There seems to be some confusion in some parts of the country about the role that sheriffs and other law enforcement officers should play in their local community. Some people seem to think that sheriffs are supposed to be some kind of gentle soft spoken Mr. Rogers that gives people warm fuzzies when they think about their government (or something).
No disrespect intended to the late Fred Rogers, while people being kind and considerate to each other should be the default in how people treat each other, not everyone abides by that rule. In fact (and I know that this will be no surprise to you), there is an active minority of people who seem bent on being selfish, mean, and cruel to other people for personal profit and for personal enjoyment.
It’s a twisted way of thinking and being in the world, and while, compared to the overall number of people in the world, those with evil intent are a relatively small percentage of the population, once you have this many people in the world, a small percentage of a huge number is still a lot of people.
So, there are people in the world who are there to, ideally, discourage those with evil intent from committing crimes. But if they aren’t able to prevent the crime from happening, then, the purpose turns to punishment and preventing criminals from committing more crimes.
We call those people law enforcement officers.
And, yes, I get it, you want the law enforcement officers in your community to have a good relationship with the law-abiding people in that community. I agree. I just don’t want that to take the place of law enforcement stopping criminals and from keeping criminals from being able to commit further terrible acts.
And that brings us to Polk County, Florida Sheriff Grady Judd, who, no doubt, makes people on the anti-gun political left convulse in distress.
Why? Because Judd takes his job as a law enforcement officer seriously. Very seriously. To give you one, example, John Haughey writes,
Over the last 20 years, the gregarious Mr. Judd has risen to national prominence with a “greatest hits” parade of blunt press conference and social media commentary, including his 2006 response to why a man who’d killed a deputy and K-9 dog was shot 68 times: “That’s all the bullets we had or we would have shot him more.”
Actually, nine officers from three agencies shot the gun-waving killer 89 times and had more than 400 unexpended rounds on them, according to an investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The message, nevertheless, was clear.
Now, don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying that I think that law enforcement officers should shoot first and ask questions later. I don’t think that they should pick violence as their first choice.
But I want my sheriff and other law enforcement officers to be able to do what is necessary to prevent criminals from committing further crimes, especially to prevent criminals from committing violent crimes.
I want a sheriff with the “gall” to do what anti-2A politicians don’t want: hold criminals accountable for crimes.
And, I would argue, that’s the kind of sheriff most Americans (the law-abiding ones) want, too.
I have watched Sheriff Grady Judd on some news updates on criminals. He is one who stands for law abiding citizens who just want to live out their lives and die a natural death. By his speeches declaring how they had to take out a bad guy will indeed make some bad guys think TWICE about committing a violent crime !!! We need more police like Sheriff Grady Judd to stop people from taking advantage or hurting innocent people !!! ENOUGH SAID !!!