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Constitutional Sheriffs
The Constitutional Sheriffs are neither law abiding, nor do they respect the U.S. Constitution. In fact, they helped to spur on the J6 insurrection, and have taken a stand against public health measures all throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, encouraging the American people to rebel against steps to mitigate the disease under the guise of fighting for freedom. They actively recruit local law enforcement officers into their movement by telling them they have the right to decide what laws they can enforce and can keep federal law enforcement agents out of their counties. This is patently untrue.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association is a far right-wing antigovernment group
Formed in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, who once worked for the radical Gun Owners of America Group, the CSPOA tells its members that they are the "last line of defense" against Washington
Who are the Constitutional Sheriffs?
The so-called "Constitutional Sheriffs" are a far-right extremist law enforcement group, an increasingly influential subset of the nation's 3,000 (mostly) elected county sheriffs. They see themselves as the only legitimate law enforcement agency within the counties they serve, and consider themselves the last word on property rights, gun laws, COVID-19 measures, immigration, and a myriad of other issues. While their origin hails from the anti-government movement of the 70s and 80s, they established themselves as a political entity when the Tea Party movement infiltrated the GOP and gained strong support from the alt-right with the election of Donald Trump. Ninety percent of these miscreants are white men, and they have become involved with white supremacist organizations.
The Constitutional Sheriffs were founded by Richard Mack, former sheriff of Graham County, Arizona, who sat on the board of the Oath Keepers, and who has ties to paramilitary movements, white supremacists, and antisemites
“There is one person who I believe can stop this new world order. His name is your county sheriff. There is no question your sheriff has the responsibility to protect you from tyranny and international bankers.”
-Richard Mack to Alex Jones on the InfoWars Show in 2009
The Constitutional Sheriffs are not protecting your liberty; they are subverting the Constitution and democracy
Constitutional Sheriff Richard Mack of Arizona has been relentlessly growing this right-wing extremist movement. You can read an excellent report here from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
It should come as no surprise that Joe Arpaio, the self-described toughest sheriff in America, is a supporter of the Constitutional Sheriffs. He even referred to himself as a constitutional sheriff and bragged that his office operated 52 separate posse groups to round up illegal immigrants. Eventually the federal government caught up with Arpaio and held him accountable for racial profiling and illegally rounding up immigrants and refusing to turn over records. When Trump pardoned Arpaio, calling him a "patriot," just days before his sentencing, he not only pardoned a political ally, but he also strengthened the constitutional sheriff's position that they are exempt from federal laws.
Up until the COVID pandemic hit, I had not heard much about the Constitutional Sheriffs. It was when I started tracking right-wing medical misinformation and the ridiculous notion about forced vaccines that I ran into Richard Mack. As it turns out, he was featured as the personal Constitutional Sheriff of the United Medical Freedom SuperPAC, a right-wing political group that equates public health measures (like masks and vaccines) with tyranny. That's when I started digging for info.
The Constitutional Sheriffs are built on the county supremacy movement which states that the county, and not the state government, should control what goes on in the county. It also postulates that the county sheriffs are the last word in law enforcement in the U.S., surpassing even the power of the federal government. This idea came about in the 1970s from a man named William Potter Gale, a former member of the John Birch Society, and was called Posse Comitatus.
In turn, Posse Comitatus is based on the Sheriff's Act of 1887, which allowed them to form a posse to hunt down and arrest criminals. However, Gale's idea of a posse also included the belief that they functioned under common law (laws based on their interpretation of the Bible), rather than civil law (legitimate laws created via the legal system). The Constitutional Sheriffs, therefore, also have roots in the Sovereign Citizen Movement and the Christian Identity Movement.
Constitutional sheriffs purposely confuse personal and political beliefs with constitutionality to decide which laws should and should not be enforced. For example, they refuse to enforce state and federal gun laws in their respective counties. They also refused to enforce mask mandates at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, endangering the public for their own ideological purposes.
Richard Mack has been actively recruiting sheriffs, and 2021 was a particularly active year. He went out there with the intent of radicalizing sheriffs with the help of right-wing extremists under the guise that they are "America's last hope."
He spoke at the Red Pill Expo organized by conspiracy theorist G. Edward Griffin, and a QAnon sovereign citizen rally in Hawaii. He also spoke at the anti-LGBTQ Rod of Iron Ministries Freedom Festival in Greeley, Pennsylvania, a broad gathering of gun-toting Christian right, antigovernment, and other far-right extremists.
Mack also spoke at the Arise USA Tour, which was hosted by Robert David Steele, an antisemitic, anti-vaxxer, COVID denier, 9/11 truther, and "Big Lie" conspiracy theorist. The CSPOA's name was proudly displayed on the side of the bus (see the above photo). As it turns out, the tour was a financial disaster for those who helped him put his show on, as Steele ran out of money after blowing it on lavish coaches, champagne and food, stiffing his production crew for $50,000. It will be impossible for anyone to collect since Steele died of COVID-19 in August of 2021, a virus he insisted was a hoax.
The Constitutional Sheriffs Go National in 2021
Republican political consultant Nathan Sproul decided to take the movement national in 2021 by creating Protect America Now which was incorporated in Phoenix, Arizona (go figure) as a domestic non-profit corporation on June 26, 2020. The group's advisory board is staffed with a number of Constitutional Sheriffs, including Mark Lamb of Pinal County, Arizona, who was personally endorsed by Richard Mack.
It is expected that the ranks of the Constitutional Sheriffs will continue to grow.
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