Douglas County Sheriff Is a Whack Job. Surprise, Surprise.

From his very first press conference -- when he wouldn't share information --
he seemed weird. Now we know why.

Sheriff John Hanlan of Douglas County has been a little strange since the first press conference, and now I know why. Of course he was shocked that such a thing could happen in his jurisdiction. He's a pro-gun nut of the first order. Now it turns out he's a Sandy Hook truther, with a bizarre trail of Facebook postings and an inflammatory letter to Joe Biden to boot.

Reporting at Talking Points Memo:

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin posted a link to a YouTube video called "The Sandy Hook Shooting - Fully Exposed," which summarized conspiracy theories surrounding the shooting and quickly racked up millions of views, about a month after the massacre took place. The post was deleted or made private sometime after 2:30 p.m. Friday.

"This makes me wonder who we can trust anymore..." Hanlin wrote. "Watch, listen, and keep an open mind."

The video opens with text that reads: "In this video I will prove to you there has been a lot of deception surrounding the Sandy Hook shooting. This is a simple, logical video. No aliens, holigrams (sic), rituals or anything like that, just facts." It then intersperses news clips from the time with text raising questions about the "official story" presented in the media, including whether there was more than one shooter and whether grieving parents were actually so-called "crisis actors."

Yep. I want all my professional law enforcement officials to be whack jobs. And if the above wasn't enough, Hanlan also authored a letter to Joe Biden announcing he wasn't enforcing any new "unconstitutional laws" that might result from the Sandy Hook shooting:

I fully agree with the statement made by Linn County Sheriff Tim Mueller in a recent letter he sent you. He stated, “In the wake of recent criminal events, politicians are attempting to exploit the deaths of innocent victims by advocating for laws that would prevent honest, law abiding Americans from possessing certain firearms and ammunition magazines. We are Americans. We must not allow, nor shall we tolerate, the actions of criminals, no matter how heinous the crimes, to prompt politicians to enact laws that will infringe upon the liberties of responsible citizens who have broken no laws.”

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that when a Sheriff chooses to enforce an unconstitutional directive, he is violating his Constitutional Oath. I will NOT violate my Constitutional Oath. Therefore, the second purpose of this letter is to make notification that any federal regulation enacted by Congress or by executive order of the President offending the Constitutional rights of my citizens shall not be enforced by me or by my deputies, nor will I permit the enforcement of any unconstitutional regulations or orders by federal officers within the borders of Douglas County Oregon.

In conclusion, it is my position as Sheriff of Douglas County, Oregon that I will refuse to participate in, nor tolerate enforcement actions against citizens that are deemed unconstitutional. 

Alrighty then. Just so we're clear: You're an elected official and you state in advance that you won't do your job because guns are great, regardless of the consequences, one of them being that the current lack of strong gun control in your area has led to yet another tragic mass shooting.

On a serious note, the sheriff finally revealed on the third day that the shooter -- whom he still won't name -- committed suicide. I've been waiting for that shoe to drop. I've felt from the beginning that he delayed announcing the suicide because he wanted the impression to somehow be sustained that police officers had "neutralized" Mercer. He wanted so badly that law enforcement can bring these things to conclusion because they show up with tons of guns and restore order. In fact that happened, but that he didn't get the "kill" he wanted, he didn't want to admit what he might have thought was a sign of impotence in his beloved gun-loving county. Just my opinion of course, but it fits the bizarre refusal to tell us -- as his job would dictate -- something he knew at the time of his first news conference the day of the shootings.

In fairness to Sheriff John, there are plenty of voters in Douglas County who would say, "Fuck yeah, Sheriff! Don't let them take our guns!"

We have reaped what we have sown. And so it goes. It's not the country I grew up in, but there is no doubt what it has become today. And we, as a nation, have done this. This has been a choice, a policy choice. We live in this America, somehow because we wanted to.