Bluestem had seen the poster above. for a speaker sponsored by Republican Senate District 12, 13 and 14 BPOUs, just a few days ago on Facebook.
What is the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association? Who is Sheriff Richard Mack? And why would the party units that help elect Republican Senators Torrey N. Westrom (12, R) and Jeff R. Howe (13, R) (and presumably want to defeat DFLer Aric Putnam (14, DFL) seek to bring both to the public?
Just today, the Associated Press published A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country, an investigative piece by TJ L’Heureux, Adrienne Washington, Albest Serna Jr., Anisa Shabir, Isaac Stone Simonelli, produced by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism, in collaboration with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
While it's not the first time Bluestem has noted a Mack visit to Minnesota--witness a late January 2021 event at Larvita McFarquhar's anti-mandate bar and grill in Lynd and November 2021's post, So SD state rep Mulally, a sheriff & a county commish will host Sheriff Mack in Rapid City.
Surely that will gain the attractive middle ground Minnesota's Republicans need to capture political power, right? From the AP article, A right-wing sheriffs group that challenges federal law is gaining acceptance around the country:
. . . Leaf is on the advisory board of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack. The group, known as CSPOA, teaches that elected sheriffs must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or “unjust.”
The safest way to actually achieve that is to have local law enforcement understand that they have no obligation to enforce such laws,” Mack said in an interview. “They’re not laws at all anyway. If they’re unjust laws, they are laws of tyranny.”
The sheriffs group has railed against gun control laws, COVID-19 mask mandates and public health restrictions, as well as alleged election fraud. It has also quietly spread its ideology across the country, seeking to become more mainstream in part by securing state approval for taxpayer-funded law enforcement training, the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found.
Over the last five years, the group has hosted trainings, rallies, speeches and meetings in at least 30 states for law enforcement officers, political figures, private organizations and members of the public, according to the Howard Center’s seven-month probe, conducted in collaboration with the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
The group has held formal trainings on its “constitutional” curriculum for law enforcement officers in at least 13 of those states. In six states, the training was approved for officers’ continuing education credits. The group also has supporters who sit on three state boards in charge of law enforcement training standards.
Legal experts warn that such training — especially when it’s approved for state credit — can undermine the democratic processes enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and is part of what Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University, called a “broader insurrectionist ideology” that has gripped the nation since the 2020 presidential election.
“They have no authority, not under their state constitutions or implementing statutes to decide what’s constitutional and what’s not constitutional. That’s what courts have the authority to do, not sheriffs,” McCord said.
“There’s another sort of evil lurking there,” McCord added, “because CSPOA is now essentially part of a broader movement in the United States to think it’s OK to use political violence if we disagree with some sort of government policy.”
At least one state, Texas, canceled credit for the sheriffs’ training after determining the course content – which it said included a reference to “this is a war” – was more political than educational. But other states, such as Tennessee, have approved the training, in part because it was hosted by a local law enforcement agency.
Unlike other law enforcement continuing education, such as firearms training, the sheriffs’ curriculum is largely a polemic on the alleged constitutional underpinnings of sheriffs’ absolute authority to both interpret and refuse to enforce certain laws. One brochure advertising the group’s seminars states: “The County Sheriff is the one who can say to the feds, ‘Beyond these bounds you shall not pass.’”
Since 2018, the Howard Center-AZCIR investigation found, at least 69 sheriffs nationwide have either been identified as members of the group or publicly supported it, though at least one later disavowed the organization. A 2021 survey of sheriffs by academic researchers working with the nonprofit Marshall Project found that more than 200 of the estimated 500 sheriffs who responded agreed with the group’s ideology.
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