Paskalos

Indiana Sheriff: I Will Uphold The Constitution, Not Obama’s Executive Actions

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“I will not allow gun confiscation in my county.”

Elkhart County, Indiana Sheriff Brad Rogers made a covenant declaration to his citizens that he will “disregard” any executive orders sent by President Obama that infringes on their Second Amendment rights.

“If President Obama today said, ‘I’m creating an executive order that all sheriffs and police chiefs around this nation need to start registering firearms,’ I will disregard it,” the sheriff said on Sunday’s broadcast of WNIT’s Politically Speaking.

Rogers was a guest, along with several other members of the community, invited to talk about the government’s call for more gun control and to speak on gun rights in the wake of the recent university shootings.

“We’ve always had this conversation that we need more reasonable gun control put in place,” Rogers said. “But we already have what is reasonable, in my opinion, and in fact it’s probably overdone.”

Rogers was questioned on how he can hold these unruly views and be reconciled with the oath he took for office. So, he repeated his oath, saying it is to defend the United States Constitution and the Indiana constitution to the best of his ability. However, he said that doesn’t mean he enforces every law every time:

If you want the police to enforce every law on the books, that means all the discretion is taken out. That means you get a ticket every time instead of a warning. That means we can’t take a juvenile home instead of throwing him into the juvenile justice system and starting their career in crime.

The sheriff said his role in the government of the people doesn’t mean he “checks his mind at the door” and blindly follow orders. If something is asked of him that checks out as unlawful with the Constitution, even a law itself, his conscience wouldn’t permit him to enforce it.

The American Mirror posted a video of Sheriff Rogers from 2013 speaking on the same subject just as defiantly. In this clip he said:

I want to affirm my commitment and my oath of office to uphold the Indiana and United States constitutions, the Second Amendment and all of the Bill of Rights. I will not allow gun confiscation in my county.

I will not enforce any additional anti-gun laws and I stand with you for liberty as a law enforcement officer, as a sheriff and hopefully to light the flame across this nation for other sheriffs to also stand for liberty and not tolerate the constitutional usurpations that are occurring at the federal level.

 

Paskalos

Brown Signs Bill Requiring Cops To Get Warrant For Data

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Californians can rest assured that law enforcement must obtain a warrant to access digital records. Today, Gov. Jerry Brown has signed S.B. 178, the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act (CalECPA).

After months of pressure from public interest groups, media organizations, privacy advocates, tech companies, and thousands of members of the public, California’s elected leaders have updated the state’s privacy laws so that they are in line with how people actually use technology today.

CalECPA protects Californians by requiring a warrant for digital records, including emails and texts, as well as a user’s geographical location. These protections apply not only to your devices, but to online services that store your data. Only two other states have so far offered these protections: Maine and Utah.

Here’s what the bill’s authors had to say about the victory:

Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco)

For too long, California’s digital privacy laws have been stuck in the Dark Ages, leaving our personal emails, text messages, photos and smartphones increasingly vulnerable to warrantless searches. That ends today with the Governor’s signature of CalECPA, a carefully crafted law that protects personal information of all Californians. The bill also ensures that law enforcement officials have the tools they need to continue to fight crime in the digital age.

Sen. Joel Anderson (R-Alpine)

Senator Leno and I helped bridge the gap between progressives and conservatives to make the privacy of Californians a top priority this year. This bipartisan bill protects Californians’ basic civil liberties as the Fourth Amendment and the California Constitution intended.

EFF, along with the ACLU and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, sponsored the bill from the very beginning, recognizing how the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure is inherently tied to freedom of speech. Tech corporations also recognized that, following two years of government spying scandals, consumers have lost trust in the companies’ ability to protect their digital information. In response, Silicon Valley’s major players, including Adobe, Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Google, and Twitter, all threw their support behind the bill. After months of negotiation, the state’s major law enforcement organizations also withdrew their opposition, stating that the bill struck an appropriate balance between public safety and privacy. The San Diego Police Officers Association further lent its endorsement to S.B. 178, arguing that clear processes for obtaining data would improve their ability to do their jobs, while also protecting privacy. 

CalECPA’s passage marks a significant milestone in the campaign to update computer privacy laws, which have been stuck in the 1980s.

Paskalos

Shooter Targets Christians In Gun Free Zone

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Umpqua sheriff

In another Gun Free Zone shooting a gunman killed as many as 10 people at the Umpqua Community College in Oregon on Thursday, he has been identified as 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer, police told CBS News. The shooter was killed in a firefight with Douglas County sheriff’s deputies, according to Sheriff John Hanlin.

 

 

Mercer reportedly demanded to know victims’ religions before killing them, according to witnesses and authorities.

First there was this account from student Kortney Moore printed by The News-Review:

Kortney Moore, 18, from Rogue River, was in her Writing 115 class in Snyder Hall when one shot came through a window. She saw her teacher get shot in the head. The shooter was inside at that point, and he told people to get on the ground. The shooter was asking people to stand up and state their religion and then started firing away, Moore said. Moore was lying there with people who had been shot.

The New York Post followed up with a report of its own on an account someone tweeted out:

“The shooter was lining people up and asking if they were Christian,” she wrote. “If they said yes, then they were shot in the head. If they said no, or didn’t answer, they were shot in the legs. My grandma just got to my house, and she was in the room. She wasn’t shot, but she is very upset.”

Some media outlets are reporting that the campus was not a gun free zone and Oregon is an open carry state. Unfortunately for the college students attending the school the student hand book states otherwise.

UCC student handbook

 

In addition to the written policy of the community college, the university’s president, Rita Cavin, stated in a press conference that the university is a gun-free campus and there are “no plans” to change security policy.