New York (and New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island) has banned indoor gatherings at private residences of more than 10 people. This useless shithead with a badge decided he needed to pipe up and comment on that:
“I have no plans to utilize my office’s resources or deputies to break up the great tradition of Thanksgiving dinner,” Timothy Howard, the sheriff in Erie County in western New York, said in a statement.
“My office will respect the sanctity of your home and traditions, and I encourage you to follow your heart and act responsibly, as well as do what’s best for your family.”
I am so god damned sick and tired of these Republican sheriffs trying to make a name for themselves by opening their ignorant cakeholes and starting in with the “but mah freedums!” talk when a law is passed that they don’t like. Fuck ’em, individually and collectively. Can’t they keep their griping and bitching confined to anonymous posts on racist message boards like normal cops?
Erie County, which is Buffalo, has been doing the worst of any large New York county after we got the first wave under control, so someone who didn’t know Sheriff Howard might have thought he could at least keep his dumb opinion to himself. But what do you expect from a sheriff who said that supporters of body cameras were like the doubting Thomases who who didn’t believe that Jesus came back from the dead?
Of all the elective offices in county government that should be abolished, sheriff is at the top of my list. That said, this is not just a problem with sheriffs. Syracuse PD doesn’t seem to like wearing masks and Cuomo spends a good part of pretty much every press conference begging the NYPD to do some enforcement — most of the enforcement in New York City is done by the tiny New York County Sheriff’s Department.
I’ll close with some wise words from Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey:
Reporter: What is your message to the people who apparently are tired of wearing the mask over their nose as well as their mouth, they think its uncomfortable and annoying, and it’s just too much for them to handle, so they’re just not doing it?
Gov Murphy: You know what’s really uncomfortable and annoying? When you die. That’s my answer.
Benw
I plan to smoke a ton of weed this Thanksgiving. Please respect the sanctity of my home, Sheriff. TIA!
Hunter Gathers
Yet another sheriff declares to the press that his dick doesn’t work.
By the way, Sheriff Dick Doesn’t Work, what is best for my family is to have you and all the other broke dick members of law enforcement shot into the sun.
terraformer
I know I’m not the first to ask, but what’s the deal with all these Sheriffs who can apparently refuse to enforce law whenever they want to? I mean, what’s the point of having…laws, then?
David ?Booooooo!? Koch
Cops were so much nicer on Adam-12
Dorothy A. Winsor
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch: Not to mention Car 54 Where Are You?
OzarkHillbilly
@terraformer: To put people of certain ethnic persuasions in prison.
Eunicecycle
So we’re supposed to have the same “faith” in law enforcement as we do in a deity? Jesus.
Cheryl Rofer
Lock them up!
germy
Hopefully this will be his last Thanksgiving anywhere near the federal government.
Roger Moore
@terraformer:
The purpose of having laws is so the sheriffs have something they can hold over the heads of people they don’t like.
Matt
Much like Jeebus, “good cops” are a fictional character that exists only in the minds of gullible dipshits.
cmorenc
@germy:
Hopefully after Jas 20, Dr. Atlas will be too radioactive to be at all welcome back at Stanford or any other respectable medical school. Hopefully his position isn’t tenure-protected,
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy: “Your g-parents are OLD – one foot in the grave – so have a big family gathering and give them Covid before it’s too late!”
Swears are too good for this POS.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Why have fancy book-learning laws, when you can have a Sheriff who IS the law?
germy
Sab
@germy: I love these 65 year olds who still think they are young.
WaterGirl
@germy: Surely he can be charged with something.
Omnes Omnibus
Okay, stupid comment, but does anyone expect law enforcement to go door to door busting anyone who has eleven people at the table on T-day? Functionally, that ban is more like strong guidance.
germy
Two headlines today in a Schenectady NY newspaper:
Schenectady pays $250K to woman alleging body-slamming, getting knocked unconscious by city police
Schenectady OKs $225K payout to criminal suspect attacked by K9
PsiFighter37
Grassley quarantining today. Have to say, it seems like GOP senators are using COVID exposure as a convenient excuse to avoid having to vote for Judy Shelton. I am pretty sure that is what this sudden rash of senators not showing up to vote is about. McConnell is still pushing ahead, which might suggest he is more interested in killing this nomination than in trying to get someone even he doesn’t trust on the Fed board.
BruceFromOhio
@Benw: I respect this comment, and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
SiubhanDuinne
@David ?Booooooo!? Koch:
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I miss Cagney and Lacey.
different-church-lady
Betcha anything if there’s an outdoor gathering of more than three black men in their own driveway he’ll be in there in a flash.
Betty Cracker
Agree 100% about abolishing “county sheriff” as an elective office. It’s just a terrible idea.
different-church-lady
@germy: All he’s trying to do is increase the odds that he’s right.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I have to work in a clean room time to time, normally wear an ESD smock and heel straps at work and to listen to this kind of immature nonsense from people is just….
lowtechcyclist
@terraformer:
Sheriffs in many (most?) jurisdictions are elected, and IMHO that’s the problem: they’re not accountable to any civilian authority.
They can enforce the laws they want on the people they want, ignore the laws they don’t want to enforce, and give a pass to anyone they want to. As long as they keep getting re-elected, who’s to stop them?
germy
Stanford responds, in a twitter thread:
Steeplejack (phone)
Sab
@lowtechcyclist: Lincoln County Nevada used to have (probably still has) an elected sheriff who got lots of Federal money for overseeing the security of the proposed federal nuclear suppository ( // sorry local joke) with no strings at all. So no local fiscal controls at all because of the federal momey.
raven
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s all bullshit but it gives everyone something to get a wound up about.
germy
trollhattan
@germy:
Wonder if he and John Yoo have chats with one another across the Bay, chuckling at their good success owning the libs in the very halls of liberal fascism.
Amir Khalid
@lowtechcyclist:
What genius over there decided that local heads of law enforcement should be elected, and what was their reasoning?
Bruuuuce
@SiubhanDuinne: I miss Barney Miller. I’d say I miss Hill Street Blues, but occasionally I see an episode or two overnight.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@trollhattan: Hoover Institute, more likely congratulate themselves that as tenured professors they are utterly immune to the Free Market they praise so much.
On the other hand, why the does the Hoover Institute, which is focused on geopolitics and economics have a radiologist on it’s staff?
Ruckus
@Matt:
Taking a ride in the way back machine, I rode along one night with one of my HS buddies who became a deputy. Now this is in a county that is rather rural, at least it was a lot of decades ago. And here I thought I knew this guy. Spoke to him once since that night. He arrested a guy hitch hiking after doing an illegal search and finding the world’s smallest remains of a joint. Too small to light, probably not enough to test to see if it was even an actual joint. I asked him about this later and he said, “Oh the DA will throw it out but he gets to spend 3 nights in my jail.” Cop, judge, jury, jailer all rolled into one. Later on when I served in the Shore Patrol for a while I never, ever forgot that night and that while it is a job that most everyone wants done, they don’t want it done 300% wrong.
Gin & Tonic
Does anybody else feel queasy agreeing 100% with this fucking guy?
Geo Wilcox
@germy: And the last Thanksgiving he sees outside of a jail cell.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Amir Khalid: the Virginia Colonial assembly in 1652. Presumably following the English model of crown appointed sheriffs.
local comment
Maybe it is shitty upstate sheriff day in Upstate NY as both Onondaga and Madison County sheriffs interviewed today said they had better things to do than pay attention to Thanksgiving gatherings. Parts of Onondaga county are now in Cuomo’s yellow zone because of rapidly increasing covid positives.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
I think election of sheriffs goes back to a time when the country was much less urbanized and local government was much more limited. The sheriff was by far the most important local official, so it made sense to have the office be elected directly rather than appointed by a county government that didn’t have many other functions. That’s the reason for some other county officials who seem to be an odd fit for elected office, like coroner, clerk, and tax assessor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Amir Khalid: British Sheriffs were appointed by the Crown. In the US, in our country’s youth, we decided that a number of positions, sheriffs, judges, county and city treasurers, prosecuting attorneys, etc., should be chosen by the people. Well into the Civil War, militia units elected their officers and NCOs. Oddly, this excessive democratization was one of the things on the Founders’ minds when they wrote the Constitution.
mrmoshpotato
Orgies are banned until we’re through this pandemic.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
Meanwhile in Wisconsin, another example of the wingnuts devouring their own:
Trump supporters attack their own rally organizer for enforcing COVID-19 protocols
They also attacked the general manager of the hall that had been rented for the meeting. And the Health Department people. Now the Health Department is fining the hall for the Health Code violations…
“One gentlemen rushed me and pushed me and twisted the microphone out of my hand and as he was moving away, pushed me again, and so I attempted to get the microphone back and grabbed, him and at that point, a number of people in the crowd pushed me to the ground and started kicking me,” Serb Hall general manager Nicholas Alioto told local news outlet WISN.”
I am glad no one was hurt. Also pass the popcorn…
Yes I am a horrible human. I used to be such a nice lady, I think 4 years of Trump killed all my nice/benefit-of-the-doubt impulses .
germy
@Gin & Tonic:
Kristol should know.
local comment
@Gin & Tonic: Yes, it is truly upside down day when you find yourself agreeing (and not the first time lately) with Bloody Bill, who has never met a swarthy foreigner he didn’t want to bomb.
The Moar You Know
I’ve seen three sheriffs in my lifetime here (actually four, but I can never remember the placeholder’s name – Duffy, Kolender and Gore. I was too young to know the guy before Duffy) and somehow all three have overseen one of the shittiest law enforcement operations in the country. Never any changes. Unlike most places where cities have police forces, the SD Sheriffs contract with almost every city here so it’s the same deeply incompetent, poorly trained steroid abusers no matter where you go. At least they’re consistent.
I could say two good things about them: they never get politically involved in shit like mask wearing or any other public safety enforcement; if there’s an excuse to swing a club, issue a fine or open fire, they’re on it. And they used to be super tight-fisted about issuing concealed-carry permits, which I really appreciated. That changed in 2018, jumping from an average of 170 a year to 900. Gonna be 900+ this year.
CraigM
If Cuomo had a backbone, he’d announce that with all the chatter about Trump pardoning himself/being pardoned by Pence (who could actually hijack the entire Repulsican party by just forgetting to pardon Donald after he resigns, but that’s a different topic), he had an idea. He is going to save lives by using pardons as policy. “Anyone who uses their office in New York to advocate that people spray a deadly virus at unsuspecting and innocent people can expect that I will pardon any New Yorker who feels threatened by that and chooses to defend themselves by spraying bullets at that person who is senselessly risking lives. End of story.”
What are people going to say? That doing crimes knowing that you will be pardoned is bad? That assuring people they will be pardoned no matter what they do to enforce policy is a crime? Nah, Trump supporters and anti-maskers have about a 98 percent overlap, so the number of people that can argue anything other than “sounds good to me” or “I’m a whiny victim, stop hitting me back” is small.
satby
Right there with ya, sister!
The Moar You Know
@germy: Trump has done it. He has finally found someone more morally bankrupt than himself. Didn’t think that was possible.
Omnes Omnibus
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: I haven’t given any Republican the benefit of a doubt since early in the W era.
The Moar You Know
@Steeplejack (phone): So odd. It’s like how Meadows “got exposed” right before Trump decided to file all those lawsuits, and Boris Johnson just “got exposed” when he needed to work out the last-minute free-trade deal with the EU so that the British won’t starve to death this year. And for that matter, how Trump “got exposed” right after getting his clock cleaned in the first debate with Biden.
So odd. The timing of these exposures. Well, it’s not man’s place to question the mysteries of nature.
Baud
@The Moar You Know:
Think of the inheritance!
gvg
@Amir Khalid: That they should be accountable to the people. The problem is the people/voters in that area approve of this law breaking.
Not having law enforcement accountable to voters tends to be worse which relates to why this former colony rebelled in the first place.
If the actual population is stupid/brutish or confused, there isn’t a good solution. Even if the sheriff was following the direction of some board or county executive, those get elected by the same people.
The Moar You Know
@Gin & Tonic: Yes. And I’ll never trust him. That being said, I think after decades of being wrong (and I will probably live to regret saying this) he’s finally fucking figured it out.
Kent
Sheriff as an elective office needs to be abolished. You don’t generally see Police Chiefs acting like such tools. Sheriffs are generally elected offices, Police Chiefs are generally hired/appointed by city managers or city councils/mayors.
There is no reason whatsoever why sheriffs in every county in the country shouldn’t be hired by the county commissioners and answer to them. You’d still get MAGA assholes, but they would be more answerable.
NotMax
@The Moar You Know
Another manifestation of what a topsy-turvy year 2020 is: Kristol seeming reasonable.
;)
Steve in the ATL
@Ruckus:
I love this statement!
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Omnes Omnibus: I used to try to just ignore the ones in my life(parents, sisters husband, some of my husbands TN family) but giving them a pass helped end us up with W take 2 and Trump. I can not let their racism and complete lack of empathy pass anymore. Living in a blue, Northeast state let me be too disconnected.
Steeplejack
@The Moar You Know:
There is some talk on Twitter that the Republicans are using any excuse not to vote on the confirmation of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve. ?
On the other hand, Grassley is 87. If he really tested positive, I hope he enjoys what could be his last Thanksgiving (as the new wisdom has it).
Just One More Canuck
@terraformer: it depends. Are you one of the people who the law protects but does not bind, or one who the law binds but does not protect?
jonas
It definitely will be if you give them Covid. Gawd what a fuckwit.
leeleeFL
@Gin & Tonic: I know! But, honestly, Kristol has walked the walk during these Dark Days! Not just words, actions! Credit where it’s due. I hope the blinders never grow back.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
Gov. Murphy gets Hero Of The Day.
JustRuss
@Gin & Tonic: Yep. I wasn’t surprised to see Kristol abandon Trump over the anti-Semitsm, but now he’s talking about empathy? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!
Miss Bianca
@germy: “For many folks, this will be their last Thanksgiving – and it’s *YOUR* job to make it so!”
ballerat
@Gin & Tonic: Yeah.
Those accurate insights show he wasn’t incapable of understanding the moral implications of his Dubya-era Neocon positions.
Unsurprising something as toxic as Trumpism sprang from such deliberately evil and mendacious seed.
He’s all common sense and reasonable republican now that the monster they created took over their mojo and their grift machine and kicked them to the kerb, demoralized, disorganized and desperately trying to rub some relevance back into their limp neocon dicks.
WaterGirl
@There are those who call me…tim… (Still posh): Apparently the parenthesis is the other character that throws all nyms with at least one parenthesis into moderation for every single comment.
germy
germy
Miss Bianca
@EmbraceYourInnerCrone: Whereas I’ve always been an asshole, but 4 years of Trump has just made me…what can I say…*Embrace*MyInnerAsshole? : )
ballerat
@Amir Khalid: Would’t be surprised if the origins had something to do with Jim Crow America.
An elected sheriff is to law enforcement as jury nullification is to a trial.
ballerat
@ballerat: Jim Crow America is to apartheid America as alt-right is to white nationalist.
And all are overlapped by white supremacist.
Peale
@germy: Oh, you know, they never sanction their own. Which is why our elite continues its descent to the cesspool.
And sheesh. I bet they just conveniently had a list of counties where they would like ballots thrown out.
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
The concept I believe came from a time when the sheriff was the law in an area. A city/county would have a sheriff for the law and a mayor for the concept of organization, pomp and pageantry.
Ruckus
@Gin & Tonic:
Any/every damn minute.
daryljfontaine
@germy: “I spoke with a secretary in the states of Nevada and Arizona…”
D
nasruddin
@Amir Khalid: It’s a legacy of the colonial period. The colonies weren’t that organized, counties were often organized by local people when needed, and justices & sheriffs were often chosen in elections or informal agreements to deal with public peace problems, warrants from courts, escaped prisoners & so forth. There was no concept of a professional policing force.
In England the sheriffs had a complicated muddle of traditions that included local elections but they also seemed to have served at the king’s pleasure (or forbearance). At the same time.
It’s nutty that we have a 4th branch of government on the local level but so it goes.
germy
I’m beginning to wonder if Lindsey won his election fair and square….
nasruddin
@Kent:
I agree with this. Now, they are usually answerable to no one, & in many places there is no right to force a recall election as far as I know.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Miss Bianca: Thank you! That’s awesome
billcinsd
@Kent: Yeah, the sheriffs might get fired if they didn’t arrest/beat up/kill enough non-white people. That would be no better and probably even worse than today.
I also agree with Omnes, the sheriff shouldn’t be going around going through people’s houses anyway, so no way was the law ever going to be enforced.
There are those who call me...tim... (Still posh)
@WaterGirl: are brackets a!lowed? Never mind ill just avoid punctuation