Concern at the rise of US constitutional sheriffs – the MAGA cops
They’re the top law enforcer in many US towns, but increasingly they’re ignoring laws they don't like and there are fears for the upcoming election.
Across America, there’s a new breed of top dog cop in town.
They call themselves “constitutional sheriffs” and many believe they can pick and choose which laws to uphold – and which to ignore.
There are fears some of these sheriffs might even try and meddle in the upcoming presidential election.
Seemingly all constitutional sheriffs support Donald Trump and believe the 2020 election, which he lost, was “stolen”.
These MAGA cops, all onboard for Mr Trump, aim to number a third of all sheriffs nationwide.
“It’s a slippery slope,” said one current sheriff opposed to constitutional sheriffs.
“They believe they’re all powerful.”
Civil rights groups have decried constitutional sheriffs and claimed there are links to right wing extremists, sovereign citizens and white nationalist groups.
Constitutional sheriffs have pushed back, claiming they are fighting “tyranny” and that links to extremist groups are overblown.
“I came away thinking America was a powder keg,” SBS journalist Darren Mara told news.com.au of his interactions with constitutional sheriffs which will be featured on Tuesday’s evening episode of Dateline on SBS.
Mara also said there was one question, about the fundamentals of US democracy, that supporters of the movement seemed unable to answer.
“I just couldn’t pin him down. I couldn’t get a firm response from him”.
‘Tyranny’
Across most of the US, sheriffs aren’t appointed – they’re elected.
Many have no experience of law enforcement but their role means they investigate crimes, detain and arrest people and run local prisons.
In some rural areas the sheriff is often seen as the most influential elected official. As they are voted in, they are hard to remove from office.
A sheriff’s duty is to uphold and administer the law. But constitutional sheriffs, energised by opposition to gun laws, believe they have the power to determine which laws are “unconstitutional “ and so can be ignored.
Former police officer Jerry Sheridan is standing for election as sheriff for Maricopa County which includes Arizona’s largest city of Phoenix. He is also a constitutional sheriff.
“We seem to be getting less and less freedoms because of the tyranny of the federal government enacting all kinds of laws,” he told Mara.
“Laws like taxation, (environmental) laws, Covid mandates to wear masks.
“As a constitutional Sheriff, I would not enforce those unconstitutional mandates.
“Not all sheriffs think that way. (But) they’re starting to come around and see the power of the sheriff,” said Mr Sheridan.
It’s estimated about 10 per cent of the US’ 3100 elected sheriffs do indeed think exactly that way and are part of the constitutional sheriff movement.
Richard Mack is the spokesman and founder of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). He told Dateline he wanted to get to 1000 constitutional sheriffs nationwide.
He likened the federal government to “street criminals”.
“The sheriff can defend the people from the abuse and the oppression and the bullying of the federal government,” Mr Mack said.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re in government or if they’re a street criminal – violate the law and you will be investigated, and we will correct you,” he said on the program.
Mara told news.com.au that the CSPOA was not just trying to get law enforcement officials on side, “but also members of the public, politics, and increasingly, MAGA”.
“It’s a very libertarian interpretation of words to the effect of ‘get out of my life, don’t tell me what to do’.
“Constitutional sheriffs saw Donald Trump as an opportunity to get government off their backs.”
Election concerns
But it goes further than that, said Mara.
“The presidential election conspiracies, have really been embraced by the constitutional sheriffs and that’s a particular danger.
“Richard Mack 100 per cent believes that the 2020 election was stolen and Jerry Sheridan believes that election fraud continues to this day.
Mr Sheridan told Mara he would “do something and arrest people,” if he found “corruption,” during the election.
“And this is the irony,” Mara continued.
“If Donald Trump wins, then it would be a sign (to them) that all the kinks had been ironed out and the fraud had been addressed.
“But if Kamala Harris wins, then obviously there’s still fraud.”
Civil rights group the Southern Poverty Law Centre (SPLC) alleges constitutional sheriffs have an “abject disrespect for the rule of law,” and warns the movement mixes with the likes of sovereign citizens, white supremacists and conspiracy theorists.
“That’s not to say that each of the constitutional sheriffs believes in those ideologies,” said Mara.
“But rather that’s the ecosystem that they exist in and there is a risk the CSPOA sucks in other sheriffs and they then have a proclivity toward one of those ideologies.
“It’s a gateway,” he explained.
Certainly the picking and choosing of laws has a whiff of the sovereign citizen movement about it. A belief that only certain laws apply.
But it’s the racial and white nationalist overtones that the CSPOA struggles to shake off.
Until 2015, Mr Mack was a members of the Oath Keepers, a group the SPLC claims is far right and extremist. A number of Oath Keepers members have been jailed following the January 6 insurrection, which was after Mr Mack’s time.
Mr Mack has also spoken more recently at an organisation that has been linked to the Oath Keepers.
In addition, the SPLC has said CSPOA CEO Sam Bushman runs a radio station which is a soap box for extremists and white nationalists.
Mr Mack said the CSPOA has nothing to do with racism. In his presentations he quotes civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr and, said Mara, Mr Mack told him he would have defended Rosa Parks, a woman who in 1955 refused to sit in part of a bus reserved for black passengers.
“I don’t agree with the white supremacists Sam Bushman has on his show,” Mr Mack insisted.
“The problem,” said Mara, “is that for political expediency he has no problem getting on stage with people who have white supremacist views and that’s an inherently compromised position to be in”.
At one point in the documentary, Mr Mack told a group that the US “is not a democracy and we never have been”.
Mara said he tried to get Mr Mack to elaborate on that claim.
“I couldn’t get a firm response from him about how he can take the democracy out of what America is, where so much of the system of government is predicated on democratic practices.
“He wouldn’t really be drawn on that”.
Mara surmised that Mr Mack was attempting to justify sheriffs ignoring federal laws by claiming the federal government itself was not democratic.
“It’s an inherent contradiction, and it’s entirely self-serving,” said Mara.
‘Slippery slope’
Dateline also interviewed Arizona Sheriff Chris Nanos, a Democrat, who opposes constitutional sheriffs.
“It’s a slippery slope. You have people who run for office who believe they will be all powerful and will have no rules that apply to them and they set the rules.
“And that is hogwash,” said Mr Nanos.
Mara said he left Arizona deeply troubled by the state of US politics.
“I came away feeling like America really was a powder keg.
“Every single person said they were very concerned for the future and that they don’t know how this was going to play out.
“It seems like the people who are making most of the political decisions are people who are on the fringes and they are directing the course of that of that great nation”.
Dateline airs on Tuesday September 10 at 9.30pm on SBS.
‘Drugs’: Billionaire’s very candid confession
Billionaire James Packer has opened up on his mental health struggles and the worst drug he was prescribed.
Bombshell update for sacked Seven star
Former Channel 7 reporter Robert Ovadia made an astonishing legal decision after filing a lawsuit against his former “evil” employer.
‘Unethical’: DV victim slams A Current Affair
The organiser of a string of rallies against male violence has claimed A Current Affair showed up at the domestic violence safe house she was hiding at.