It is the oldest law enforcement office known in the common law system, and Thats part of my oath, Gese said. Op. it has always been accorded with great dignity and high trust" Article 11, 5 of the Washington State Constitution denotes "The sheriff" is the chief executive officer and conservator of the peace of the county. When asked why he believes he has authority to enforce laws based on his own reading of the Constitution, Songer points to his oath of office to uphold the U.S. and state constitutions. Richard Mack has built a "Constitutional sheriff" movement to resist state and federal authority on guns, COVID-19 and now election results. professionalism, leadership development, Posse Comitatus founder William Potter Gale was a self-ordained minister who called on sheriffs to supersede federal agencies and serve as quasi-vigilantes, primarily to resist school desegregation. In 2014, Mack participated in the Bundy standoff against the U.S. government, in Bunkerville, Nevada, alongside his fellow Oath Keepers and additional militias. Bhattacharyya said the worst-case scenario would be if these sheriffs are emboldened to meddle with the elections process. cooperation may be had with other public officials and Elections are the best way to hold people accountable, she said. cspoa. And with the Nov. 8, 2022, election just around the corner, candidates for sheriff in Washington are increasingly touting their constitutional sheriff credentials, with many believing that they have the ultimate authority to decide what is constitutional and to enforce the law accordingly. The origins of constitutional sheriff ideology are in the two concepts of the county supremacy movement: the county and not the state or federal governments should control all land within its borders, and the county sheriff is the ultimate law enforcement authority in the U.S. along with Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and others, opposed to the Obama administrations gun initiatives, unfounded conspiracies about the 2020 election, is part of the constitutional sheriffs movement, Employees describe culture of retaliation under Deschutes County Sheriff Shane Nelson, Klickitat Countys sheriff contracted COVID, but still plans to fight pandemic restrictions. For example, as Congress worked toward federal police reform legislation this year, Democratic negotiators made substantial compromises to get major organizations, including the Fraternal Order of Police, on board. Theyve sort of cobbled together this theory based on authorities that dont really do what theyre claiming that they do.. The protection of these rights come under the jurisdiction of the county Constitutional Sheriff. 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. Sheriffs & Peace Officers Ass'n, supra note 1. has also joined the campaign. And here in Washington state, weve got some bad guys in government.. InvestigateWest (invw.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. I think its a decision that communities have to make on their own, she said. 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. In a May 2020 interview posted to YouTube, Mack described this view, saying: Let me make this real clear: The President of the United States cannot tell your sheriff what to do. "In my 30 years in law enforcement, I have never seen a bill passed like this, and signed into law that was on his face, so unconstitutional." Sheriffs have a lot of power, but ruling a law . By endorsing the idea that sheriffs can choose which U.S. laws are legitimate, constitutional sheriffs are conferring a job assigned to the Supreme Court by the nations founders onto themselves. Mack is a former Graham County, Arizona, sheriff and a former Oath Keepers board member. Thousands violate unconstitutional Washington state gun law. My No. To preserve and protect the office of Sheriff. Supporter of Constitutional Sheriffs Article 11, 5 of Washington State. (by CSPOA on Dec 17, 2014) The New American reports: Local media in Olympia, Washington, covered Gavin Seims We Will. Songer, along with Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and others, refused to enforce state COVID mandates. 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 . "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 . 2023 Cascade Public Media. 1, 2014, Mack told Lou Dobbs, this really is a badge vs. the badge situation, and I believe that the biggest badge in the country is the county sheriff., CSPOA claims this is because county sheriffs are the only elected law enforcement officers and therefore only accountable to their constituents, no higher government power. Bhattacharyya, too, has mixed feelings about appointed sheriffs. And it is completely on brand that the 2016 CSPOA sheriff of the year tried to recruit other constitutional sheriffs to help him seize Dominion voting machines in 2020. [6] And the Constitution devotes more words to setting out Congress's and the States' powers with respect to the Militia than it does to setting out Congress's powers with respect to the Army and the Navy, thereby attesting to the . The Constitutional Sheriff spans this chasm between you and the miscreants that would rob you of these inalienable rights. In a recent webinar with Mack, Songer said that the association awarding him the Constitutional Sheriff of the Year was an eye-opener regarding his duties as sheriff. 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. When asked why he believes he has authority to enforce laws based on his own reading of the Constitution, Songer points to his oath of office to uphold the U.S. and state constitutions. 1 goal is to protect and serve and enforce the laws of the state, Morrison said. Henry Lamont Mike Beach of Oregon is alleged to have stolen Gales writings and used them to start a national Sheriffs Posse Comitatus organization, which claimed the federal government overstepped their authority under the constitution and the posse could remove them from office and hang them. Some Sheriff's Candidates Run on Not Enforcing Certain Laws. But a Spokane civil rights attorney is concerned the letter suggests sheriffs have powers beyond their roles as local law enforcers. Less than 34% of the $2.6 million Iowans have donated to an Iowa sheriffs' group in recent years has been used for the stated purpose of . . serve and protect the people of Washington State, and to Some of the sheriffs who declined to enforce these laws are constitutional sheriffs. Leaf, who has been openly friendly to militia in the past and questioned whether the men charged with kidnapping Gov. I dont care if its George Washington himself, they cannot tell us what to do., The group justifies this by declaring that constitutional sheriffs are upholding and defending the constitution.. Thousands violate unconstitutional Washington state gun law. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), an organization that subscribes to the view that sheriffs are the supreme power in their counties and that the power of the sheriff "even supersedes the powers of the President," 3 Const. In addition to the duties contained in RCW 36.28.010, it As Mack tells it, he said the federal Government could not tell him what to do; that they were not his boss.. 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. shall be the duty of all sheriffs to make complaint of all Yet there is an urgent need to address how sheriffs are increasingly undermining law enforcement accountability and distorting public policy more broadly. CSPOA is an extremist group which espouses similar rhetoric to Gale and Beach. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is a political organization of local police officials in the United States who contend that federal and state government authorities are subordinate to the local authority of county sheriffs.Self-described constitutional sheriffs assert that they are the supreme legal authority with the power and duty to defy or disregard laws . For instance, as the Center for Public Integrity reported at length in 2016, these sheriffs have refused to enforce state gun regulations, federal land-use rules and Internal Revenue Service . InvestigateWest. I said, You know, if Im going to be elected sheriff, my primary job is to interpose when government is the bad guy, Songer said. The origins of constitutional sheriff ideology are in the two concepts of the county supremacy movement: the county and not the state or federal governments should control all land within its borders, and the county sheriff is the ultimate law enforcement authority in the U.S. Phone: (360) 486-2380 FAX: (360) 486-2381. Each officer is required only to act according to law. Joe Harris, running for sheriff in Grant County, said in an interview that if there were a state or federal law that he didnt think was constitutional, then he would not enforce it. 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. We spoke with constitutional lawyer Jeffery Needle about the letter. So much for prime time. Bob Barr represented Georgia's Seventh District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. 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. In the execution of his office, he and his deputies: (1) Shall arrest and commit to prison all persons who break the peace, or attempt to break it, and all persons guilty of public offenses; (2) Shall defend the county against those who, by riot or otherwise, endanger the public peace or safety; (3) Shall execute the process and orders of the courts of justice or judicial officers, when delivered for that purpose, according to law; (4) Shall execute all warrants delivered for that purpose by other public officers, according to Counties experiencing rampant disinformation, including conspiracy theories that villainize the government, may be supportive of sheriffs who proclaim that they will not enforce laws they personally interpret as the product of a tyrannical government. 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. Gale promoted the formation of citizens militias, making the claim that all healthy men between the ages of eighteen and forty-five who were not in the military could be mobilized into a posse comitatus to redress their grievances, according to the book Aryan Cowboys: White Supremacists and the Search for a New Frontier, 1970-2000. Not only did it land him on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' show, but his stance also caught the attention of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a far-right, anti-government group that falsely claims a sheriff's powers exceed those of state and federal agency . People ask me all the time, Do you believe in enforcing the Constitution? Yes, absolutely. The job of this specific sheriff is to protect your personal rights against all foreign and domestic threats. By subscribing, you agree to receive occasional membership emails from Crosscut/Cascade Public Media. 322. In both of these cases the inaction of the sheriff was flagrant and the violations of law about which nothing was done were many. Every Sunday morning, Crosscut's weekly email sums up the best stories of the week. This American is a constitutionalist, a patriot, a husband, father, grandfather, businessman, firefighter, and In Washington, a sheriff can be removed through a recall process just like any other elected politician, but recall efforts are typically unsuccessful. Published on: May 18, 2016 and updated on May 18, 2016. 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. 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. within the Constitution of the State of Washington. 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.. In 2019, they awarded Songer the Washington State Constitutional Sheriff of the Year Award. Mack has been associated with a long list of extremists. 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 . 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. There are but few cases concerning the extent to which there is a duty on the part of the sheriff to investigate criminal charges under common law. Nowhere does there appear any specific mandate to the sheriff to investigate criminal charges. CONTACT US. Bhattacharyya said the worst case scenario would be if these sheriffs are emboldened to meddle with the elections process. "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 . This idea was pioneered by Christian identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970's and 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. At least 20 county sheriffs in Washington state . 3060 Willamette Drive, NE #200. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) is an anti-government extremist group whose primary purpose is to recruit sheriffs into the anti-government "patriot" movement. Lamb was also a confirmed speaker at sovereign citizen group RidersUSAs seventh annual Second Amendment event, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona, on Feb. 15, 2020. The Sheriffs of Washington are elected and are constitutional officers within the Constitution of the State of Washington. 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 . Gov. and the United States, the mission of the Washington State Beware the extremist, dangerous and unconstitutional constitutional sheriffs, Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates, 6 things people believe about politics that are totally wrong, Female bodybuilders, big and strong, are still no match for vile men, The Biden documents scandal is a test for the media and an opportunity. She/he is elected to safeguard the rights of the people and exercise the powers that the public has entrusted to him or her. Sheriff Myers is an active member. As reported by WWNY, that responsibility and those boundaries, he says, should be set by people, not local law enforcement.. 1125 Washington St SE PO Box 40100 Olympia, WA 98504 (360) 753-6200 We have your letter inquiring whether this office has previously given any opinions defining the duties of a county sheriff generally and particularly as to the investigation of criminal charges. 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