied and exemplary 20 year career as a sworn law-enforcement reserve officer with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department. … The woke left attacks me because I am pro-law enforcement, and oppose defunding the police or weakening criminal laws.”

No, in this case, it’s not his politics that are in question: it’s his ability to control his emotions like an adult while driving on the roads. Was this ever reported to the DMV? Why is this guy still allowed to drive? Has there been some sort of official favoritism here?

One more thought about his “exemplary 20 year career”. Williams’s record should now be considered officially “sullied.” The thought of his being empowered to arrest anyone under the color of law, and while armed, is alarming (and mind-boggling.) So will the Sheriff’s Office cut off Hothead Ken’s officer privileges until this trial is resolved? (Why haven’t they already done so?) And I favor law enforcement using its funding to support and enforce criminal laws against choking fellow drivers on the public highways — so what happened to that?

We’ll be sending out emails from my “Managing Editor” account to each of these candidates and we’ll let you know what they have to say. Meanwhile — don’t forget to vote your ballot from the bottom up!

About Greg Diamond

Somewhat verbose attorney, semi-disabled and semi-retired, residing in northwest Brea. Occasionally ran for office against jerks who otherwise would have gonr unopposed. Got 45% of the vote against Bob Huff for State Senate in 2012; Josh Newman then won the seat in 2016. In 2014 became the first attorney to challenge OCDA Tony Rackauckas since 2002; Todd Spitzer then won that seat in 2018. Every time he's run against some rotten incumbent, the *next* person to challenge them wins! He's OK with that. Corrupt party hacks hate him. He's OK with that too. He does advise some local campaigns informally and (so far) without compensation. (If that last bit changes, he will declare the interest.) His daughter is a professional campaign treasurer. He doesn't usually know whom she and her firm represent. Whether they do so never influences his endorsements or coverage. (He does have his own strong opinions.) But when he does check campaign finance forms, he is often happily surprised to learn that good candidates he respects often DO hire her firm. (Maybe bad ones are scared off by his relationship with her, but they needn't be.)