Sheriff wants elected officials to carry firearms

D

deanf

New member
http://www.msnbc.com/local/KHQ/124663.asp


Sean Owsley

SPOKANE, August 31 - It’s dangerous out there. Spokane County Sheriff Mark Sterk says his own experience led him to that conclusion.


Dangerous enough that Sterk wants to arm elected county officials and allow them to carry the firearms in the Spokane County Courthouse and the Public Safety Building. Sheriff Sterk says he was stalked. A man followed him from his office at the Spokane Public Safety Building to his home. Sterk says he isn’t alone. Similar problems have been experienced by other elected officials, including a judge and a court commissioner.
Several elected officials think it’s a good idea and plan to apply. To get the gun, they will have to obtain a state concealed weapon permit, buy their own pistol, and attend and complete a firearms safety training session. That session will be conducted by personnel from the sheriff’s office.
This program applies only to elected officials, not their staff or other county employees.

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This is interesting because Washington State has complete pre-emption at the state level. I'm not sure the sheriff has authority to enact such a program.

And we wouldn't want to let the great unwashed carry guns, just the elected officials.

And then there's the fact that the courthouse/public safety building is required to provide a gun locker for anyone who comes in off the street with a pistol so they can check it while doing business in the building. Why can't the elected officials just check their guns like everyone else? Is the sheriff admitting that a law prohibiting weapons in the building, and a metal detector to screen for them, does not offer protection?

I'm trying to find an e-mail address for the sheriff so I can query him on these issues.



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“The whole of the Bill (of Rights) is a declaration of the right of the people at large or considered as individuals. ... It establishes some rights of the individual as unalienable and which consequently, no majority has a right to deprive them of.” -Alexander Addison, 1789


[This message has been edited by deanf (edited August 31, 1999).]
 
Some are more equal than others...
Wait a sec - he's the Sheriff right? Didn't HE HAVE A GUN when he was being stalked? Why didn't he STALK BACK?

Elected Shmeckted.

------------------
"The rage is relentless... We need a movement with a quickness.
You are a witness of change and to counteract - We gotta take the power back!"

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac



[This message has been edited by George Hill (edited August 31, 1999).]
 
If this pinhead Sheriff was thinking in line with his puppet masters' anti-gun bias, he'd call for taxpayer funded bodyguards/security for all elected officials.

Yeah, let's add more to elitism and the aristocracy.

Bite me Sheriff, you wussy.



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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
I've run into several sheriff's who don't routinely carry a sidearm. I guess it's an image thing or something. Maybe it screws up the appearance of a nicely tailored suit.
 
Lessee, you're an unarmed sheriff who isn't the star of a '50s tv show. So you do what, exactly? Poor lil fella got scared, and some of his fat buddies got a fright, too.

Interesting that he picked guns to defend himself, and to defend his masters, yet it wouldn't work for us, the cretins who elected him.
 
Before everybody calls for his head, please remember where the story came from, MSNBC. Think they might want to put their own slant on it? As a Rep. Mark Strek was a prime force behind CCW repre. laws, and a strong supporter of CCW. Do a search on his name. He seems to be one of the good guys, not an elitist or aristocrat.


<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Rep. Mark Sterk has left the House to run as a candidate for Spokane County Sheriff. Sterk was a supporter of the concealed carry reciprocity bill, HB 1408, last year and a vocal opponent of the ill-conceived, anti-rights Initiative 676. He will be missed and we wish him well in his new campaign.[/quote]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Sterk has introduced a measure to ban possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages in legislative buildings, and several legislators interviewed yesterday said they would support it or consider doing so.

His measure, HB 1068, specifies that "no person may knowingly possess or consume liquor" in the Capitol or in either the House or Senate office buildings. Violators could be fined $250.

"I know the people didn't send me or any of the rest of the representatives to do that (drink on the job), and it looks like the only way to stop it is to outlaw it," said Sterk, a Spokane Police officer.[/quote]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>A Spokane County sheriff's candidate who makes false promises in a campaign flier is adding an insert to the brochure to clarify his statements.

Republican Mark Sterk, who maintains the claims are true, said he had the one-page addition created this week. It will start appearing in his ``Standing Firm'' brochures as soon as it is edited and reproduced, he said.

``In light of recent comments regarding my campaign brochure, I want to be crystal clear about what it means,'' Sterk says in the insert. ``Although I do not believe that our brochure is misleading, I felt that I needed to clarify any misunderstandings.''

The Spokane police sergeant and former state legislator is running against Democrat Jim Finke in the general election. Finke is a sheriff's lieutenant.

Sterk's brochure became fodder for Spokane's talk radio hosts last week after The Spokesman-Review published an article pointing out inaccuracies in the glossy flier.

In the brochure, Sterk vows to eliminate cable television and weight rooms from ``Spokane County jails to make them `less comfortable''' for inmates.

The only county lockup supervised by the sheriff -- the Spokane County Jail -- has neither cable television nor a weight room.

Geiger Corrections Center, a county-owned lockup on the West Plains, has both cable television and a weight room. While the facility houses county inmates, it is supervised by Corrections Department Director Gary Oberg, not the sheriff.

In the same brochure, Sterk also says he'll bring back the ``long-lost punitive tool'' of restitution, in which criminals repay their victims.

Superior Court judges frequently require restitution now.

In the new insert, Sterk says he believes the sheriff has the authority to ``affect changes within the Geiger Corrections facility.''

The sheriff can try to negotiate an agreement with Geiger staff to withhold certain amenities -- like cable TV or weight room access -- from county inmates held at the lockup, he says.

Sterk also says that county officials have always intended to install cable television at the Spokane County Jail. The only reason they never have is because the hardware to operate the system is broken down, he says.

``With this in mind, as your next sheriff, I will work to eliminate weight room and cable facilities from Geiger and keep weight rooms and cable facilities out of our Spokane County Jail,'' he says.

The ``cable system'' now is connected to an antenna that provides local broadcast channels to the jail day rooms.

On the restitution issue, Sterk says in the insert that he plans to ``implement other means of restorative justice that are less well known'' than monetary repayment.

For example, criminals could be required to drive their victims to and from work, he says.[/quote]
 
Drive their victims to and from work?

LMFAO!

"Here we are, Mrs. Jones. I'll have your car, washed and all gassed up, back here at 5:00. And again, sorry about your husband, may he rest in peace. Have a nice day at work."

I'll walk, thank you very much.

-boing
 
I wonder if his Deputy, Barney Fife still carries his Bullet in his pocket?

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10MM Magnum.... tried the rest, now I got the best
 
Follow up:

I read today that he's planning on offering these public officials a limited police commission, which will allow them to carry any place a police officer can. I would post the article, but I can't find it on-line.
 
I don't see the problem with cable tv in jails.
It is after all "DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS" and these people will be back on our streets.

Cable TV can offer a good selection of programming these people should watch. In fact, we could taylor to programming for the inmate's criminal catagory... History Channel, The Learning Channel, Discovery Channel, A&E all offer good stuff.
If you want to get really nasty - there is PBS's morning selections of BARNEY AND TELETUBBIES.
But that is bordering on Cruel and Unusual Punishment.

There are the college classes shown on PBS and other local access channels... This could be a help...

Start a new inmate out on Sesame Street and such.... Working up to Advanced Algebra after a 10 year stint...

By the time the inmate is released - they will have some education... An educated inmate could go further...

Well - enough of the perfect world... Weight Rooms and such like that are not a good thing. I dont like that in our jails. They need education not training.

------------------
"The rage is relentless... We need a movement with a quickness.
You are a witness of change and to counteract - We gotta take the power back!"

RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE
The Critic formerly known as Kodiac
 
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