Last week, Bluestem posted South Dakota state rep Phil Jensen back in the news for ties to insurrectionist Oath Keepers, sharing news of a widely published Associated Press article, Elected officials, police chiefs on leaked Oath Keepers list, by Alanna Durkin Richer and Michael Kunzelman.
The leaked list is back in the news this week in a Forum News Service article, North Dakota sheriff, representatives from Minnesota, South Dakota listed as members of Oath Keepers, by C.S. Hagen. This week, another South Dakota state legislator joins Jensen in the news:
. . . One senator and one representative were listed as Oath Keepers members in South Dakota. . . .
Sen. Jim Stalzer, R-Sioux Falls , said he is no longer a member of the Oath Keepers.
“I don’t remember the exact date, but it was probably in the 2013 or 2014 range, and I became a member because I had gone to a conference. I’m a veteran, and I took my oaths seriously. I probably should have looked into the organization, but they've probably become more radical since then. I am no longer affiliated, nor do I want to be,” Stalzer told The Forum.
He said the Oath Keepers were described to him as an organization that believed in the U.S. and state constitutions but couldn’t say if the organization’s advertising methods were softened to attract his attention.
“I belonged one time and never renewed, and I haven’t heard back from them in years,” Stalzer said.
As was the case for Jensen, Stalzer's presence on the list was media fodder when the list was first published last fall. But unlike Jensen, Stalzer has changed his story about the circumstances of his past membership.
At Keloland, Jassmine Jackson reported last October in South Dakota lawmaker no longer associates with right-wing militia group Oath Keepers:
. . .Senator Jim Stalzer says he signed up for the group 5 or 6 years ago when Sheriff Richard Mack, leader of the Constitutional Sheriffs movement, spoke in Sioux Falls.
“I visited with him, he was at that time a director of Oath Keepers, and he encouraged a number of us veterans to join the organization. So, I signed up, you know if you look at their website and you look at what they stand for, sounds great,” Stalzer said. “But in the meantime, they have gotten confrontational they’ve gotten involved in some violent things.”
Stalzer, a state senator who represents Minnehaha County, has been serving in the legislature since 2013, first in the house and now in the senate. He is a supporter of the right to bear arms. He’s a certified pistol instructor, too.
In fact, when we caught up with him, he was taking part in a Senate GOP event at Hunters Point near Humboldt.
“I absolutely believe in not only maintaining our second amendment rights, but all of our rights under the constitution. And I believe in fighting for those things but again you do it an adult manner and you don’t do like Oath Keepers have done, you don’t do it like Antifa,” Stalzer said.
Stalzer says his ties to Oath Keepers were severed long ago and he no longer gets emails from the organization.
Has Stalzer lost his memory of Sheriff Mack's involvement in his own Oath Keepers signup since October?
Sheriff Mack was in South Dakota a little over a month later, Bluestem reported in So SD state rep Mulally, a sheriff & a county commish will host Sheriff Mack in Rapid City. Dakota Free Press picked up on the catch, noting Sheriff Mack's rad cred in Custer Sheriff, Rapid City Legislator, Pennington Commish Host Right-Wing Enemies of Constitution and Truth:
Former Graham County, Arizona, sheriff Richard Mack founded the “Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association” and travels the country to peddle the unconstitutional and dangerous notions that local sheriffs can supersede the authority of Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, and even their own state governments. Mack disguises this insurrectionist sentiment as “training” for the cops he’s trying to indoctrinate and recruit into his unconstitutional movement:
The central tenet of CSPOA, borrowed from the anti-government extremist sovereign citizen movement, is that the county sheriff is the ultimate authority in the county, able to halt enforcement of any federal or state law or measure they deem unconstitutional. Mack, a former Arizona sheriff, has used this false narrative to oppose gun control laws and, in the last two years, to exploit anger and frustration over federal and state actions to combat COVID-19.
ADL is releasing this report today because we are especially alarmed that Mack is increasingly seeking out law enforcement audiences, billing his extremist events as “trainings.” In a disturbing development, in 2021, Mack won official state approval for his “trainings” in Montana and Texas, which allows attendees to receive continuing education credit for attending Mack’s events [Anti-Defamation League, “New ADL Report on Richard Mack and the CSPOA: Extremists Training, Recruiting Law Enforcement Nationwide,” 2021.10.06]. . . .
We thought we'd learn more about the Sioux Falls Republican and thought we'd learn more.
Stalzer's rip on the Sioux Falls Police Department
Wikipedia's entry on Jim Stalzer notes he had a scuffle about his view of firearms in the hands of law enforcement and law enforcement:
In 2015, the police of Sioux Falls demanded Stalzer to apologize after he made controversial remarks regarding concealed weapons. Stalzer's answer to the demand was that he made a comparison between honesty and integrity of concealed weapons and their holders, and therefore he has nothing to apologize about.
The source for that summary was a February 2015 Argus Leader article, Police group wants apology from state lawmaker. Mark Walker reported:
The leader of a state police organization is asking for an apology from a state legislator for comments made on the House floor during a debate over conceal-and-carry gun permits.
Mike Walsh, South Dakota’s president of the Fraternal Order of Police, said Rep. Jim Stalzer’s, R-Sioux Falls, comment that concealed weapons carriers are more law-abiding than law enforcement officers was “irresponsible” and “disturbing.”
Stalzer, reached by phone Wednesday, said he will not apologize for his comments. He said his argument was based a report from the Crime Prevention Research Center.
“My intention was not to slam police officers, but rather to compare the honesty and integrity of concealed and carry permit holder to police officers,” Stalzer said. “Unless the report is proven false, I don’t think I have anything to apologize for.”
Walsh said he challenges any legislator to find a state with fewer law enforcement members who have been discharged from duty or charged with a crime.
Walsh said that during a hearing for House Bill 1206, which would have authorized the concealed carry of pistols on public university campuses under certain circumstances, Stalzer said that calling 911 was like calling “dial a prayer”.
“My first thought was that it’s unprofessional to make statements like that to begin with and to base it on something other than actual real data is irresponsible,” Walsh said. “He’s making comments about law enforcement that are completely unjustified. I think law enforcement in South Dakota deserves an apology from him.”
Walsh said Stalzer’s comment was based on an article that appeared in a gun magazine.
The South Dakota Fraternal Order of Police issued the following statement from Walsh on Wednesday:
“As the state president of the FOP, and a voice for more than 1,100 law enforcement officers, I strongly object to any insinuation that they are less than law-abiding or ethical. I challenge any legislator to find a state with fewer law enforcement members who are discharged from duty or charged with a crime. Representative Jim Stalzer has testified to the legislature during the debate of HB 1116 and another bill that concealed firearms carriers are more law-abiding than law enforcement officers. This unquantifiable statement has no basis in fact, and I would submit this: in order to obtain a permit to carry a concealed weapon, a citizen can have committed and been convicted of a number of crimes. In order to become and remain a certified law enforcement officer in this great state, one can have a minor conviction, but certainly not anything rising to a serious crime and certainly not more than one. I call on Rep. Stalzer to explain his comments and apologize to the law enforcement community in South Dakota.”
Hypothetical sheriffs? Rah-rah! Real officers? Not so much. Given that his membership in the Oath Keepers came at a time just before Stalzer ripped on real cops, we have to ask just how radically he took his own oaths back then--and now.
Photo: Sen. Jim Stalzer, R-Sioux Falls. Photo by Bob Mercer/State Capitol Bureau, Capital Journal.
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