Former Arizona sheriff and Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) Executive Director Richard Mack spoke with Benswann.com to discuss the organization’s upcoming press conference to be held Wednesday, September 17th in Washington, D.C. Mack said that this press conference will be part of a series of “Lighting the Lamp Of Liberty” events.
The press conference revolves largely around the CSPOA’s resolution, available here, to be presented to Congress. The resolution affirms “that any federal officer, agent, or employee, regardless of supposed congressional authorization, is required to obey and observe limitations consisting of the enumerated powers as detailed within Article 1 Section 8 of the U S Constitution and the Bill Of Rights.”
The resolution also specifies acts from government agencies that are denounced by CSPOA members, which include confiscation of firearms without probable cause, improper auditing and searching of a person’s finances, and “domestic utilization of our nation’s military or federal agencies operating under power granted under the laws of war against American citizens.”
The CSPOA is an organization comprised of former and current sheriffs, peace officers and public officials nationwide who are determined to protect citizens by strictly abiding by their Constitutional limits. The CSPOA created this resolution to take a stand against overreaching power used by federal agencies; notable examples of federal overstepping includes attempted land grabs by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at the standoff at the Bundy Ranch earlier this year resulting in troubling aftermath, and the battle between the BLM and land owner Bill Johnson.
Mack wrote in his new book “Are You A David?” that police officers have been following orders to detain and punish citizens for uneventful acts like gardening against city ordinances and dancing at memorials; he also criticized federal agencies for paramilitary raids on organic farms and food co-ops. Mack and the CSPOA denounce using police force to raid homes, confiscate property and enact violence on people who “aren’t hurting anyone, but who engaged in behaviors” that lawmakers decided are illegal.
The CSPOA’s mission is dedicated to not only protecting land owners from the BLM, but to stand against federal agencies usurping authority from sheriffs, officers and public officials and to ensure that these agencies check in with local authorities and cooperate with them rather than strong-arming them in times of crisis.
Sheriff Mack, known for his leadership as Graham County, AZ sheriff, gained national exposure in the 1990s after he and six other sheriffs challenged the constitutionality of a provision of the Brady Bill that required chief law enforcement officers (CLEOs) to perform background checks. The Supreme Court ruled the provision unconstitutional, although background checks remain optional.
“That’s my calling card,” Mack said. “That’s what I did that brought me to the freedom movement in America. When I was sheriff in Arizona, I sued to stop the overreach of the Brady Bill. I sued the Clinton Administration. I was the first sheriff in American history to sue the federal government, take the case all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and win.”
Speakers at the conference will include Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), a critic of police militarization, Larry Pratt, Executive Director of Gun Owners Of America, Ben Swann, and many others. Sheriff Mack says that this conference and presentation of the resolution will foster a spirit of working together and protecting the public.