(Lander County Sheriff Ron Unger)
Two Nevada counties have joined an anti-federal government sheriff's group. Just recently, they held a celebration in Elko to honor their membership, the Elko Daily Free Press reported. Eureka County Sheriff's Office attended the celebration as well.
The group, called Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, believes sheriff's have the final say on any given law's constitutionality. Elko County and Lander County became the first two local governments to join the organization as members. The counties passed resolutions and paid a $2,500 lifetime membership to the association.
“We maintain that no agency established by the U.S. Congress can develop its own policies or regulations which supersede the Bill of Rights or the Constitution, nor does the executive branch have the power to make law, overturn law or set aside law,” Elko County commissioners wrote in the unanimously approved resolution.
Associate founder of the association, Richard Mack, spoke at the event, saying, “You know what I train sheriffs to do? Kick ’em the hell out of your county," referring to criticism of federal government and the Internal Revenue Service.
Mack, compared sheriff's bucking federal laws to Rosa Parks' civil disobedience on a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955.
“The sheriffs of the counties and the state of Nevada and the United States don’t answer to the President, we don’t answer to Senate, we don’t answer to Congress, we don’t answer to our governor, and by all means we really don’t answer to our county commission except for the purse strings,” Eureka County Sheriff Jesse Watts said.
He added: “We answer to you the people, because we the people manage the government, the government doesn’t manage us.”
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