Newly elected Chester County PA Sheriff Fredda L. Maddox is a Democrat who is not an anti-government extremist.
Friday, April 29, 2016
Chester County Sheriff Carolyn (Bunny) Welsh sent a letter to President Obama saying she would not enforce federal law
"Dozens of sheriffs, mostly from western states, sent letters to the White House in 2013 saying they would not enforce federal gun laws, including Douglas County, Ore., Sheriff John Hamlin. Hamlin’s view were later scrutinized after a mass killing in his county last October at Umpqua Community College.
'It’s terrifying to me,' said Justin Nix, a criminology professor at the University of Louisville who specializes in police legitimacy and procedural fairness. 'It’s not up to the police to decide what the law is going to be. They’re sworn to uphold the law. It’s not up to them to pick and choose.' Nix pointed out that officers use discretion all the time in deciding whether to charge someone with a crime. 'But to be on the record, that you don’t want officers enforcing laws, that is pretty bold."
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Washington Post
National sheriffs’ group, opposed to federal laws on guns and taxes, calls for defiance
By Tom Jackman April 28
Is Carolyn (Bunny) Welsh looking for a job at the White House?
“We’re seeing threats of violence,” Northam said Tuesday at a news conference. “We’re seeing threats of armed confrontation and assault on our Capitol.”
Those threats of violence have been rampant among antigovernment and far-right groups online. The Virginia Militia, a Facebook group that shares antigovernment memes, posted a paid Facebook advertisement featuring a gallows and three hanging nooses. Beneath the photo is the caption “Government Repair Kit.”
Other elements of the far right have weighed in with even more overt calls for violence. On a Facebook page belonging to Patriot Prayer, a group that along with the Proud Boys hosted a series of demonstrations in Portland, Oregon, that frequently turned violent, one group member wrote of Gov. Northam, “Shoot this fucker in the head.”
On Telegram, the event is being lauded by a subset of white nationalists and neo-Nazis that have enthusiastically endorsed violence and terrorism as a means to their political ends. One channel has posted the names of Jewish lawmakers in Virginia who have spoken out in favor of stronger gun regulations. The Justice Department said Thursday that three men were taken into custody by the FBI amid an investigation into the white nationalist group The Base. According to officials, the men had weapons and had talked about possibly traveling to Richmond to attend the rally.
The event is underpinned by antigovernment conspiracy theories. Conspiracies related to QAnon, rumors that the governor plans to turn off the power grid and perennial speculation about mass gun confiscations have all made the rounds online. VICE’s Tess Owen reported that the decades-old far-right conspiracy about the “New World Order” is cropping up online in the leadup to the event. Groups are circulating a 2016 photo of U.N. trucks as “evidence” that the state of Virginia is bringing in U.N. troops to subvert the will of the people and overthrow the U.S. government.
Although Monday is a state holiday, it has become a traditional day for interest groups to lobby state lawmakers on specific issues. The planned protest is leveraging this so-called Lobby Day for their demonstration
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