BlueOregon: Some Oregon sheriffs are embarrassing us

[Coyotl]

Some Oregon sheriffs are embarrassing us
Carla Axtman - http://www.blueoregon.com/2013/01/some-oregon-sheriffs-are-embarrassing-us/

Good grief.

CNN:

An Oregon sheriff says he will not enforce any federal regulation that President Barack Obama lays out in his package of gun control proposals Wednesday.

Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller joins several other public officials across the nation who have decided to square off with the White House even before it outlines what its plans are for expanded measures.

Mueller sent a letter to Vice President Joe Biden this week saying he won't enforce any federal regulation "offending the constitutional rights of my citizens." He won't permit federal officers to come to his county to enforce such laws either, he said.

Local officials don't get to make that call, of course. The FBI will do it--and I expect they don't need the sheriff's permission to enforce them.

It's not the job of the sheriff to pick and choose which laws he/she thinks are constitutional. It's the job of the sheriff to enforce the laws under his/her jurisdiction, or resign the post.

......

[hack89]

1. The sheriffs are on firm legal ground even though they are wrong. nt

[nick of time]

2. Local officials don't have to enforce federal law.

They can tell the feds to enforce it themselves without any help from them, but they can't interfere in the enforcement of said laws.

[bhikkhu]

3. He was imagining that the EO's included an assault weapon ban

which they don't.

Living in southern oregon, I can say that the media coverage has been miserably inept. I've talked to person after person lately who believe that the 23 executive orders banned assault weapons and limited clip capacity. Of course they don't, and you have to go online and actually read the list to know that, but thats a step beyond what the news media seems to be capable of...

anyway, if you listen to the guy's interview, its pretty clear he doesn't know what he's talking about. But as far as his larger perspective on his role in the scheme of things - I think he is correct. Recalling ten years ago when "the gloves were off" and so forth, without law enforcement willing to question their orders a lot of things can go wrong quickly.

[FightingIrish]

4. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters has always been an embarrassment

He is a comic book sheriff, a lard ass in a smokey hat. He wanted to deny concealed carry permits to medical marijuana users. He lost the court battle on that one and cost the taxpayers a bundle. His department is being investigated for wrongful deaths of prisoners in his custody. Before being elected, he had never served as a public law enforcement officer and now he's a constitutional scholar, ready to defy the federal government.

[kelliekat44]

5. Nice role models for "law and order" and honoring the government you want to kill others for hating.

Some here in the US hate their government more than Al-quaeda.