A growing number of sheriffs are expressing and acting on their opposition to repressive rules imposed by governors to ‘save us’ from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Flu.
The sheriffs say that the restrictive measures are unconstitutional and they are defending the Constitution over edicts and regulations violating it. More than 60 sheriffs throughout a dozen states have openly opposed their governors. However, the real number resisting is likely much higher since many are not arresting ‘violators’ while withholding public comment.
Sheriffs have highlighted their opposition to forcing people to stay home, close businesses, forbidding people to attend church and to assemble to express their grievances to government.
Legal scholars have expressed opposing opinions about whether ‘public health emergencies’ can nullify the rights to assemble, enjoy property, attend church, buy guns or to protection against illegal search and seizure. However, the Founders did not draft the Bill of Rights to be nullified in emergencies or be interpreted by the Supreme Court. The declarations mean what they say, dreadful times be damned.
Washington’s Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer said, “Sheriffs understand as elected top law enforcement officers that their job is to not only throw bad guys in jail, but that their primary duty is to protect the liberties and God-given Constitutional rights of the citizens they work for.
Songer said officials are talking about tracking and monitoring people infected with the flu. “It’s Nazism, in my opinion,” Songer said. “There’s risk in life no matter what we do. We do not give up our liberties just because the government says we need to do that.”
Virginia’s Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins announced he would not enforce Democrat Governor Ralph Northam’s restrictions because they infringed on people’s rights. Jenkins acknowledged that the governor has a right to enact regulations during an emergency but countered that the Constitution does not go away. “We won’t be used to enforce an edict by a governor, health director, or anyone else.”
On May 9, 2020 New Mexico’s Chavez County Sheriff Mike Herrington posted a proclamation explaining why he would not go along with infringing his people’s Constitutional rights.
Herrington wrote, “Every business in Chavez County is essential when the people are dependent upon that income to provide for themselves and their families. It is not the job of government to provide income to the people and New Mexico was built upon the principles of private property ownership, hard work, and self-reliance. To say otherwise is simply ridiculous.”
“The Sheriff is not a hireling of the State. We do not work for the Governor or the County and we are not beholden to any one person for a paycheck. We are direct Constitutional representatives of the people, we work for the People, and therefore are the highest law enforcement authority in our County.”
“The question here today is whether we overturn 244 years of history and duty of the Sheriff for a new and radical ideology that replaces the duty of the Sheriff to protect the rights of the people and the Constitution of New Mexico with an unconstitutional and unchecked power exercised by a Governor that looks more like a monarch than a servant of the people. I will not stand idly by and watch the lives, liberties, and rights of the people of Chavez County of New Mexico violated by unconstitutional and unjust pretended authorities.”
Former Arizona Sheriff and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) Richard Mack said, “For any governor to appoint themselves as dictator over the state, to destroy people’s businesses, to destroy churches and to arrest people going to church or arrest ministers, is an absolute outrage. I’m absolutely petrified as to what is going on here, all in the name of taking care of people.”
Since the big killers in the country are connected with alcohol and tobacco use Mack questioned why the government doesn’t shut down those businesses if the real objective is to save lives.
“I would ask every police officer in the country, ‘Where did you get any authority to violate the First Amendment?’” Mack said. “If you violate an oath you committed perjury, in and of itself.”
(Get Lou’s podcast at “No Hostages Radio” and his articles at nohostagesradio.com)
###