Hey, everyone! The San Francisco Bay Guardian really kinda likes and respects Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi, and they hope that after this plea deal and everything, you'll all stop harshing on him and stuff. As Guardian editor Tim Redmond is quick to point out today in a lengthy editorial, the onetime capital-P Progressive golden boy of the Board of Supervisors was given no choice but to plead guilty if he wanted to continue bearing a firearm in his job, and this was pretty much just a take-down by Mirkarimi's less progressive enemies. Also, even if ex-girlfriend Christina Flores might have been similarly abused by Mirkarimi before he got with Ms. Lopez, she nevertheless penned a threatening poem after the breakup, which Redmond reprints for us now.

Redmond admits he knew Flores, who was his neighbor, and he's "always been friendly with her" and even appeared on her local TV show, and that until she found out about his affair with Lopez and pregnancy she was "clearly in love with Mirkarimi and sending him passionate notes asking him to reconsider" ending their relationship. But now he'd like you all to know she is not credible, in his opinion.

It's hard to believe that as this drama winds down, and Mirkarimi admits guilt to something — if not domestic abuse, per se — the Guardian still feels the need to besmirch Flores and gloss over the crux of this case: the apparent pattern of violence against women. But we get it. They still love Ross. He will keep his job. Yay.

And since when are progressives so into firearms?

[Guardian]