Elkhart County Sheriff Jeff Siegel says his officers will not enforce the countywide ordinance that establishes fines for COVID-19 safety violations.
The Sheriff’s Office sent the following statement to 95.3 MNC:
COVID-19 has certainly created a challenging environment with many concerns for everyone this year. I would like to address the Elkhart County Ordinance to Establish Incremental Civil Fines for Violations of the COVID-19 Mitigation Directives, recently advertised by the Elkhart County Board of Commissioners.
The Elkhart County community is dealing with a real and concerning health crisis that will have a long lasting impact on many of our fellow citizens and their families. As the Sheriff, I recognize the difficult issues that are facing our healthcare system and my fellow elected officials. The challenges surrounding the need to make difficult decisions to protect our community are many. Our community leaders are taking actions to address these as they see fit.
I do have concerns with the enforcement portion of this ordinance and the impact it may have on our citizens. Due to these concerns, enforcement of this ordinance will be left to the officials who are charged with its enforcement. My officers will not take part in the direct enforcement of the ordinance. In addition, I am instructing my officers to use extreme caution when responding to any potential disturbances related to the enforcement of this ordinance and actions they may need to take. I will be monitoring these issues and fully expect that during the implementation of this ordinance that everyone’s rights will be respected.
I encourage all of our citizens to continue do their part, wear masks and follow all recommendations provided by the CDC and our healthcare professionals, to help mitigate exposures and reduce hospitalizations.
My hope would be that each one of us recognize the issues facing our community and take any practical actions that could help protect our fellow citizens. If we all do our part, we can render this ordinance irrelevant.
Sheriff Jeff Siegel
7 comments
Since when did being the sheriff mean you get to make policy decisions!
Our country is drowning in sickness & death and our sheriff wants to play like he runs the place!
Wearing masks and social distancing, limiting numbers in gatherings and public spaces is not a political thing. Its a short term public welfare thing.
It’s all about preserving lives!
Since when did politics out rank people’s lives!
I’ve been a Republican my entire life, the behaviour of people who call themselves Republicans now is reprehensible!
Being free to make your coins is fine as long as you’re not hurting others!
Being “free” to make your coins now, with vivid, is selfish!
Our country is “drowning is sickness & death” so much that the CDC had to fudge their covid numbers, inflating the deaths by nearly 1000%. Dire straights indeed!
This is really the biggest health risk we’ve had in the last 12 months. Totally worth shutting down life as we know it!
I’m just glad we have some fearless overlords willing to impose draconian rules on us for our own good, because we plebs are too stupid to understand how to take care of ourselves…
The Sheriff is doing as he sees fit and using his discretion as a law enforcement officer. The highest law enforcement officer in the county, no less. Sheriffs have to follow the Constitutional and lawful orders on people. When something like this comes forward and a board of people start to go against the constitution they are compelled to not follow unlawful orders.
I for one am thankful for Sheriff Siegel and am happy is taking his oath to the people seriously.
Finally someone in our area who understands that this virus only has a death rate of .03%(From the CDC) and that most masks that are worn will only give you an extra 2% chance of not catching it. More importantly that the average citizen gets to make decisions(smart or dumb) for their lives. This is America where we value freedom over safety and we don’t need the government to be our nanny/overlord.
Amen!
AMEN
Any one who would sacrifice freedom for safety deserves niether. Something to that effect was once said by a very smart man, that we tend to write off as an early American simpleton who could never have imagined the problems of today but I think he understood the problems we where far better than we do. Just a thought.