Sheriff Glenn Palmer's stance in LaVoy Finicum shooting draws outrage

[phantom power]

The national association defines the constitutional sheriff as "the last line of defense between the overreaching federal government and your constitutionally guaranteed rights." The association says on its website that sheriffs "have the authority and duty to stop state and federal enforcement of laws repugnant to the constitutions."

Palmer has drawn such a line in Grant County, where more than half the land is in federal ownership. Palmer has opposed orders closing U.S. Forest Service roads for conservation and expense reasons.

He deputized 11 citizens without public notice to create a plan for managing the forest. And he has declared that the Forest Service has no authority to enforce laws on the Malheur National Forest without his permission.

"Your jurisdiction as I see it is limited in nature to the federal building in John Day," Palmer wrote in a March 31, 2011, letter to the national forest's supervisor.

...

Palmer's dubbing of Finicum's shooting as an ambush prompted the rare censure from the state sheriffs' association, a 100-year-old group representing Oregon's 36 elected county sheriffs.

"This was in no way an ambush," the association said in a statement to The Oregonian/OregonLive. "This was a carefully planned high-risk vehicle stop by highly trained officers and was implemented to take into custody armed persons who had openly engaged in a variety of criminal activities."

The association said that if Finicum and others had "given up peacefully, no shots would have been fired and no blood would have been spilled."

http://www.oregonlive.com/oregon-standoff/2016/02/oregon_standoff_sheriffs_stanc.html

[COLGATE4]

1. This idiot has no business being a sworn law enforcement officer.

His paranoid musings about the constitutional role of the Federal government are going to get more yahoos killed. He needs to resign as an LEO and run for political office.

[Lochloosa]

2. He holds an elected office. Sheriff.

From there website:

My name is Glenn Palmer, Sheriff for Grant County. As I begin my fourth term as your elected Sheriff,

http://grantcountysherifforegon.com/

[COLGATE4]

3. If he can't discharge his elected office duties

he needs to resign. If he wants to be in politics, then get into politics and run for an office that doesn't require him to be in law enforcement.

[Lochloosa]

4. No argument here.

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. Just waiting to see if our Southern sheriffs weigh in on this.

They do like to swing their weight around down here.

[Eleanors38]

6. Time for him to go. Far away.

[Baitball Blogger]

7. So, when is the FBI going to figure out that the Sheriff is part of the movement?

[procon]

8. The man lives in a bubble.

He's steeped in all the typical anti-government rightwing talking points. It's no stretch of the imagination to picture him surrounded by his rightwing TV shows, rightwing hate radio, rightwing internet websites, blogs and forums, rightwing emails, text alerts, newsletters and literature... 24/7. He thinks he is in the majority because "everyone" around him thinks just like he does (my poor, brainwashed brother is a victim) and no differing viewpoints are allowed, but no one has considered what the country would become if their version of the Constitution was real.

He is so programmed that he can't even conceive of a reality where his zealotry is the minority and his views are extremely radical and scoffed at by most citizens. He is grossly ignorant and tragically misinformed by the education he received from his most trusted internet sources, but in his self righteous fanaticism, he and others like him, will never get beyond the overworked platitudes and conspiracy theories that serve as the foundation of rightwing ideology.

[PufPuf23]

9. I wondered before if Sheriff Palmer was guilty of sedition.

I am glad Palmer was censured by the Oregon State Sheriff's Association.

Earlier thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10027564248

Palmer is ignorant regards to US Forest Service seasonal and overall road closure policies; they are to protect sensitive resources and reduce management costs. Travel on unsurfaced roads in wet season causes major road damage from rutting and increased erosion. Roads may also be closed seasonally or year round because of issues like wildlife or diseases.

BTW I was a USFS employee from 1970 to 1985 (temporary seasonal to PFT professional forester).

[struggle4progress]

10. Sheriffs’ association asked to investigate Glenn Palmer’s conduct

Sean Hart
East Oregonian
Published: February 9, 2016 7:32PM
Last changed: February 9, 2016 7:39PM

... Association President Brian Wolfe, the sheriff of Malheur County, said at the request of citizens an executive board would look into Palmer’s conduct regarding the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge to determine whether to launch an official investigation.

“What the association will do is look at all the facts: We’ll gather evidence and information, and then if we think there is a violation of the state sheriffs’ (association) bylaws or ethics, then we would take whatever would be the appropriate action,” he said. “We would just want to make sure, first of all, that sheriffs in Oregon are following the law and following their oath.”

All sheriffs in Oregon, he said, vow to uphold both the state and federal Constitution. He said the association has bylaws in effect that allow the expulsion of a member for misconduct, athough he is not aware of any member ever being removed. Currently, he said, all 36 Oregon sheriffs are members.

Expulsion is the most severe punishment available to the association, Wolfe said. If a criminal investigation was warranted, it would be handled by a law enforcement agency, not the association ...

http://www.eastoregonian.com/eo/local-news/20160209/sheriffs-association-asked-to-investigate-palmers-conduct