US sheriffs rebel against state mask orders even
as Covid-19 spreads
Growing resistance is related to far-right movement
that claims sheriffs must defy laws they believe are unconstitutional
Jason
Wilson
@jason_a_w
Fri 31 Jul
2020 10.00 BSTLast modified on Fri 31 Jul 2020 14.18 BST
Sheriffs
around the country are refusing to enforce or are even actively resisting
Covid-19 mask laws and lockdowns, while others have permitted or encouraged
armed vigilantism in response to Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests.
Critics say
both phenomena are related to a far-right “constitutional sheriffs” movement,
which believes that sheriffs are the highest constitutional authority in the
country, with the power – and duty – to resist state and federal governments.
When
Richard K Jones, the sheriff of Butler county, Ohio, said recently that he
wasn’t going to be the “mask police”, and would not be enforcing Governor Mike
DeWine’s mandates for high-risk counties, he became the latest in a wave of
sheriffs either refusing to enforce coronavirus-related public health rules, or
encouraging people to break them in the midst of a worsening pandemic.
At least
eight county sheriffs in Texas have said they will not enforce Governor Greg
Abbott’s mask mandate. Tracy Murphree, the Denton county sheriff, explained to
a local newspaper he believed “the constitution trumps everything”, and, “when
people are told to do something that violates their civil rights, it invites chaos
and protest”.
At least
three sheriffs in Michigan, three in North Carolina, three in California, two
in New Mexico and one in Nevada made similar announcements about state orders.
At least one Tennessee sheriff has questioned the constitutionality of local
government mask orders which the state has made provision for.
In North
Carolina, Jimmy Thornton, the Sampson county sheriff, called Democratic
governor Roy Cooper’s mask order “not only unconstitutional, but unenforceable”
in a Facebook post on 24 June, adding that “my deputies will NOT enforce an
executive order that I feel violates the constitutional liberties of citizens”.
In that
state, earlier in the course of the pandemic, at least 10 sheriffs had said
that they would not enforce the state’s lockdown restrictions.
At least
two sheriffs who refused to enforce lockdown orders – in Arizona and California
– subsequently contracted Covid-19.
In
Washington state last month, meanwhile, at least two sheriffs have gone further
than saying that they won’t enforce the law.
Rob Snaza,
the Lewis county sheriff, said in a speech which became a viral video that
anyone who complied with the instructions was a “sheep”. His counterpart in
nearby Klickitat county, Bob Songer, called the governor, Jay Inslee, an
“idiot” who was “violating the liberties and constitutional rights of the
individual” by making mask-wearing compulsory.
Adam
Fortney, the sheriff of Snohomish county, Washington, wrote on Facebook in
April that he would not be “enforcing an order preventing religious freedoms or
constitutional rights”.
Fortney’s
claim that Inslee’s orders were unconstitutional has inspired a recall effort
against him.
He was one
of at least 60 sheriffs nationwide who had pushed back on lockdown rules by
May, according to a report by the Marshall Project, a criminal justice focussed
non-profit news organization.
In turn,
many of the sheriffs refusing to enforce mask orders have previously resisted
states’ attempts to place further restrictions on firearms.
Songer, the
Klickitat county sheriff, was lauded in conservative media in 2019 when he said
he would not enforce the provisions of a ballot measure that, among other
things, placed age restrictions on the purchase of assault rifles.
Aitor
Narvaiza, the Elko county, Nevada, sheriff who has refused to enforce Governor
Steve Sisolak’s mask order, was involved last year in an attempt to create
“second amendment sanctuaries” in rural counties after state lawmakers sought
to beef up background checks.
Daryle
Wheeler, the sheriff of Bonner county, Idaho, has this year both accused
Governor Brad Little of “suspending the constitution” with lockdown rules, and
filed suit against the city of Sandpoint after it sought to ban guns at a
municipal festival.
According
to Cloee Cooper, a research analyst at Political Research Associates, this is
not coincidental. All of these sheriffs are members of organizations associated
with the constitutional sheriffs movement, or under their growing influence.
With its
origins in ideas of “county supremacy” first pushed by far-right groups opposed
to desegregation, the idea that county sheriffs have a “legal and ethical duty
to refuse to enforce state and federal policies and laws they believe to be
unconstitutional” has become the basis of a nationwide network, the
Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) headed by
Richard Mack.
In an
email, Cooper said that her research had revealed that “Richard Mack was
encouraging sheriffs to defy shelter-in-place orders and support reopen
protests”. While the CSPOA was founded to resist Obama-era firearms
restrictions, they had pivoted to resisting mask and lockdown orders, defining
them as signs of “impending tyranny”.
She added
that constitutional sheriffs had moved to deputize posses in response to Black
Lives Matter protests, or had fueled false rumors about busloads of “Antifa”
activists rolling into rural areas.
While
constitutional sheriffs claim to act in the name of public safety, they may
actually encourage disorder. One research paper suggests that the election of a
constitutionalist sheriff in a county may increase the likelihood of political
violence against federal officials by up to 50%.
Cooper
added that “sheriffs that openly align with the Patriot movement, like
constitutional sheriffs, (pave) the way for a further slide toward
authoritarianism.”
This
article was amended on 31 July 2020 to clarify that Roy Cooper is a Democrat,
not Republican.
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