From the movie Con Air: An exchange between Pinball, played by Dave Chappelle, and undercover DEA Agent Sims, when the agent’s cover is blown on the transport plane full of the most heinous murderers, rapists and assorted criminals in the federal prison system:
Agent Sims: I’m DEA, d’you know what the **** that means?Pinball: It means you’re the most crooked ****** on this plane!
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Add the federal Drug Enforcement Agency to the long list of unnecessary, duplicative and wasteful government programs. What does the DEA do that multiple other federal and local law enforcement agencies do not?
Nothing.
So it is with some irony that the DEA recently executed a drug raid among wealthy Aspen residents without bothering to inform either the local sheriff or Aspen police. From the Denver Post article “Federal drug raid in Aspen irks cops:”
Acting DEA Agent-in-Charge Steve Merrill said agents purposely didn’t tell locals about the investigation in part because former Sheriff Bob Braudis, who left office in January, and his successor, Joe DiSalvo, knew the suspects. Merrill didn’t want the investigation compromised.
So the DEA was concerned about local corruption? That’s rich. No, the DEA has to justify its expensive, wasteful, duplicative and unnecessary existence, so it replaces local law enforcement policy with national policy dictated from an unelected lifetime bureaucrat in D.C.
That’s tyranny.
This DEA action is just the latest in the federal government’s intrusion into purely state and local matters. It is a perfect example of why the model “Sheriff’s First” legislation is needed.
According to the Sheriff’s First website, the bill
… would make it a state crime for a federal officer to arrest, search, or seize in the state without first getting the advanced, written permission of the elected county sheriff of the county in which the event is to take place. Locally-elected sheriffs are accountable to the people and are supposed to the the chief law enforcement officer of the county, bar none. This bill puts teeth into the expectation that federal agents must operate with the approval of the sheriff, or not at all. It also gives the local sheriff tools necessary to protect the people of his county, and their constitutional rights
The Pitkin County Sheriff is elected by the people of Pitkin County. He is directly answerable to them. The DEA is not elected by anyone in Pitkin County. The DEA is not answerable to anyone in Pitkin County.
By intruding on the local sheriff’s autonomy and jurisdiction without his knowledge, the DEA demonstrates its disdain for local law enforcement. The DEA is arrogant, unaccountable, and out of control.
I encourage the State of Colorado to stand up for its sovereignty, to reject federal overreach into purely local matters and to enact the Sheriff’s First Act.
