Johnson County paid nearly $300 in per diem to Hayden for attending a conference of the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association – a fringe group of sheriffs who contend they can refuse to enforce laws they view as unconstitutional – even though the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office had previously only said the association paid for the trip.
#CSPOA #constitutionalsheriffs
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article268822187.html#storylink=cpy
In 2021, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association submitted a proposal to Arizona’s top law enforcement-certifying agency to train officers in “American ideals and the principles of Liberty upon which the USA was founded.”
The Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board rejected CSPOA’s request, preventing such training from reaching Arizona law enforcement officers in an official capacity. Soon, however, that safeguard will no longer exist:
https://azcir.org/news/2022/11/16/azpost-rule-change-opens-path-constitutional-sheriff-training/
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (#CSPOA) was founded about a dozen years ago as a sister org to the Oath Keepers.
There are 3,200 Sheriffs in the US. At its peak, the CSPOA counted roughly 200 of those as members and supporters.
The members generally come from rural counties; the attraction is power.
To paraphrase: "You aren't just an elected LEO is a county with 10,000 residents; you're the most powerful LEO in the country, trumping the state officers, federal agents, and even POTUS himself."
This belief is based on a flawed reading of the law by the men who created the original sovereign citizen movement in the early 1970s.
It's Authentic Frontier Gibberish that they fervently believe.
The group is primarily a gun rights org. Most of the members joined when Obama pushed for gun control following the Sandy Hook massacre. The CSPOA members recruited a bunch of new members at the time who all signed an oath that they would not confiscate any guns.
Over the years, their emphasis shifted with the times, most recently in opposition to COVID masking and business shut down laws.
During the Trump administration, the group, which had mostly faded into obscurity, got a big boost when one of the CSPOA members/leaders--former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke --was briefly tapped by Trump to work at the DHS.
In an unrelated case, former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, another leader at CSPOA, was pardoned by Trump in his federal racial profiling case.
