The power of the county sheriff
Dear Editor:
As we watch our country fall apart from all of the decades of neglect and abuse there is still one light at the end of a very dark tunnel. It is that of the county sheriff?
The county sheriff is the ultimate protector of the people's rights. He/she is elected by the people unlike municipal or state police who are appointed and are accountable to their superiors and/or the politicians.
The sheriff is accountable to the people. Not even the president of the United States can tell the sheriff what to do. This was proven in the Supreme Court case Mack/Printz vs. US when then little known sheriff Richard Mack of Graham County Arizona fought the Clinton administration and won when the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms), tried to bully our nation's sheriffs into complying with the Brady Bill which was a major encroachment of the people's right to bear arms.
Sheriff Mack stood his ground and the result was a major victory for freedom and gun rights. Sheriff Mack will be speaking to citizens of Lehigh, Carbon and Northampton counties on March 31, 2010 and information is provided online by searching Jim Thorpe Freedom Rallies.
Today in Pennsylvania, the sheriff has basically been reduced to the roll of courthouse lackey.
My belief is that the power's that be behind the United States Corporation of America have worked steadily to chip away at the county sheriff's role in safeguarding the people from the relentless attacks on our freedom, liberty and prosperity. In some states, the sheriffs have gone on the offensive and have even arrested intrusive federal and state agents violating the rights of their citizens.
In Pennsylvania, the 2007 Commonwealth versus Dobbins case decided that the sheriff must have statutory authority to make an arrest which the sheriffs were conveniently denied when the statutes were written. Was this done to take away the people's ability to protect themselves and their livelihoods? A statutory law is one that exists in a maritime court only and not in a common law court.
Another way to describe a decision handed down in a maritime court is to say someone is guilty for violating a corporate policy rather than actually doing harm to someone else or their property and/or breaking a contract. Since all of the judges, attorneys and appointed law enforcement agents play by these rules and not the ones laid out to them in the very constitution that they took a solemn oath to uphold and defend, the Pennsylvania Sheriff's Association and people of this commonwealth must unite to reinstate our constitution if we are to remain the land of the free and home of the brave.
More information about the constitution and the Sheriffs' program will be discussed at a meeting on February 20th at 10am at the Memorial Hall in Jim Thorpe. All interested in taking back their country are strongly urged to attend.
Gene Duffy
Jim Thorpe
