Watching Treg Taylor Attempt to Distract

Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!

Spoken by the Wizard, played by Frank Morgan, in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, after Dorothy’s dog, Toto, has pulled back the curtain concealing the Wizard.

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor has a problem, a lot of problems, actually. He’s in charge of law enforcement in the 49th state. Yet Alaska has the highest violent crime rate in the nation – more than double other states in the Pacific Northwest; the highest rate of domestic violence in the nation, the highest rate of sexual assault in the nation and a homicide rate that increased 67% from 2021 to 2022.

Those are extremely serious problems, critical challenges facing the Department of Law. They should command the undivided attention and resources of the State of Alaska. But they are difficult to address because they are linked to long-standing social problems and the financial challenges of providing law enforcement in much of the state. To begin the process of dealing with them, Taylor’s boss, Governor Mike Dunleavy, and the Alaska Legislature would have to greatly increase funding for law enforcement. That would take money away from permanent fund dividends and might – horror of horrors – require belated enactment of a state income tax. So it’s anathema to Dunleavy. And therefore to Taylor as well.

So it was perfectly predictable that Treg Taylor would prefer you didn’t pay attention to those horrible crime rates.

Which explains Taylor’s bizarre letter of November 16, 2023 to Alaska’s public schools and librarians. While thinly disguised as “information” and “bring awareness,” it’s really a threat to school and public librarians and their bosses: if they let kids, even teenagers, see naughty stuff on library bookshelves, they will be charged with a felony. He even reminded librarians of Alaska’s Whistleblower laws: “look out, or your neighbors will bust you.” Most of the letter is a pretty fierce distortion of what the laws actually say and the legislative history behind them.

Former Alaska AG Jahna Lindemuth – remember when Alaska had competent, honest and ethical AGs? – was upset enough at her successor’s misrepresentation of the law that she wrote an opinion piece for the Anchorage Daily News taking him to task. She stated,

Because the Legislature recently refused to adopt a law reflecting his policy choice, Mr. Taylor is legislating from his executive branch seat — a violation of our constitution. I strongly advise school districts to seek their own legal advice on this issue and not defer to Mr. Taylor’s incorrect guidance.

Former Alaska AG Jahna Lindemuth, November 28, 2023 (paywalled)

Treg Taylor had a chance to start restoration of the credibility of the Department of Law in general and the AG position in particular. Remember Dunleavy’s prior appointees included a child rapist and a serial sexual harasser. Taylor could have focused the Department of Law on the real issues, the real crises. Instead, he is playing politics, wasting time, energy, resources and his damaged credibility on MAGA talking points. He’s sucking up to the book burners instead of doing his job.

It’s a campaign to distract citizens from Alaska’s very serious violent crime problem. That’s the “man behind the curtain” and Taylor wants to distract you from the real problems by engaging in dubious legal threats for nearly trivial problems. Tell Taylor and Dunleavy to get to work on the real issues.