Forget “defund the police.” Let’s just get rid of the sheriffs. Or, at the very least, change how the job is handled.
Sheriffs are elected, which means a lot of sheriffs are less interested in providing good law enforcement than ensuring they’ve catered to their voting bases enough that they’ll be re-elected. And since it’s an elected position, it’s almost impossible to get rid of a sheriff, no matter how awful they are.
To be sure, they’re routinely awful. The most severe abuses of power are carried out by these elected officials. They preside over some of the worst law enforcement agencies in the United States. When they’re not directly enriching themselves with public funds, they’re involved in corruption and giving their subordinates free rein to terrorize, torture, and kill the people they’re supposed to be serving.
Because their power is almost absolute (in terms of immunity), they’re absolutely corrupted. Even if they’re not, let’s say, starving inmates to increase their personal bank accounts, they’re doing stuff that shows how little they care about actual law enforcement in hopes of rousing the rabble that will return them to power during the next election.
That brings us to this Ohio sheriff, who used his personal Facebook page to encourage his supporters to engage in voter intimidation. That post has since been deleted, but here’s a screenshot, followed by a transcription of Portage County Sheriff Bruce Zuchowski’s missive.
When people ask me…What’s gonna happen if the Flip – Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins?? I say…write down all the addresses of the people who had her signs in their yards! Sooo…when the Illegal human “Locust” (which she supports!) Need places to live…We’ll already have the addresses of the their New families…who supported their arrival!
Note the weird punctuation. Note the random capitalization. Not the over-reliance on ellipses. But above all else, note what Sheriff Zuchowski is telling people to do and how he phrases it. That’s some MAGA shit right there.
He’s asking the followers of his government-related page to engage in something that sure looks a whole lot like voter intimidation. The implicit request is that these addresses be shared with the sheriff. On top of that, there’s the use of the word “locusts” to describe immigrants, suggesting they’re an elemental force that only seeks to destroy and, more importantly, incapable of doing anything other than acting instinctively.
On top of that, note that Zuchowski doubled down on this by posting it to his regular sheriff account as well as his personal account, making it impossible to claim (as he’s attempting to do now) that this speech can be completely separated from his public office position. That may come back to haunt him.
But everything should come back to haunt him. The sheriff cannot be trusted to be an elected official that has the power to detain, arrest, seize property, deploy force (deadly or otherwise), or oversee other law enforcement officers.
Case in point: more than 60 voter intimidation complaints have been filed against the Sheriff’s office since the sheriff sent out these posts. Further case in point: the sheriff has been allegedly forcing local inmates to, in essence, campaign for him.
As reported by Cleveland 19 News, a former inmate named Christopher McCullough said he and other inmates were made to put up campaign signs throughout the county. They also set up and served at Sheriff Zuchowski’s campaign fundraiser steak dinner. They even constructed a building where Zuchowski sold campaign materials.
To be exceedingly fair, the inmates were paid $3/week (plus all the cigarettes they could smoke!) for doing Zuchowski’s campaign work for him. Of course, the fact that this was illegal doesn’t seem to have bothered the sheriff at all.
Ohio law prohibits using public employees for partisan political activities, but since when are MAGA sheriffs expected to obey the law?
More fun stuff about this asshat: he probably wouldn’t have taken his post down if it weren’t for a legal threat from the ACLU. The complaints about voter intimidation (most of which originated from inside his county) appear to have made no difference.
Then there’s this, which shows the sheriff still doesn’t care whether he intimidates Harris voters, subjugates immigrants by referring to them as pestilence, or is now bathing in the national spotlight as an example of everything that’s broken in the United States’ sheriff system.
His new post, which is still live on Facebook, offers up an “apology” that simply says everyone else is wrong, other than him and his supporters.
Here it is verbatim (with all weird spelling, capitalization, and punctuation marks intact):
As the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of Portage County, I have sworn to protect ALL citizens of my County. Recently, I placed a post on my personal facebook page that may have been a little misinterpreted??
I…as the elected sheriff, do have a first amendment right as do all citizens. If the citizens of Portage County want to elect an individual who has supported open borders (which I’ve personally visited Twice!) and neglected to enforce the laws of our Country…then that is their prerogative. With elections, there are consequences. That being said…I believe that those who vote for individuals with liberal policies have to accept responsibility for their actions! I am a Law Man…Not a Politician!
I would also like to Thank…The Overwhelming Support I am receiving from many people in Portage County who are afraid or are Not allowed to agree with me publicly!
Stay Strong and God Bless!!
First off, it’s weird/stupid that you would capitalize “Chief Law Enforcement Officer” (which isn’t a real position) but not “facebook.” Second, you want a comma after “I” in the second paragraph, rather than an ellipsis. Preaching to the electorate choir is the exact opposite of being “a Law Man…Not a Politician.”
Finally, “Thank[ing]” the “Overwhelming Support” you have received from Portage County residents suggests they are neither “afraid” or “Not allowed to agree” with you “publicly.” If anything, this non-apology makes you look stupider. You’re trying to play the victim while still being the bigoted bully who engaged in arguable voter suppression. Pretending your calls to write down addresses of supporters of your political opponents have somehow been “misinterpreted” means nothing more than you didn’t expect your churlish asshattery would make national headlines, nor subject you to comments and complaints for people who don’t actually support you or your irrational hatred.
The only upside here is that you and your department won’t be allowed to directly intimidate voters this November.
The Portage County Board of Elections voted to prohibit Sheriff Bruce D. Zuchowski or his deputies from serving as security at its office to ensure that November is “free of any concerns of intimidation with this security in place,” according to a Facebook post shared Friday by board member Randi Clites.
“As Board Members we are charged with preventing violence and disorder at the polls, and to conduct a safe and secure election process. It is clear by public comments in the past week there is perceived intimidation by our Sheriff against certain voters,” Clites’ Facebook post reads.
Good. Security will apparently be handled by private contractors or officers from the Ravenna Police Department. But even this statement contains hedging from board member that suggests the sheriff will still get to call most of the shots as long as he remains in office.
While it is not my responsibility to weigh in on the Sheriffs comments directly, I feel strongly it is in my responsibility to make sure I do what is in my authority to make sure every voter in Portage County feels safe casting their ballot for any candidate they choose.
My dude, it is literally your responsibility to weigh in on these comments. If you choose not to, you’re just signalling to the sheriff’s voting bloc that sheriff can say whatever stupid or illegal thing that slides across that massive wet spot the sheriff calls a “brain” without being directly criticized for his bigotry or implicit threats to disrupt the democratic process. Don’t be a coward. Do some direct commenting. And get to work figuring out how you can keep this dipshit from continuing to act as a force of political partisanship, rather than the law enforcement official he’s supposed to be.