This is a weekly program with commentary on current issues.

I see that Raymond Oyler is finally going to be tried.

They’re picking the jury and the Riverside County DA is fleshing out the case against the erstwhile Beaumont mechanic, who’s accused of murder and setting scores of fires, including the 2006 Esperanza inferno that killed five firefighters. Oyler could get the death penalty.

This is a high-profile case. So it’s no surprise that a bunch of demonstrators showed up at the courthouse Tuesday and heard a prosecutor declare this was “a heinous crime and we take these charges very seriously.”

Except the demonstrators and prosecutor weren’t even thinking about Oyler and the firefighters. As one placard put it, they were seeking “Justice for Karley”.

Karley is the Woodcrest puppy that had to be put down after Glynn Johnson, an LA County assistant fire chief, allegedly smashed her with a rock. Johnson says it was self-defense. He pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty.

It would be quite a stretch, wouldn’t it? to maintain that human beings are less concerned about tragedies that befall their fellow man (or woman) than they are about calamities that befall their pets. Yet, on this day, it wasn’t the fallen firefighters, but a puppy, or what she stood for, that drew the courthouse crowd.