Tim Howard's Bad Company
Loony guys who never went to law school have convinced themselves that the sheriff of any county has more power than the president, the US Congress, the US Supreme Court, and of course any governors and state or local legislators. Apparently, the incumbent Erie County sheriff is one such guy. What’s worse is that nobody but a handful of letter-writers and a few bloggers have challenged Tim Howard on his bizarre affiliations—affiliations which are a threat to the rule of law.
Google it yourself. There is a broad movement, mainly out West, with page after page of websites full of spurious “10th Amendment” and cobbled-up English common law interpretation that would get you flunked in Constitutional Law 1. It all purports to explain the supreme power of the guy here whose main job—which he has evidently performed poorly—is to run the Erie County Holding Center and the Erie County Correctional Facility. The chief law enforcement officer located here in Erie County used to be Bernie Tolbert, the former head of the FBI office here—“chief” in the sense that in our federal system, the federal government is supreme. The sheriff of Erie County is not, and has not since about 1850, been the principal law enforcement officer here. The truth is, the elected sheriff of a New York county swears to uphold the US and state constitutions, and is charged with executing—not interpreting—laws enacted by other elected officials.
But that reality is in conflict with how Tim Howard presents himself. And how he presents himself is disturbingly consistent with the way that former Maricopa (Arizona) County sheriff Joe Arpaio and other anti-Constitutional but elected fantasists think of themselves: as the very last word on what is and what is not law.
Forget for the moment that during Tim Howard’s tenure a vicious killer named Bucky Phillips escaped the Erie County jail and murdered a state trooper. Set aside the 22 deaths that have occurred under Howard’s time heading the Erie County Holding Center and the Correctional Facility.
Read more: http://www.dailypublic.com/articles/10102017/tim-howards-bad-company