Description:

Reagan Ronald

Ronald Reagan on Police Brutality, Ex-Forbes

 

RONALD REAGAN, Autograph Letter Initialed, to Lisa [Bloomingdale], November 7, 1968.  2 pp., 6" x 8.25".  Frayed at top from removal from pad; very good.

 

California Governor Ronald Reagan writes to a student about her assignment on police brutality. She may have been the daughter of Reagan’s close friend and supporter Alfred S. Bloomingdale, heir of the Bloomingdale’s department store fortune and credit card magnate.

 

Reagan was known as a law-and-order governor who wanted to curb crime in the state. In January 1967, as newly elected governor, he urged the legislature to pass a comprehensive “crime and law enforcement package” to increase penalties on crimes committed with dangerous weapons, to curb pornography without censorship, to create a California Crime Foundation to “develop new scientific techniques to combat crime,” to provide relief for those unjustly arrested, and to amend the state constitution to allow the governor to appoint state judges. He concluded his address, “Without respect for the law, the best laws cannot be effective. Without respect for law enforcement, laws cannot be carried out.”

 

Excerpts

“Lisa, there is no question but that some people are attracted to police work who delight in strong arming people. However, modern authorities are aware of this, and every effort is made to screen such people out during their training in police academies. Naturally, they cannot be 100% perfect & so the occasional bad policeman. But by & large modern day police are a far cry from the old image of the bully type cop.”

 

“There can be no tolerance for the policeman who unjustifiably uses more force than is necessary or takes advantage of his position to assault a citizen or inflict cruelty on anyone. By the same token, we must stand up for the police man who is pushed into a position where force is required if he is to fulfill his obligation to protect the law abiding from the law breaker.”

 

“I sometimes wonder when a Supreme Court takes 6 months to decide on a 5 to 4 vote that a policeman was wrong for using his gun in a dark alley. The policeman had a split second in which to make a decision and his life would be forfeit if he guessed wrong.”

 

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) was born in Illinois and graduated from Eureka College in 1932. After working as a radio announcer for several years, he took a screen test in 1937 that led to a contract with Warner Brothers Studios. Reagan served as governor of California from 1967 to 1975. He won election over two-term incumbent Pat Brown. As governor, he opposed the idea of the welfare state and favored less government regulation of the economy. After an unsuccessful attempt to recall him in 1968, Reagan won reelection in 1970 for a second term. He did not seek reelection in 1974, but went on in 1976 to seek the Presidency. He narrowly lost the Republican nomination to incumbent Gerald Ford, but went on to win in 1980 over Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter to become the 40th President of the United States (1981-1989).

 

Lisa Bloomingdale (b. 1951) was the daughter of Alfred S. Bloomingdale (1916-1982) and Betty Lee Newling Bloomingdale (1922-2016). She attended Santa Catalina, a Catholic girls’ high school in Monterey, California. In 1974, she married R. McKim Bell, with whom she had two children. She became a portrait and landscape artist and specialized in paintings of domestic and wild animals and landscapes.

 

Ex-Forbes Collection. Malcolm Forbes (1919-1990), the American owner-publisher of Forbes magazine and a consummate collector, amassed one of the most substantial autograph collections of such breadth and depth that it filled a half-dozen residences on three continents. Many of his manuscripts were sold in a series of multi-million dollar sales by Christie's in the early 2000s. The Forbes name is considered to be the apex of provenance, especially when attached to an item like the above. We are honored to have been chosen by the family to sell at auction the substantial balance of the collection.

 

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

 

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