Of particular concern are the self-styled constitutional sheriffs an increasingly influential subset of sheriffs who are subverting not only reform efforts but also core democratic principles. Yet there is an urgent need to address how sheriffs are increasingly undermining law enforcement accountability and distorting public policy more broadly. 1 goal is to protect and serve and enforce the laws of the state, Morrison said. To provide a centralized body through which prompt Any arguments that these sheriffs have regarding state or local . They announced they would defy the new gun laws because, in their interpretation, it violated the U.S. Constitution. Klickitat County Sheriff, Bob Songer, Republic police chief Loren Culp, and Ferry County Sheriff Ray Maycumber are among those who have publicly vowed not to enforce the new unconstitutional gun laws. Two rural Nevada counties have joined "constitutional sheriff" Richard Mack's Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Four years ago, many of Washington states sheriffs were unhappy with a voter-approved gun safety law that required stronger background checks and raised the age to buy a semi-automatic rifle. Burnetts challenger in this years election, Mike Morrison, said he wouldnt allow personal feelings to dictate how I do law enforcement. He referred to Mack and the constitutional sheriffs group as more of an extremist political group and said he would consult with prosecutors and the county attorney if he had questions over the legality of enforcing a law. Its not just worrisome because they may decide not to enforce laws they disagree with. uphold the Constitution and laws of the State of Washington, CLARK KAUFFMAN Iowa Capital Dispatch. His opponent, Rick Kuss, is part of the constitutional sheriffs movement and was endorsed by Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff in Arizona pardoned by President Donald Trump. Foxs 5 p.m. chat fest is the new king of cable news. You get the latest CSPOA updates & access more training to know your rights! cooperation may be had with other public officials and Of those who responded, several expressed their belief that their power was greater than federal or state authority, even if they sometimes found Mack extreme. Jay Inslee accused them of grandstanding. But Inslee didnt do anything else besides tell the Washington State Patrol to enforce the law in those counties. Bhattacharyya, too, has mixed feelings about appointed sheriffs. That is a decision we leave to the courts. About a dozen or more sheriffs, mostly in rural counties, refused to enforce the restrictions against the people, citing that the provisions violated both the federal and state . the chief law enforcement officers of their respective counties. Lamb, along with Sheriff Wayne Ivey of Brevard, Florida, Sheriff Jesse Watts of Eureka, Nevada, Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper, Virginia and Sheriff Tom Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts, are advisers to the group Protect America Now, which has been linked to anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). Mack has been associated with a long list of extremists. federal lawmakers on criminal justice issues. And executive officials are obligated to enforce those laws unless and until they are repealed or a court . The Anti-Defamation League considers the organization an anti-government extremist group.. About 10,000 citizens have also joined. We cannot have individual law enforcement officers arbitrarily decide what laws to enforce., In addition to defiance over coronavirus laws, Songer, along with constitutional sheriff Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona, formed their own sheriffs posses. WA Democrats hid messages on Chinese American History Month bill, Out & Back: A Portland club counters the racism of runnings hometown, Parasites are vanishing from WA waters. (by CSPOA on Dec 17, 2014) The New American reports: Local media in Olympia, Washington, covered Gavin Seims We Will. She/he is elected to safeguard the rights of the people and exercise the powers that the public has entrusted to him or her. Songer, along with Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and others, refused to enforce state COVID mandates. Also in the group is Sheriff Tom Hodgson of Bristol County, Massachusetts, who joined CSPOA in 2014 and had his ICE agreement terminated on May 20, 2021 for alleged mistreatment of detainees at the immigrant detention center managed by Hodgson. He considers Randy Weaver a friend, asserting that Weaver is not a bigot, just a separatist in a way who does not believe in interracial marriage. Despite their effort to usurp the role of the Supreme Court, Mack has spent many hours praising the court for its decision in the case Printz v. United States, which made him a quasi-celebrity among antigovernment extremists. For Songer, it was a tipping point. Contending that this authority supersedes that of all other government officials including state governors and the president they refuse to enforce a range of public safety laws, from local mask mandates to state and federal gun laws. These few, vocal sheriffs who have gone a little bit rogue are very concerning, she said. The refusal of law enforcement officers to enforce the new restrictions plays into a longer history of so-called "constitutional" sheriffs resisting the gradual tightening of gun laws . Constitutional sheriffs assert they have the power not only to enforce the law but to be the ultimate arbiters of what the law is in their counties. Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer has in recent years embodied the Constitutional Sheriff movement. Each officer is required only to act according to law. Songer, along with Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and others, refused to enforce state COVID mandates. Theyve sort of cobbled together this theory based on authorities that dont really do what theyre claiming that they do.. I will follow the rule of law, Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer said at the time, when I believe its constitutional.. First elected in 2016, Williams is part of the growing "constitutional sheriff" movement, which claims that sheriffs have the power to override federal and state authority on matters from . But the experience hasnt changed his stance. Because sheriffs have the power to detain people, they often play a role in immigration enforcement. Other sheriffs or candidates for the office may not believe their authority is that powerful but are still willing to disregard a law based on its perceived constitutionality. In 2021, Mack went on the ARISE USA Tour hosted by late antisemitic conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele. The oath that sheriffs take is not unique. I think its a decision that communities have to make on their own, she said. Whenever a state legislature passes overreaching violations of their constituents' civil liberties, or the federal government attempts to impose unconstitutional gun laws, there is a Constitutional Sheriff who can stand in their way. Every believer in democracy should find it chilling that the CSPOA counts several hundred sheriffs as dues-paying members and hundreds of other sheriffs as supporters. The Constitutional Sheriff spans this chasm between you and the miscreants that would rob you of these inalienable rights. One such case is is Florida, listed below. All of them, including the sheriffs and militias, seemed to be associating with and friendly with each other, according to a person at the scene. Thats part of my oath, Gese said. In the exercise of executive and administrative functions and in conserving the public peace [[Orig. Others who took this step were spurred on and recruited by antigovernment extremists who spent 2021 exploiting the pandemic for their own ideological purposes, most notably the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). State v. McCarty, 104 Kans. What happened after the Jan. 6 confrontation in Olympia? To improve public awareness of criminal justice issues. They were also pivotal to the formation of the modern constitutional sheriff, militia and sovereign citizen movements, all of whom distrust or detest the government. Honorable John PaneskoProsecuting AttorneyLewis CountyChehalis, Washington Cite as: AGO 51-53 No. The AGs office did not return a message seeking comment for this article. RCW 36.28.010 Any oath taking official that violates their oath of office and enters this county without my permission shall be lawfully arrested! Furthermore, any treasonous acts attempted IN OUR COUNTY will be prosecuted! This included Red Pill Expo, a whos who of antigovernment figures hosted by well-known conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, a QAnon sovereign citizen rally in Hawaii, the Rod of Iron Ministries Freedom Festival and the Arise USA tour, hosted by the late antisemitic conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele where Mack was a speaker and CSPOAs name was emblazoned on the side of the tour bus. The power of sheriffs does not outrank that of the feds or the state, but in practice, theres often little to be done about a sheriff who refuses to enforce laws. If their assertion brings to mind the anti-government, militia-supporting Oath Keepers organization, you are on the right track. (Although even the National Sheriffs Association notes that this oath is taken by every law enforcement officer and confers no special authority on sheriffs.) The primary purpose of this Sheriff is to protect, https://sheriffconstitutional.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Tuesday-story-recording.mp3, Constitutional Sheriffs Article 11, 5 of Washington State, If the local government of this county attempts to rob or violate your constitutional rights. There are not a lot of formal consequences, because theyre elected, Bhattacharyya said. He also held a spot on the board of directors of the nationwide Oath Keepers militia group until 2015. Because theres not a great way to hold them accountable, other than by not electing them.. One is that county government should have control of all the land within its borders, taking this power away from the state and federal government. "As an elected sheriff and a constitutional sheriff, I believe it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution," he says, "and, more specifically, violates the Washington state . They announced they would defy the new gun laws because, in their interpretation, they violated the U.S. Constitution. within the Constitution of the State of Washington. Tags:Law Enforcement, Politics, Election 2022. Kitsap County Sheriff John Gese also rejected Macks ideology. Constitutional Sheriff Scott Jenkins of Culpeper, Virginia, said he would deputize the citizens in his county if gun control laws were passed. Duty to make complaint. Article 11, 5 of the Washington State Constitution denotes "The sheriff" is the chief executive officer and conservator of the peace of the county. The protection of these rights come under the jurisdiction of the county Constitutional Sheriff. The court added he need not patrol the streets as the police do, but he must keep his eyes and ears open for public offenses. serve and protect the people of Washington State, and to This posse comitatus based rallying cry continues to be the primary theme that permeates the ideology of CSPOA and other constitutional sheriffs across America. Michael Peroutka, a neo-Confederate, Christian Reconstructionist anti-LGBTQ activist who was the Constitution Party's presidential candidate in 2004. Ex-Sheriff Arpaio was found in contempt of court in 2017 after refusing to follow a federal judge's order to stop profiling and detaining Latinx people during traffic stops and immigration raids. Not only did it get him on far-right conspiracist Alex Jones show, but his stance caught the attention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a far-right, anti-government group that wrongly asserts a sheriffs power supersedes that of state and federal authority. Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. To better In 2019, they awarded Songer the Washington State Constitutional Sheriff of the Year Award. His opponent, Rick Kuss, is part of the constitutional sheriffs movement and was endorsed by Joe Arpaio, the controversial former sheriff in Arizona pardoned by President Donald Trump. Richard Mack, founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, was a longtime board member of the Oath Keepers, and the constitutional sheriff idea has explicitly white supremacist roots. Still, mainstream is a relative term: Thirteen sheriffs in Scotts 46-county home state have been convicted of criminal charges in the past 11 years, and one of the National Sheriffs Associations new executive members, Chris West of Oklahoma, was at the Capitol on Jan. 6. Whether either court would have upheld an order of removal had the nonfeasance consisted of failure to investigate merely one or a few alleged violations of which the sheriff had been informed, of course, is doubtful. To people like Michael German, a former FBI special agent who embedded with militias and is . Lamb called his posse, created in 2020, a citizens academy but said they are also a resource should we need them. In December 2020, Lamb gave an update on Facebook about the posse, telling the audience that hundreds of people had graduated from the training and he was looking forward to getting a lot more of you in there and getting you trained as well.. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association was founded in 2011 by Richard Mack, a former sheriff in Arizona who believes "the greatest threat we face, as a nation, is our own . Mark Lamb, the 49-year-old sheriff of Pinal County, Ariz. who years ago signed Mack's association's pledge to be a constitutional sheriff created a nonprofit coalition of sheriffs this . For Songer, it was a tipping point. Sheriffs who refuse to enforce duly enacted state laws are violating their oaths, shirking their duties, trampling on the democratic process, and contravening the separation of powers. Mack told the Washington Post that about 300 of the nation's 3,000 sheriffs belong to the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. To maintain a close working relationship with WASPC on OPBs critical reporting and inspiring programs are made possible by the power of member support. The far-right ideology promoted by Mack and Songer is expressed by a disturbingly large number of sheriffs, said Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, a Seattle-based nonprofit thats studied the movement. These assertions are often accepted by lawmakers without challenge thus moving anti-government and racist ideas from the fringe to the policymaking mainstream. It was attended by the Proud Boys and anti-immigrant group AZ Patriots. Constitutional Duty of the Sheriff - Richard Mack TOTAL STATE SHERIFFS ASSOCIATIONS: 17 Updated 02/22/2014 Note: A statement from a state association does not necessarily mean that every sheriff in the state supports it. These few, vocal sheriffs who have gone a little bit rogue are very concerning, she said. By: Robert DavisSheriffs in Washington State are caught in a catch-22 between the state's sweeping gun control rules, Initiative 1639, and waiting until the courts decide whether or not the provisions contained therein are Constitutional. June 25, 2022, at 10:10 a.m. On May 15, 2021, the tour stopped in Lander County, Nevada, where the county commission voted to become CSPOA lifetime members and held a Patriotic Social Gathering. The audience consisted of locals, Nevada constitutional sheriffs, anti-vaccine groups and multiple militias, one with a recruiting booth set up. Thats part of my oath, Gese said. The Washington Standard / January 17, 2023. THIS SHALL NOT BE TOLERATED IN SKAGIT COUNTY, https://www.facebook.com/groups/398181945263311/, Elect Kevin Ewing For Constitutional Sheriff of Skagit County. Some 50 Texas sheriffs and numerous elected officials have attended trainings on the . His beliefs were disseminated far and wide. 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