Editor:
I was not in favor of a Spruell sheriff, but I am becoming a convert.
The German Gestapo of the 1930s and '40s was composed largely of foot cops who went with the tide of violence and oppression when its leaders said so. More than anything in this country, to feel safe, I would want to know that when a federal or state government goes beyond its constitutional limits, the enforcement apparatus of the government will not go along. Enforcement is three entities: military, National Guard, and civilian law enforcement: police; FBI, ATF, state and county units, etc. Most of them will go along even if their actions are flagrantly in violation of the Constitution.
Consider the police roundup of weapons during the Hurricane Katrina event. One can bet that in a high-population area, police are more willing to forego civil rights, and decide for themselves what is best, the Constitution be damned. If this had happened to me in New Orleans, I would be dead now (or perhaps on death row). I would not have let the police disarm me and I would have shot back had they tried. I also propose a Constitutional amendment: When a legislative body enacts a law that is later deemed unconstitutional by the highest court, all legislators who voted in favor of the law lose their jobs.
Torin K. Andrews
Mancos