Editor:
Sheriff John Hanlin solemnly said after the Umpqua Community College shootings: “I will not name the shooter. I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act.”
Right. Let’s just sweep this under the rug as quickly as we can. Brilliant strategy, I’m sure, on the part of the NRA and the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), of which Hanlin and 19 other Oregon Sheriffs are oath keepers to.
Gun violence does not move these antigovernment “Patriot” movement groups. So they want you to look away, to be as cold-blooded as they are.
The killing of 20 little 6- and 7-year-olds in Sandy Hook moved these CSPOA members in quite the opposite direction.
The New York Times reported that Hanlin, soon after Sandy Hook, shared a link on his personal Facebook page to a YouTube video, which suggested that the shootings at Sandy Hook — and the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 — might have been staged by the federal government to provide a pretext for disarming the public through gun control legislation. That the parents of children “allegedly shot” at Sandy Hook were actors.
Again, soon after Sandy Hook, Hanlin, with many of his fellow CSPOA Oregon sheriffs, coldly signed a form letter to Vice President Joe Biden threatening open defiance of any federal efforts to enforce or enact gun laws, according to a report by The Nation.
“We must not allow, nor shall we tolerate, the actions of criminals, no matter how heinous the crime, to prompt politicians to enact laws that will infringe upon the the liberties of responsible citizens who have broken no laws.”
They argue that the 10th Amendment allows states to ignore federal criminal statutes as they see fit, but the Supreme Court, which has never endorsed that interpretation of the amendment, is unlikely to agree.
They say sheriffs have supremacy over other law enforcement agencies and even the federal government. But from what I’m reading, that is wrong.
A sheriff does not get to decide whether laws are constitutional. He’s obligated to enforce it.
From what I’m also reading local police wouldn’t be responsible for enforcing federal gun laws. The FBI and treasury agents will enforce them.
Eight year ex-Sheriff Richard Mack gathered these sheriffs together as the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), his army of sheriffs to resist federal authority because, according to him and all the other anti-government “Patriot” movement groups, “the greatest threat we face today is not terrorists; it is our own federal government.”
According to Huffington Post, when Richard Mack was out there on the frontlines at Bunkerville, Nev., protecting deadbeat Cliven Bundy, he said: “We were actually strategizing to put all the women up at the front. If [federal agents are] going to start killing people, I’m sorry, but to show the world how ruthless these people are, women needed to be the first ones shot … I would have put my own wife or daughters there, and I would have been screaming bloody murder to watch them die.”
Wow! What a brave man/patriot that Mack is. Mack, of course, refuses to buy health insurance thru ACA (Obamacare), so he has a couple of gofundme.com accounts where he is begging for you to pay for his (heart attack) and his wife’s medical bills, according to a variety of sources, including Wickipedia.
The nerve, you say? What a hypocrite? No honor, pride, backbone? Especially considering all the speaking fees he must rake in (the Tea Party loves this guy).
He should, if he was a true believer, just shut up and do as he expects of his CSPOA army, to die for the cause – their guns.
I was not adverse to the police being given military equipment for their safety, but after what I’m reading, I’m not so sure. Are we on the same side? Are they of this world? It’s scary that 20 Oregon sheriffs are under the influence of these anti-government extremists.
Yeah, it’s racism, it’s terrorism, it’s hate and it’s absolutely mental illness.
These people need to seriously pool their money and buy an island.
Diane Daiute
Sweet Home