L&T Publisher Earl Watt
It happens way too often — an elected official gets pulled over and tries to pull rank on a police officer, or in the most recent example, three members of Congress showed up at a federal detention facility and demanded they be allowed to enter for an “oversight” visit. A recent online posting discussed a local interaction with federal officials and mentioned that the elected official “followed” the officers out of town, giving the impression that he was escorting them out of our community.
Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
There is a special privilege held by elected representatives that you and I cannot do — they can vote on public policy during an official meeting.
Other than that, they are just like you and me.
Other than a secretary or their own office staffers in Washington, D.C., they cannot direct law enforcement officers or any other federal government employee to do anything.
When issues across the country have resulted in tense meetings, whether it be school board or city or otherwise, elected officials cannot direct law enforcement staff to arrest someone. They do it, and later they end up paying massive settlements, because they do not have the authority to do it, and those who have become victims over overzealous elected officials rake in the cash. Law enforcement officers who get involved are many times discharged after such events.
In the 1870s President Ulysses S. Grant was stopped for speeding through the streets with his horse and buggy. The officer issued him a ticket, and President Grant commended the officer for doing his job.
Today, we see people try to get out of a ticket believing their election to local office somehow makes them immune.
It doesn’t.
Not too long ago a family court judge in West Virginia took it upon herself to gather some law enforcement officers and travel to the home of a couple who were getting a divorce. With no warrant she told the man that she was coming in the home to gather belongings with the spouse.
When the man objected and stated that the judge was moving from a neutral magistrate into the position of enforcement, and that she should recuse herself, she refused and under threat of having the man arrested and without a warrant entered his home and searched out items the woman claimed belonged to her.
The judge was not only removed from the bench but had her judicial immunity stripped by a higher court and was sued personally for her violations of the man’s rights.
It is sometimes hard for courts to hold their own accountable. We have seen that in Kansas when a magistrate judge allowed an improper search warrant in Marion about a year-and-a-half ago. The judge was not removed and was only given corrective instructions.
Following ICE agents out of town, or even approaching them during operations when you have no authority to do so, can also end in action if that participation is deemed to be impeding the ability of the officers to do their jobs.
Being an elected official does not give someone the ability to oversee any other agency staff. Only under a state of emergency would an elected official have certain limited authority to coordinate a response, but that is done in a limited capacity and for a short amount of time.
When I see elected officials on video saying, “I want this person arrested,” I wonder who they think they are.
Most of the time it revolves around a meeting.
That does not mean someone who attends a meeting and disrupts the meeting cannot be held accountable. They most certainly can. But when people are standing in a hallway or are denied access to a public meeting because elected officials do not want to hear criticism, that is not grounds for arrest.
What is most important is for law enforcement officials to know the law and to correct an elected official when they make an unlawful request.
Saturday, three members of Congress attempted to enter a facility housing rapists, murderers and MS13 gang members in Newark, New Jersey. They claimed they were there to perform an oversight visit.
Whatever their purpose, showing up at the gate and demanding entry isn’t how it works. Visits are done by request. And ICE said it would be more than happy to provide a visit to elected officials when properly requested.
The video shows these three attempting to push their way through ICE agents.
They were denied. Afterward, U.S. Reps. Rob Menendez Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman and LaMonica McIver, all New Jersey Democrats, claimed that they were “assaulted” by ICE agents, but video evidence shows otherwise. In one video, McIver is seen pushing the back of an ICE agent as she tried to bull her way into the facility even though she was not authorized for access.
She would later claim to be the victim in addition to claiming that she had a right to provide legislative oversight.
Legislators do not have oversight of prison facilities. Never have.
Legislators make law. They do not enforce it. That duty falls to the executive branch.
And lawmakers, commissioners, school board members, etc., are not a ruling class that gives them privileges or authority to direct law enforcement.
If any of these people make contact with law enforcement, they are assaulting an officer, and they need to be held accountable.
