Readers React: Don’t forget the troubling paradoxes that defined George Deukmejian’s two terms as governor

To the editor: Gov. George Deukmejian, who died on May 8, had troubling paradoxes.

Your obituary mentions his commitment to public safety, but some of us in Long Beach remember when he was referred to as “Senator Death” prior to his two terms as governor from 1983-91 because he seemed obsessed with promoting the death penalty and sending minorities to prison.

As governor, he built new detention facilities and tripled the inmate population while ignoring the socio-economic conditions that foster crime in the first place.

You note his stance against apartheid in South Africa, but he also vetoed a bill to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians. This was typical of his “us versus them” view of democracy.

He championed an effort by voters to oust three California Supreme Court justices, an act so clearly contradictory to the separation of powers that some wondered if he had really gone to law school at all.

Thomas Bailey, Long Beach

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To the editor: Your photograph of Deukmejian holding a 486-year-old French Bible recalled my encounter with a less known international dimension of his extraordinary life.

When Deukmejian joined the law firm Sidley Austin in 1991, I was an associate lawyer in the Los Angeles office. The following year, when an opportunity arose in Paris with a different firm, I sought the governor’s advice anticipating that his pragmatic approach would weigh in favor of staying in L.A. with my young family.

To my surprise, he instead recounted vividly his tour of duty in Paris with the U.S. Army in the early 1950s, speaking warmly of the friends he made. He clearly cherished the experience. When I then decided to move, the governor was generous with introductions to those friends whom he thought could be helpful.

Later in Paris, in every meeting, I felt the esteem that endured in the hearts and minds of the governor’s friends far from California.

Edward J. Nalbantian, Paris

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