The idea was less to reform the system than to overturn it completely.
As Mack would say, the sheriffs would keep the peace even when the people wanted violent rebellion.
Lander County, which contains the city of four thousand, had recently decided to become a constitutional county.
Courtesy of Jessica Pishko
That spring morning, I watched vendors set up for the event.
The day was spitting rain.
Most carried a sidearm and a long gun.
They patrolled the picnic tables, the porta-potties, the food booths.
Unlike other attendees, some wore balaclavas to cover their faces and shield their identities.
When it rained, they huddled underneath canopies.
Children ran up to examine their weapons and received friendly fist bumps.
When a speaker yelled, mid-monologue, Weve been fucked!
everyone applauded and cheered.
Sheriffs are elected in every state except Alaska, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Rhode Island.
Over three thousand of them must campaign for office every four years, in most cases.
They are also the whitest, most masculine, and longest-tenured.
As of 2020, only 4 percent of sheriffs were Black, and less than 2 percent were women.
In 2020, one Texas county elected its first Black sheriff since Reconstruction.
Even though sheriffs must run for office, they often win reelection over and over.
Tenures of forty or fifty years are not uncommon.
As a result, sheriffs are the least diverse of any democratically elected officials.
I have no unions, I dont have civil service, I hire and fire at will.
I dont have to go to council and propose a budget.
I approve the budget.
Incredibly tan, he reminded me of a professional golf player.
The shirts tucked in.
They dont gain too much weight.
They pay their bills on time.
Mack loves being a sheriff, even though he hasnt been one since 1996.
His Dodge Charger has a CSPOA vanity license plate.
WHEN THE NEVADA SHERIFFS took the stage, Mack spoke first.
What a beautiful day!
He has done variations of this speech hundreds of times for over a decade.
Perhaps his background as a youth in musical theater gave him this ability of projecting both expertise and wonder.
The CSPOA, he said, is about one thing.
The notion that all men and women are created equal.
And that all of us answer equally to the law.
The woman in front of me had on a red hat that said Trumpism.
Another attendee, male, wore a baseball hat with a bald eagle and an American flag.
In his mind, sheriffs are the noble embodiment of a chivalrous code.
In December of 1955, Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving her seat to a white man.
Would you have arrested her, Officer?
he said, addressing the audience.
No, our job would have been to protect her from the government that was doing evil.
In 2009, he said, What does the constitutional officer do today?
He protects Rosa Parks the gun owner.
He protects Rosa Parks the victim of the IRS.
He protects Rosa Parks the tax protester.
He protects and defends Rosa Parks the medical marijuana person.
And he protects people who simply want to be left alone.
The story often brings Mack to the verge of tears.
Is law enforcement really about public service or public harassment?
… After years of research, I am now totally convinced that the Drug War is a farce.
It provides no benefit to the public and actually makes the drug problem worse.
He added that Skousen converted [him] to the U.S. Constitution.
According to Mack, 240 people attended that seminar.
His ideas deeply influenced Mack as well as other far-right and anti-government leaders.
He wrote over twenty books, which he self-published and distributed widely among LDS leadership.
They are identical in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.
Mack often carries a copy, as do many other far-right organizers.
The majority opinion was written by Justice Antonin Scalia.
This case made Mack a far-right hero; in 1994, he was the NRAs officer of the year.
His opponent defeated him handily.
(Mack argued he lost because of a federal raid that he said was retaliation for his lawsuit.
The raid was related to a securities fraud investigation against other individuals; Mack was not charged.)
Mack was the fourth one to leave the show.
During his fake campaign he vowed to abolish taxes, legalize marijuana, and legalize polygamy.
Not accepting defeat, in 2006 Mack campaigned as a Libertarian to be one of Arizonas senators.
His platform included abolishing the IRS and income taxes.
I am running to restore personal liberty before it is too late, his website read.
His talks focused on the need to resist the feds, especially when it came to guns.
Mack told reporters he was being followed by the FBI, probably a fiction to amplify his profile.
He began to appear at Tea Party events.
The Oath Keepers and I were a marriage that was made in heaven, he said at the time.
His vision can feel welcome in the far-right politics of violence.
Yes, it is you, SHERIFF!
you’re free to do it.
You have the power, the authority, and the responsibility.
At the time I went to Battle Mountain, January 6 had come and gone.
I had naively thought that Stop the Steal had ended.
Mobs streamed into the Capitol building, sure, but the firmament of democracy held steadfast.
And above everyone else was the county sheriff, something like a cross between a knight and a king.
Copyright 2024 by Jessica Pishko.
