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. The 3081 elected sheriffs nationwide are responsible for running county jails, which house a third of the country's incarcerated population, and enforcing laws within their county that are passed at the state and federal level. 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 border . Elected sheriffs are accountable directly to the Constitution (United States and Washington state, in this case) and to the people. Jan. 17, 2023 A Minnesota case,In re Olson, 211 Minn. 114, 300 N.W. 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. 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. CLARK KAUFFMAN Iowa Capital Dispatch. . That many sheriffs believe they have that power concerns people like Rupa Bhattacharyya, special litigation counsel for the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection within Georgetown University Law Center. My No. The protection of these rights come under the jurisdiction of the county Constitutional Sheriff. Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer is a member of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a far-right, anti-government group that wrongly . Mack went on a speaking junket in 2021, promoting the organization at a series of events alongside a long list of extremists. 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. InvestigateWest (invw.org) is an independent news nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism in the Pacific Northwest. Wilson Criscione, born and raised in Spokane, writes for InvestigateWest. 2023 Cascade Public Media. 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. Yet there is an urgent need to address how sheriffs are increasingly undermining law enforcement accountability and distorting public policy more broadly. The office of sheriff is a constitutional office created by Article 11, 5 of the Washington State Constitution (Amendment 12) which reads in part as follows: "The legislature, by general and uniform laws, shall provide for the election in the several . Other Washington sheriffs and candidates have similar beliefs, even if they arent members of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association like Songer. Instead, hed rather educate the public about what he calls the far-right agenda and hope voters make the right decision. Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer is a member 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. Higley, AZ, SPLC is a nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organization (EIN: 63-0598743), Local Policing and Immigration Enforcement, Request for Legal Assistance Economic Justice, mass shooting at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater, Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School, openly defied his governors stay-at-home orders, were actually attempting a legal citizens arrest, antisemitic conspiracy theorist Robert David Steele. Tags:Law Enforcement, Politics, Election 2022. It certainly means passing laws that make sheriffs just as accountable to democratic governance as any other law enforcement officer. Be a part of it! The Constitutional Law group run by a non-attorney sovereign citizen who spent time during the pandemic offering his services as an attorney to businesses defying COVID-19 health guidelines listed CSPOA as a sponsor on their website and claimed to be working closely with CSPOA. And the actions he took in recent years are similar to Songers: Burnett said he wouldnt be investigating crimes related to Washingtons new gun laws and he announced he wouldnt enforce COVID-19 masking rules and other mandates. InvestigateWest. A campaign manager for Clark County sheriff candidate Rey Reynolds responded to InvestigateWests questions with a letter to the editor Reynolds wrote to a local paper in which he said, the sheriff is the ultimate law enforcement authority in a county. The campaign did not respond to follow-up questions aiming to clarify whether he believes sheriffs power supersedes state and federal officials. Sheriff Myers is an active member. As gun laws throughout the west have gradually . Franklin County sheriff candidate Chris Turner, for example, said he believes the elected sheriff has greater authority than the federal or state government. They Just Proposed an Extreme Ban. Take the example of Virginia, where in 2020 the state legislature passed a law allowing local governments to establish civilian oversight of police departments. If they are going to start shooting, its going to be women that are going to be televised all across the world getting shot by these rogue federal officers., In 2018, Mack attended RidersUSAs fifth annual Second Amendment event. Other sheriffs, however, took a strong stance against the idea that sheriffs have unilateral authority when reached by InvestigateWest. A statute sheriff is a servant to the Deep State and is in betrayal of their Constitutional oath. 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. Richard Mack, the founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association and a former board member of the Oath Keepers, speaks at a 2020 event in Nevada alongside several sheriffs. The so-called "constitutional sheriff" movement has grown in Washington. Sign up to get important news and culture from around the Northwest, delivered to your inbox six days a week. Bhattacharyya, too, has mixed feelings about appointed sheriffs. More recently, Mack and the association have been focused on resisting COVID mandates and encouraging sheriffs to investigate unfounded conspiracies about the 2020 election. Songer, along with Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney and others, refused to enforce state COVID mandates. What happened after the Jan. 6 confrontation in Olympia? 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 federal government. The organization was opposed to the Obama administrations gun initiatives and promised its members wouldnt enforce policies they thought violated the Constitution. 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. 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. Sheriffs have some discretion when enforcing laws, but they do not have the power to decide what is constitutional like the judicial branch. The County Sheriff has the authority to ban the admission of any government or corporate persons that would enter our county with the intent to rob you of any of your God given or Constitutionally guaranteed rights or freedom. 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. Follow our team of columnists and reporters who write about the media. © 2022 Sheriff Constitutional. Because theres not a great way to hold them accountable, other than by not electing them.. The group endeavors to radicalize county sheriffs across America into believing they are the ultimate law enforcement authority, able to enforce, ignore or break state and federal law as they choose. This idea was pioneered by Christian identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970s as Posse Comitatus, which is Latin for the power of the county. Fringe sheriffs from across the country have refused to enforce the rules inside their county lines. Constitutional sheriffs and the CSPOA were involved in many of these efforts, using gun control to further their own agendas of radicalization and recruitment. Carpinelli says at the end of the day, its about respecting each other and each others boundaries when it comes to concerns about the virus. In Chelan County, Sheriff Brian Burnett said its kind of a fine line. Burnett, who is also the president of the Washington State Sheriffs Association, said hes attended speeches by Mack but that Burnett didnt agree with the total philosophy. Sheriffs, Burnett conceded, dont make laws and arent interpreters of the law. 80 of the 102 counties have now declared their defiance of the so-called "assault weapons ban" in Illinois. In Ferry county in eastern Washington, more than 72% of voters rejected I-1639. 225 (1916). Whereas Supreme Court justices are often fervent legal scholars, the Montgomery County, Texas, sheriffs office, which held a constitutional sheriff event in February 2021, requires their sheriff to be: There is no requirement that a sheriff reads or understands the Constitution. 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. "It's dangerous because it shows an extreme bias by the sheriffs of Washington state in favor of Second Amendment rights . The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA), a network of local law enforcement founded in . As Mack tells it, he said the federal Government could not tell him what to do; that they were not his boss.. Gales views, some parroted by Beach, grew in popularity among white supremacists, tax protesters and aggrieved citizens, such as farmers in the Midwest who faced significant financial crisis in the 1980s. The seeds for this type of dissent by some Eastern Washington sheriffs began last year with the passing of I-1639, which greatly restricted firearms rights in the state. cooperation may be had with other public officials and The COVID-19 crisis has spurred a growth in constitutional sheriffs across the country. 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. In order to improve and provide effective service and protection to all citizens of Washington, the 39 Sheriffs joined together in 1984 to form this Association. (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 other is focused on the role of the county sheriff, who they believe has ultimate law enforcement authority in the United States. Plaintiffs claim the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act are racially discriminatory against non-Indigenous people. Sheriffs have some discretion when enforcing laws, but they do not have the power to decide what is constitutional like the judicial branch. Listen to the Story, Saving Skagit County. These assertions are often accepted by lawmakers without challenge thus moving anti-government and racist ideas from the fringe to the policymaking mainstream. 322. "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 . Constitutional sheriffs will continue to confuse personal and political beliefs with constitutionality, using their elected positions as law enforcement officers to pick and choose what laws they will enforce based upon these preferences. When the group of Washington sheriffs defied the state gun laws in 2019, Gov. Like many so-called "constitutional" sheriffs, Bob Songer defiantly rules Washington State's rural Klickitat County like a personal fiefdom, deferring to no other governing . Boosted by the pandemic, constitutional sheriffs are a political force. Your guarantee of this protection is insured by his oath to uphold the Constitution of our nation and state. Kitsap County Sheriff John Gese also rejected Macks ideology. 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. This idea was pioneered by Christian identity minister William Potter Gale in the 1970's and 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. enforcement community. federal lawmakers on criminal justice issues. . By SHANNON NAJMABADI, The Colorado Sun. The spread of the "constitutional sheriffs" movementwhich claims that local county sheriffs are the supreme law of the land, capable of overruling federal and state laws, as well as prohibiting federal and state agencies from enforcing themthroughout rural American sheriff's offices has often seemed like a quaint but localized problem: Sure, having set themselves up as laws unto . To protect communities from abusive policing and our democracy from extremists within law enforcement, we must push back on assertions by sheriffs that they are above the law. 36.28.011 And here in Washington state, weve got some bad guys in government.. These few, vocal sheriffs who have gone a little bit rogue are very concerning, she said. 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. People ask me all the time, Do you believe in enforcing the Constitution? Yes, absolutely. My No. Sheriffs across the state are predictably opposed to such a move, but even those most concerned with rogue constitutional sheriffs dont love that idea. it has always been accorded with great dignity and high trust" 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. Richard Mack has built a "Constitutional sheriff" movement to resist state and federal authority on guns, COVID-19 and now election results. To be a unified voice addressing local, state, and The sheriff's protection starts when he tells the intruder, "by the power vested in me by the Constitutions of the United States and the State of Washington, you are noticed you will not be admitted into this county. In that time, the sheriffs own employees have filed at least 25 complaints against him and the office, portraying a law enforcement agency where women are sidelined and intimidation is routine. 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. I will follow the rule of law, Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer said at the time, when I believe its constitutional.. 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. Already, 2020 election deniers are recruiting county sheriffs to more closely watch over future elections. More recently, Mack and the association have been focused on resisting COVID mandates and encouraging sheriffs to investigate unfounded conspiracies about the 2020 election. 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 sheriffs" movement, which has ties to the Oath Keepers and other antigovernment fringe movements, is based on the legally dubious belief that sheriffs are the ultimate law enforcement authority within their counties, superseding state and federal officials, including the U.S. president. Published on: May 18, 2016 and updated on May 18, 2016. He also held a spot on the board of directors of the nationwide Oath Keepers militia group until 2015. Is a servant to the policymaking mainstream kind of a fine line fringe... 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