In the first round of the National Football League draft last month, the San Francisco 49ers selected defensive lineman Mykel Williams. Before he shows up in the city by the bay, the Georgia star might review the experience of Ricky Pearsall, the 49ers first-round pick in 2024.
Last August 31, as the Florida wide receiver walked through downtown San Francisco, an armed man demanded “everything you’ve got.” Pearsall refused to give it up and in the ensuing struggle the assailant discharged three shots, one striking Pearsall in the chest. Miraculously enough, the bullet struck no vital organs and Pearsall survived.
Police chased down the armed robber, who dropped an unregistered Glock handgun. News reports described the shooter as a 17-year-old high-school student from Tracy, some 70 miles inland. In the video, he appears a grown man about the size of the six-foot-one Pearsall.
The armed robber was not named and his booking photo not released. A crime of this magnitude would seem to demand prosecution as an adult, but the 2016 Proposition 57, the “Public Safety and Rehabilitation Act of 2016,” bans the direct filing of juvenile cases in adult court.
The shooter was charged with attempted murder, attempted second-degree robbery and assault with a semiautomatic firearm. It emerged that the shooter has another “pending matter” in the legal system, suggesting that he’s a repeat offender.
In May, 2025, still no word of any trial or sentence. As justice awaits, the case does expose some California realities.
California maintains some of the nation’s strictest gun laws, requiring background checks even to buy ammunition. As the Pearsall shooting confirms, these laws do not apply to criminals but public officials have failed to notice.
Former San Francisco mayor London Breed praised police for quick action and claimed that shootings in Union Square were rare. On the other hand, the mayor failed to name or criticize the shooter and did not condemn the attack as an example of “gun violence.” Gov. Gavin Newsom, a former mayor of San Francisco, failed to call out gun violence and issued no public comment on the shooting that anybody can find.
That was also the case with state attorney general Rob Bonta, a supporter of “life saving ammunition laws.” Consider also former attorney general and San Francisco district attorney Kamala Harris, at the time of the Pearsall shooting a candidate for president. By all indications, candidate Harris offered no comment on the case. Given her record on crime, that comes as no surprise.
December 2 will mark ten years since, at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik gunned down Robert Adams, Isaac Amianos, Bennetta Betbadal, Harry Bowman, Sierra Clayborn, Juan Espinoza, Aurora Godoy, Shannon Johnson, Larry Daniel Kaufman, Damien Meins, Tin Nguyen, Nicholas Thalasinos, Yvette Velasco, and Michael Wetzel. Farook and Malik wounded more than 20 others and planted bombs at the crime scene to take out first responders.
In a December 17 statement, attorney general Harris mentioned “those who lost their lives,” but failed to name a single victim or condemn the shooters. Harris also failed to call out the mass murder as gun violence. That brings up another California law that NFL draft picks and the people should keep in mind.
In 2018, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1391, under which anyone under age 16 could murder the entire 49er team, be tried only in juvenile court, and gain release at age 25. That gives Pearsall and Williams plenty to ponder, and this year’s draft packed another surprise.
The Las Vegas Raiders, formerly of Oakland, California, selected wide receiver Jack Bech out of Texas Christian University (TCU). The draftee’s older brother Martin “Tiger” Bech, a football star at Princeton, was a victim of the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans that claimed 14 lives and left many others wounded.
The vaunted Federal Bureau of Investigation failed to prevent the deadly attack and played no role in the takedown of the terrorist. That was also true at Fort Hood (2009) the Boston Marathon (2013), San Bernardino (2015) and Orlando in 2016, all with massive loss of innocent lives and scores wounded.
In recent years, the FBI has been harassing pro-life activists and protesting parents alike. In 2023 an FBI SWAT team gunned down Craig Robertson, a 75-year-old woodworker, for threats to Joe Biden he allegedly made online.
New FBI boss Kash Patel has pledged to make changes. He might start with a full, public investigation of the Robertson shooting and move on to the attacks the FBI failed to prevent. Was any FBI official disciplined, demoted, or dismissed?
If Patel truly wants change, he should take a lesson from football. The game does not proceed until the penalty has been marked off.