EIGHT LONELY SOULS

By Sheriff Jim R. Schwiesow, Ret.
November 12, 2011
NewsWithViews.com

Recently eight duly elected and active Oregon and California county sheriffs’ addressed, in a public forum, federal and state intrusions upon the unalienable rights of their citizens and the unconstitutional (illegal) incursions of warrantless state and federal endeavors in their jurisdictions. By their testimony these fine sheriffs’ verbally documented the assault on sovereignty and the abridgement of individual rights by the despotic strives that they have personally witnessed.

Most disturbing was the fact that federal encroachments were aided and abetted by state politicians who were willing to bargain away state sovereignty and the exclusive right to local control in exchange for federal dollars; a disturbing development given that states ought to employ a barrier against unconstitutional federal trespass upon the personal liberties of their people.

If you became aware of this event, via the mass media, friendly reader you were indeed a rare exception as the particulars of the forum had all of the earmarks of being a closely guarded secret by a media that totally eschews any moral obligation to apprise the public of other than sensationally motivated, politically correct, or politically actuated and patronage-directed substance. It is a bread and butter issue with the media why waste precious air-time and tabloid space on trivial matters such as constitutional devastation when there are so many millions of dollars to be garnered through sensationalistic enterprise and by political and corporate patronage.

ONE SWALLOW DOES NOT A SUMMER MAKE

And eight sheriffs do not a consensus make. Think not that these eight ethically inclined and morally sound sheriffs are indicative of the profession of which they are a part, or that they are suggestive of the majority of their counterparts that are spread across the length and breadth of this nation; because they are not.

God bless their selfless souls, I would like to be able to shake their hands and convey to each of them personally my words of thanks and to express my admiration and respect for the courage that enabled them to make a stand in the face of federal and state tyranny.

These eight lonely souls - and the few others of their caliber across the nation - who direct the powers of the office of sheriff to an unremitting and persevering preservation and enforcement of the unalienable and inherent protections of the Constitution are distressingly rare.

A CORRUPTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE

The power of the Office of Sheriff does not emanate from self-possessed privilege, nor is it established by political requisite or based upon legislative agency; the power of the sheriff is of and by the people.

Sheriffs’ are the only boots on the ground law enforcement agents that derive their authority from the people and not by political prerogative or by bureaucratic appointment. One would think that they would value and want to preserve such a unique circumstance, but in all too many instances such is not the case. Many sheriffs are more than willing to sell their souls to the establishment and to sample - as indentured handmaidens - what they believe to be a more rewarding circumstance as subordinate buddies of the bureaucratic agencies of an increasingly reprehensible political system. In short they are not interested in a preserving the Constitution or in the rights of the people, but rather in developing a misguided sense of their own importance. That they have become lackeys’ of a perverse political system rather than servants of the people seems to have escaped their consciousness.

CASE IN POINT

Since I am acutely aware of the drastic slippage of integrity on the part of sheriffs’ on the local level I will recount happenings in my own state of which I am enormously ashamed.

In Iowa sheriffs’ are presently charged with the responsibility of the issuing of concealed weapons permits. Until two years ago such issuance was done at the sole discretion of the sheriff. During the last couple of legislative sessions two measures were introduced; first to enable a “shall issueâ€