A national group of sheriffs teaches that they must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or “unjust.” In other words, the group says that law enforcement officials in American counties are not bound by federal law, ABC News reported.
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) was founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack.
A member of the group's advisory board, Dar Leaf, told ABC News that local law enforcement has "no obligation to enforce such laws."
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“They’re not laws at all anyway. If they’re unjust laws, they are laws of tyranny," he said.
The group has railed against gun control laws, COVID-19 mask mandates and public health restrictions, "as well as alleged election fraud. It has also quietly spread its ideology across the country, seeking to become more mainstream in part by securing state approval for taxpayer-funded law enforcement training, the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found," ABC News' report stated.
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The group has hosted events in at least 30 states and has held training on its “constitutional” curriculum for law enforcement officers in at least 13 of those states. "In six states, the training was approved for officers’ continuing education credits. The group also has supporters who sit on three state boards in charge of law enforcement training standards," according to ABC News.
Mary McCord, a former federal prosecutor and executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University, says the group's ideology is growing increasingly popular since the 2020 election.
“They have no authority, not under their state constitutions or implementing statutes to decide what’s constitutional and what’s not constitutional. That’s what courts have the authority to do, not sheriffs,” McCord said.
“There’s another sort of evil lurking there,” McCord added, “because CSPOA is now essentially part of a broader movement in the United States to think it’s OK to use political violence if we disagree with some sort of government policy.”
Read the full report over at ABC News.
