Opinion: Deputy Quackenbush Says, Drop That Actuarial Table!

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If only Chuck Quackenbush had told us years ago that he wanted to be a policeman when he grew up, and not a politician — he and we would have been spared a lot of grief.

The former California insurance commissioner now wears the uniform of the Lee County sheriff’s department in Florida, and has, for well over two years.

Last week, as Quackenbush was handcuffing a guy wanted for domestic battery, the guy tried to make a break for it. There was a struggle, the guy got Quackenbush’s Taser and pointed it at him, and Quackenbush pulled out his weapon and shot the man, who was last reported in critical condition. Quackenbush had some minor injuries.

If the parade of California politicians leaves a blank spot in your memory under Q, he was the insurance commissioner during the Northridge earthquake in 1994. He allegedly let insurance companies off the hook on fines for paying out less on policyholders’ claims than their losses.

In a supposed tradeoff, the companies gave millions to ‘education funds’ like sports camps his kids went to, and an education fund that Quackenbush used for television PSAs that were pretty much about the wonderfulness of … Chuck Quackenbush

The impeachment heat was on, and he resigned (investigators later decided not to press charges against him; a subordinate was sentenced to federal prison).

When the Lee County sheriff’s department first asked why he wanted to wear its uniform, according to the News-Press newspaper in Florida, he said, ‘My wife and I have made a lot of money in real estate and now I can follow my lifelong dream of being a police officer.’

What happens to a dream deferred? Politics ...