Sheriff

[gadfly]

The recent drug awareness meeting at the Brackett Room was a huge success judging by the big crowd and all the comments and questions by those in attendance. Or was it? Conspicuous by his absense was probably the key person in the County's fight against meth and other killers. Have you guessed who this person was? It was none other than our top law enforcement official, Sheriff Scott Stephens!

[gadfly]

Addendum to post: Yes, the Sheriff's Office was "represented" by someone else, but that's not good enough. The sheriff's attendance,in person, was essential.

[tinkywinky]

They sure were working something yesterday, late afternoon. Sheriff's cars & SUV all over Old Blue Ridge Hwy. WOW! You sure have a beef with just about EVERYONE in office here. Anybody you do like? Besides yourself, of course.

[honeybee]

Gadfly should be re-named Eeyore, he is doom and gloom and can't find his tail.

[oscarwho]

Honeybee;I am from the old school and mean no harm; but what is your new name for the Gadfly?What does it mean? I wonder if Gadfly knows something about Scott that we do not?

[oscarwho]

Have just been informed about donkey and cartoons.Thanks

[honeybee]

Gadfly seems to know something about everyone, the problem is how much he knows and how much he THINKS he knows.

He made reference about the sheriff being a peeping tom and it panned out into nothing.
I feel sure that if at the age of 16, Scott Stephens knew he was going to run for sheriff, he would have changed a lot of things.
Why does the sheriff have to attend all the meetings? He made sure a representative of the department was there.

Sorry, but it is going to take a lot more than that to change my mind about the local government.

[blairsvilleangel]

Mine too! Scott catches heck for everything! Maybe he had a sick family member..or a death or WHOSE BUSINESS IS IT OF YOURS?

I'm telling ya'll . He was just sneaking over and got caught! LOL! Windows Wide Open! My new song!

[summerose]

I think Scott Stephens is one of the best sheriff's this county has ever had! Keep up the good work Scott!!

[manicu]

scott is a good man

[fairydust]

Very big applause on the move made by our Sheriffs Office on the front page of the paper!

I am very proud for the ongoing efforts to CLEAN UP OUR COUNTY! Thank you Scott and all of you at the UC Sheriffs office!

[manape]

Ditto on that Fairydust.

I've just been reading the rest of the post here. I'm not sure what Scott did when he was 16. Most of us were pretty sutpid at that age. Seems to be a peeping Scott incident.

Some kid was looking in on my daughter one evening. She ran up stairs and told my wife and I. I got my pistol, turned all the outdoor lights on, and went peeping tom hunting. I didn't find one. When I came back in the house, I overheard my daughter say to someone on the telephone, "My daddy has a gun and he is looking for you". Not only was he a peeping tom, but he was stupid enough to call my daugher. It didn't happen again. I guess word got out that there was a crazy man with a gun that lived in that house. Goes to show that an armed society is a polite society.

[sometimeman]

Hey Scott!

You oughta cozy up to Ol' Norm en' Lamar. I done heard Lamar was uh paying over half Union County's money on thu Crime folks in thu County. Why, you being Sheriff and all, you could get yo self some o that money. Thars gotta be plenty, cause them crime people thar an't nun to many o them. Why thars only 6 10ths of one percent of us folks in Union that er Crime people!! Sho nuff, Jest be asking ManApe un Moon and them. They done said it on thu web!

[manape]

Sometimeman, you are focused on the money part. That's OK. I just wanted to post something here about drug prevention. I think drugs are a big cause of local crime and it will get worse if something is not done to cure the cause.

A lot is being done to prevent crime, but I am wondering if more can be done.

It is no enough just to lock drug abusers up...they get on the streets again and do the same things. I think it is a real problem. Perhaps Union County should follow the lead of Cherokee County, NC. Perhaps, there is something in the works in Union. I'm just not sure, but a bunch of us have had family members or know someone who has been affected by drugs.

Highly praised drug/alcohol treatment program may be on its way to area

By Dwight Otwell Editor

www.cherokeesentinel.com/news/2007/0523/Front_Page/005.html



The main drug of abuse in this area is still alcohol. But methamphetamine, prescription drugs (such as oxycontin and anti-anxiety medications) are also abused.

"We hammer to them not to get behind the wheel of an automobile, golf cart, scooter or boat," Kowalski said. "I saw a video that showed that a person can drive 2,000 times (intoxicated) before he is caught. The risky hours are 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekends. I tell them that if they are on the road during those hours, they are fair game."

Kowalski pointed out that not everyone who gets a DWI is an alcoholic. Most people who get their first DWI will realize the problem and won't do it again.

Kowalski has counseled substance abusers in large, metropolitan areas and he sees a difference in this region in that people, in general, are poorer and more isolated and don't seek treatment as readily as those in the big cities. He also sees a generational substance abuse pattern where kids of alcoholics become alcoholics themselves.

See the Cherokee Sentinel for the rest of the article....

[sometimeman]

Some where buried in the jillion posts on the Lama Paris thread is a story about Lamar Screwing the people of Union County. Maybe all this money Lamar is spending on "the criminal element" is being spent on "illegal aliens"? If it is maybe Scott should get involved.

Here's how Sheriff Jim Pendergraph of Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) did it.

Sheriff Jim Pendergraph of Mecklenburg County (Charlotte, NC) has been a lawman for 36 years and has seen police work from every angle. He’s respected nationally, and holds the position of Treasurer in the Major County Sheriff’s Association. He sees first hand the results of the deliberate Federal under-enforcement policy with respect to immigration laws. [Officials say locals swamped by illegals Most at hearing say feds ignore immigration By Tim Whitmire, AP, August 26, 2006]
And he has not stood by without taking action.
Pendergraph’s department is the first sheriff’s office east of Arizona to implement the 287(g) provision of the 1996 immigration act, and the only US county to deploy it in a jail setting. He learned of 287(g) in a conversation with the Sheriff of Orange County, CA back in October 2005, and became interested because of the known problems back in his home county.
Congresswoman Myrick’s office immediately became involved, and lent forceful backing. 287(g) powers are delegated though a Memorandum of Agreement, and most of the language was worked out between the Sheriff’s Office attorneys and local ICE agent Jeff Jordan. Following the MOU, 12 sworn officers attended a 4-week training session (the same as for entering ICE agents), and were duly graduated.
The program clicked into action May 1, 2006.
Pendergraph is pleased with how well the program is working—but perhaps rueful that in some respects it runs too well.
Lawmen face a formidable identification problem with illegals. As Pendergraph said (and got a big laugh), "I know it is shocking but people lie to law enforcement about their name and use names of persons who are in this country legally."
Not being able to identify these people properly opens the door to letting a dangerous or repeat offender walk out the door on minimal bail—the lawman’s bad dream.
Non-287(g) agencies must rely on the Law Enforcement Support Service Center (Burlington, VT) to verify the identity of suspected illegals. Pendergraph describes this practice as "…worthless and a waste of time."
But with 287(g) comes a sparkling piece of law-tech, the ICE/FBI criminal identification system. This jewel relies on sophisticated computerized fingerprint and a facial identification programs.
When a person enters the jail, one of the first questions is if they are foreign-born, and all who answer "yes" get screened. The digitized information is sent to the huge ICE/FBI central database using a DSL (broadband) computer hookup. It takes 10 minutes to get a reply.
The Mecklenburg Sheriff’s Office runs the jail, which serves all law enforcement agencies in the county. It is a focal point for anyone who gets arrested in the county, so it’s efficient to concentrate the 287(g) work here.
That’s the upside, now what’s the downside?
Pendergraph’s program does catch a lot of bad guys, and that’s an indication of how serious the problem is. One offender had been removed from the US twenty-two times. He’d been brought in for trafficking methamphetamine. Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident.

www.vdare.com/misc/060920_straley.htm