Public defender group calls Dan Dow posts racist. His response: ‘I am Charlie Kirk’
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- California Public Defenders Association condemned SLO DA Dan Dow’s “racist” reposts.
- Association said Dow’s pasts statements and decisions show pattern of prejudice.
- Association urged transparency, charging data release and accountability.
The California Public Defenders Association has condemned what it called racist statements made by San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow in reposts connecting the election of New York City’s first Muslim mayor to the 9/11 terror attacks.
The California Public Defender’s Association is a professional organization that provides education, training and resources to public defenders across the state.
“District attorneys hold immense authority in people’s lives and in a community,” executive director of the association Kate Chatfield said in a news release. “When that authority is exercised by someone who publicly expresses racial, religious or gender-based bias, it endangers both individual rights and the integrity of the justice system itself.”
Dow did not respond to a Tribune request for comment, but did on Thursday afternoon — shortly after The Tribune reached out to him — post on X that “false ad hominem accusations do not deserve a response.”
Meanwhile on Facebook, Dow shared a California Globe post regarding the association’s allegations, saying he “will not be bullied.”
“I am Charlie Kirk,” he wrote. “I will not be bullied. I will not be silenced. Truth matters.”
Public defender group executive calls Dow posts ‘racist’
In an interview with The Tribune, Chatfield said she was “shocked and appalled” when she saw Dow’s reposts regarding Zohran Mamdani’s election.
“This is a district attorney who has power, such enormous power over people’s lives,” she said. “...To be so outwardly racist was shocking, and it makes me think, ‘Oh, my God. What is he doing behind closed doors if he’s comfortable saying this, doing this? God protect the people of San Luis Obispo County.’”
Chatfield said Dow’s explanation that his reposts were simply because he doesn’t agree with Mamdani’s politics “does not hold water at all.” She noted that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who also identifies as a democratic socialist, has not seen the same type of rhetoric wielded toward him.
“It’s just such a racist post,” she said.
The association said California’s Racial Justice Act was passed to ensure no conviction, sentence or prosecutorial decision is made on the basis of race, ethnicity or national origin.
The association noted that no other district attorney in California has publicly condemned Dow’s reposts, including those who hold leadership positions alongside Dow in the California District Attorney’s Association, of which Dow is currently president.
The District Attorney’s Association represents 3,500 prosecutors across the state of California and also provides trainings.
“When its president engages in racist messaging and his colleagues remain silent, what message does that send to Californians of color? What message does that send to defense attorneys, judges and to the public who are told to trust the system’s fairness?” California Public Defenders Association president Tracie Olson said in the release.
The Public Defenders Association said the “collective silence” from other district attorneys “signals acceptance of bias at the highest levels of prosecutorial authority” and raises “urgent questions about whether that branch of law enforcement is willing to confront racism and prejudice within its own ranks.”
Chatfield told The Tribune she believes the District Attorney’s Association should have made Dow apologize for his reposts. She added that the Muslim community deserves an apology at “bare minimum.”
The District Attorney’s Office should also release charging data that has variables for whether Dow’s office decided to charge, type of charges, enhancements and the person’s race, gender and religion she said.
“Let’s see if you are not engaging in practices that are racially biased the way that your social media posts are,” she said.
The Tribune has repeatedly reached out to the District Attorneys Association for comment on Dow’s posts in the past week, but has not received a response as of Thursday.
Dow claims his character is being assassinated by ‘radical progressive left’
Thursday afternoon Dow posted to X and Facebook claiming the response to his repost “about the danger from New York City electing a self-proclaimed socialist as mayor,” has been character assassination and “confirms how right I was to express my concern.”
“The radical ‘progressive’ left of our country will not tolerate truthful opposition to their agenda that is purposed to destroy the foundations of our country,” he wrote in the post.
He claimed socialism produces the enslavement and oppression of its people, adding that it is not compatible with a free society and “if we go down that path, it will destroy our nation.”
“The United States of America was created by our Founders to secure, promote and preserve Liberty and justice for all,” he wrote.
In honor of Veterans Day, Dow said people should take the opportunity to remember “the freedom we have enjoyed for 250 years that was not given to us for free.”
“It cost the blood, sweat, tears and lives of countless patriots — of every race, color and creed — who served in our Armed Forces to ensure that we never lose our liberty.”
He also shared a quote by former president and California governor Ronald Reagan about freedom being fragile.
Dow closed his post with sharing that his office’s mission is “to bring justice and safety to our community by aggressively and fairly prosecuting crimes and protecting the rights of crime victims” and the motto, “veritas et justitia,” which means “truth and justice.”
“Everything we do is in support of that mission and guided by the motto,” Dow said. “I will never apologize for stating the truth. False ad hominem accusations do not deserve a response.”
He did not address how Mamdani’s politics or socialism was connected to the 9/11 terrorist attacks or apologize for his posts, as the Council on American-Islam Relations, a Muslim civil rights groups, has asked for.
Not first time SLO DA social media posts, activism have been scrutinized
Dow’s social media activity and political activism has long been a criticism of his tenure as district attorney in San Luis Obispo County.
Most recently, a gag order was placed on a case against a probation officer accused of embezzling money from the Probation Department’s union following Dow’s social media posts alleging the judge gave the defendant special treatment.
He has also made multiple social media posts speaking against transgender rights. In many of those he shows support for anti-transgender activist Riley Gaines.
Dow’s political activism has also been scrutinized. Dow is a Republican and regularly shares his conservative views both online and in public.
On Sept. 29, Dow spoke at a memorial event at Cal Poly for Charlie Kirk, a far-right activist who was murdered at an event for his organization Turning Point USA in Utah. During his speech, Dow repeated some of Kirk’s transphobic beliefs.
“Someone once challenged Charlie at the microphone and said something like, ‘Wasn’t it courageous for a person to respect that a man could become a woman?’ And he responded rather controversially but truthfully,” Dow said at the event. “He said, ‘That’s not a man, that’s a coward. A real man would respect a woman in all shapes and forms.’”
Previously, Dow drew controversy when he declared San Luis Obispo County a “sanctuary county for worship and praise in church” despite public health mandates restricting church gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
That same year, he spoke at a California secession group event with Candace Owens, a far-right influencer who regularly shares conspiracy theories.
Most notably in 2020, Dow’s office was forcibly removed from prosecuting charges against Black Lives Matter protestors following a campaign email sent by his wife that stated he was “leading the charge against the wacky defund police movement” — something San Luis Obispo Superior Court Judge Matthew Guerrero cited as a “clear conflict of interest.”
Dow appealed the decision in an attempt to stay on the case, but the California Court of Appeal affirmed Guerrero’s decision in 2022, saying Guerrero used “a deliberate and logical application of the law.”
Dow had charged protest leader Tianna Arata with 13 misdemeanors. The Attorney General, who took over the case for Dow, ultimately dropped nearly all charges against all protestors.
