Sheriffs in the Crosshairs

Jim Beers

This morning’s newscast included an interview with a Colorado Sheriff regarding his participation in a lawsuit aimed at bringing Colorado’s liberal marijuana laws into conformity with the federal law regarding marijuana. Suffice it to say many Colorado County law enforcement agencies and the law enforcement agencies of states surrounding Colorado are experiencing law enforcement problems and outspoken citizen complaints as a result of Colorado’s legalization and encouragement of any and all marijuana use and commerce. The fact that a Sheriff in the state of Colorado has not only been so bold as to challenge the marijuana matter in court, plus his open policy of meeting with law enforcement agencies from surrounding states has angered federal bureaucrats (who currently fail to enforce many federal statutes these days including the marijuana laws), state bureaucrats and politicians eager to keep the political and financial support of marijuana devotees, and the merchants of marijuana in Colorado and (they hope) inevitably in neighboring states in the not too distant future.

Now, I am not writing this about that admirable Sheriff or about marijuana. I am writing this about a comment on the national news this morning by a marijuana advocate that, “we need to get rid of Sheriffs like that!” Hmmm, who “we” be?

I have often mentioned the steady demise of Local governments over the past 15 years of writing and speaking as a clear symptom of both a nation tending toward dictatorship and a rural America disappearing before our eyes like a tub of water from which the plug has been pulled.

- Local governments are the political authority and bulwark of Local communities.

- Local governments are our only remaining hope against federal overreach since State governments have more and more been subverted by federal dollars and federal bureaucracies expanding federal laws and regulations.

- Local governments have come to be the ONLY forum for local people to express their support for or opposition to the increasing regulations and mandates generated by federal politicians; federal bureaucracies like EPA, FWS, USFS, BLM, and all their lobby groups like HSUS, DoW, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club and TNC to their international “partners” like the UN, IUCN, WWF, et al. Whether it is schools propagandizing children, gun control, suppression of natural resource management and use, or erosion of Constitutional guarantees; in today’s world; Local governments have become our last line of defense against federal overreach and State confusion about who they serve – the residents of the State or the federal bureaucracies.

- Local governments have seen their revenue decrease as a result of a poor economy combined with the steady growth of all manner of federal bureaucracies and regulations; the purposeful actions of federal bureaucracies closing and prohibiting rural businesses like ranching, logging and mining; and the never-ending government acquisition, easement, control and closure of formerly revenue-producing properties. For example, the loss of revenue and decreased presence of County governments resulting from a failed federal intervention for an owl in the former logging areas of Oregon is but one of many, many such examples of the federal government destroying Local governance; Local communities; Local economies; Local families and the “domestic Tranquility”, “general Welfare” and “Blessings of Liberty” mentioned before all other guarantees cited in the Constitution of the United States.

- Local governments consist of ELECTED Officials that can be recalled or replaced much more readily than State ELECTED Officials due to the increased spectrum and complexity of State Officials’ Electorates. Federal Elected Officials, especially like US Senators and Presidents who are notoriously unresponsive to Local and rural concerns have increasingly evaded evade all responsibility and accountability to Local and especially rural concerns while in office. As such, Local ELECTED Officials are, by definition the MOST RESPONSIVE (to “We the People”) ELECTED Officials in the United States of America.

The most responsive and heroic Local Elected Official in the history of the United States has been and continues to be the County Sheriff. He not only enforces “the” law, he protects the Local citizen from unjust and illegal depredations of those that would harm the “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” of those living in the Local jurisdiction that Elects him.

-He is elected by the voters of a Local and therefore more intimate community of voters, thus his accomplishments, positions and transgressions are understood clearly and the voters’ appreciation or wrath can indeed assure him of no or many future terms.

-He and his Deputies and staff know all the members of the community and understand their duty as including help and advice that benefits many aspects of the community life because that is who elects him and employs them.

-He and his Deputies have a great deal of authority, especially when State or particularly federal officials close roads illegally, or try to seize property (ala “Bundy” Ranch in Nevada), or shamelessly and illegally harass an old woman to abandon her family home on an inholding in a new National Park, or abuse state or federal authority to intimidate or threaten members of the Local community.

-He is the least answerable American Elected Official to rich and powerful national and international factions (i.e. gun controllers, environmental extremists, animal rights radicals, unions, UN schemers, anti-private property groups, anti hunters/ranchers/loggers/business/et al ).

 

This is the reason that heroic depictions of brave and honorable Sheriffs from Gary Cooper’s depiction of a Sheriff in the movie High Noon to Robert Taylor’s depiction of Sheriff Longmire in the recent TV series hit have always struck a believable and admirable chord in all Americans.

-Your Sheriff is the ONLY Elected Law Enforcement Official in the USA. Police Chiefs, Attorneys General, FBI Heads, “Chief” of BLM Enforcement, Secretary of Homeland Security, etc., etc. are one and all either “Appointed” by politicians or “Selected” by fellow bureaucrats. Therefore all of them do the bidding of their patron and are not accountable to YOU!. For instance, big city Mayors are all enamored of blaming guns for crime in their city, thus the Police Chief THEY APPOINT either chirps that line and the gun control mantra or they are out of a job. Thus you see the Milwaukee Police Chief (appointed by the Mayor) calling for gun confiscation and the Elected Sheriff David Clarke of the surrounding Milwaukee County advocating the clear wording guarantees of gun rights in the 2^nd Amendment. The Elected Sheriff Clarke clearly represents the interests of his constituency in Milwaukee County (that encompasses the City of Milwaukee) while the appointed Police Chief represents the political intrigues of a Mayor of the same one-party machine for over a century maintained by a dense urban voting constituency beholden to interest groups from unions and environmental extremists to racial and gender organizations that are interwoven into national and international agendas including items like gun confiscation. Remember that the next time you read, “According to the International Association of Chiefs of Police…”. The IACP is controlled and run by the (appointed) Chiefs of Police of the biggest and most “powerful” city police departments.

-Sheriffs; unlike game wardens, big city police officials, state security officers and others; tend to neither hobnob with nor aspire to federal favor or positions. This makes them uncomfortable for federal bureaucrats and more reliable protectors of their Local community’s interests and welfare.

-Sheriffs share their Local community’s skepticism and outrage about state or federal moves to claim jurisdiction over water in their community or to impose wolves or make cougars and grizzly bears protected animals that destroy property and endanger human lives. This skepticism and outrage can often lead to unique Sheriff/citizen alternatives and ideas to protect their community and its interests. No other Elected Official has the singular power and role to provide such service to Americans, especially rural Americans.

Whether it’s marijuana, wolves, guns, or water rights; American Sheriffs are more important to us now more than ever. We cannot let the federal strangulation of County governments continue to strip Counties of their revenue and their capabilities to protect us from crime, federal controls and state indifference. Those Counties I mentioned in Oregon where phony baloney, faux owl claims decimated County governments now are shadows of what a Local government must be and responses to 911 calls now often take many hours and even days much to the distress of those left living there.

Additionally, and as the focus of this piece, many Americans are not only supporting the growth of federal power and the diminishment of Local government to accomplish all sorts of things they desire and formerly thought to be impossible; they now assume “they” can “get rid of Sheriffs”. They are being convinced and convincing themselves that any official disagreeing with their desires should be gotten rid of for their pleasure much like the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland..

Our Sheriffs are OUR Officials and we should support them and work with them if we are to have half a chance of once again seeing a world we are proud to pass on to our children and grandchildren. If complainers don’t vote in your community, tell them to go back where they came from. I may grouse about the President, but I VOTE for that office. I may think the Mayors of Chicago and New York are first class Bozos but I don’t get to vote for them and if those that do vote for them want them there, then they deserve what they get.

Come to think of it, that is an even broader truth or rule of thumb. If you don’t live with the wolves or grizzlies or cougars, mind your own business and no more forcing them on others. If you don’t live near those Wilderness fire pits, quit making more of them. If you don’t live in the new “Historic Preservation Area” or on the new “Scenic” River or Highway, stop thinking up ways to take or tie-up the property or lifestyles of those that do. If you don’t hunt, fish or trap: enough already with imposing your emotions on those that do. If you don’t want any grazing, go vegan and keep your yap otherwise shut. If you don’t like to see stumps and young trees, move out into the desert or into the city and leave your rural brothers and sisters alone.

Good luck to the Colorado Sheriff and to those that don’t vote for him; mind your own business just half as well as he minds his and you may do all right.