Nevada and Failure of Duty

In a recent article called Protecting People’s Rights, this writer detailed some of the constitutional duties of the county sheriff.

With the happenings in Clark County Nevada with the Cliven Bundy family and ranch under siege from the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM), it is most important for the people to recognize that the failure of Clark County Sheriff, Douglas Gillespie, to perform the duties of protecting people’s rights could put Mr. Gillespie in the cross hairs of criminal complaints and civil claims. Claims such as “accomplice after-the-fact” for Gillespie’s inaction could be leveled against him should any one of the people within his jurisdiction sustain a personal injury as a result of his failure of duty. Certainly, at this moment there are many people within his county that are at increased risk of harm.

True patriots like Sheriff Mack and Matt Shea, Washington State Representative from Spokane Valley, are making their presence known in Bunkerville, Nevada. They are standing with the locals to prevent a repeat of tyrannical actions taken by federal agents at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and Waco, Texas; events burned deep in our memories. While local Nevadans are on watchful vigil, many other Americans, including some from Eastern Washington, are making their way to Nevada at this writing.

Lest we forget the immortal words of Frederick Douglass:

“Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”

This is an election year and many Sheriffs are up for re-election. This is the year the Oath of Office takes center stage. Not just the swearing and proper filing of that oath in the official public records, but the intent for which the founding fathers wrote its requirement into the Constitution: the mandate that public servants first, and foremost, duty is to protect people’s rights, not to be their oppressors.

Ernie Hoch