Letter gets it wrong about ‘Constitutional Sheriffs’

A letter by Dan Callahan on. Nov. 15 alluded to the “Constitutional Sheriffs” movement as an offshoot of a sovereign citizens movement. He implies our group is both a racist group and a group that is focused on destroying the Constitution. The irony of all this blatantly false allegations is that Mr. Callahan is projecting such beliefs on a group he knows nothing about! I know that 10 of the 12 people in our group have never met Mr. Callahan, yet he claims we are racist and sovereign citizens. Unbelievable!

I and a group of people who attended a seminar in May that a Sheriff Richard Mack of the Constitutional Sheriffs & Peace Officers Association spoke at to both sheriffs and deputies (31 in attendance) and the public (265 in attendance), to hear about the “Constitutional Sheriffs” concept Mack was promoting.

Given the abuses of unconstitutional executive orders for mandates that included shutting down churches and dictating which businesses are essential, our group simply is trying to preserve our rights as guaranteed in the Constitution of the U.S. and the State of Iowa. Given that sheriffs take an oath to uphold both constitutions (Federal and State), sheriffs can elect to not enforce unconstitutional mandates. Their oath requires that they uphold the constitutions.

While Mr. Callahan would like to portray our group as destroying the constitution we are doing just the opposite. What Mr. Callahan failed to inform you is that he is chairman of the Buchanan County Democrats.

Gary Shawver

Wadena