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OpEdNews Op Eds    H4'ed 6/18/20

Despite Promises of Reform, Police are Still Killing

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Taya Graham: We keep witnessing horrifying misuse of police force across the country. Why do you think this keeps happening?

James McLynas: It keeps happening because of something that I call chain of command inbreeding. And that's something that I hope to address. And that's a phrase that I've made up so don't look it up, you're not going to find it. But chain of command inbreeding is something really simple. We, as a community, we keep thinking that we're electing sheriffs all across the country, over 3,000 of them every year, and we haven't actually elected a single one of them. Every single sheriff that is in operation and who are running a sheriff's agency right now is somebody that was hand-selected, hand groomed and handpicked by the police industry and put in front of the voters and saying, "This is your only choice." And because of that, they've never done anything. They've never had to do anything. They don't have to worry about a political opponent coming along and making any real changes because they blocked the entire process so that people like me typically can't run.

Taya Graham: What problems have you seen with law enforcement in your area? I notice you've talked about spending as an issue. What are your concerns about policing in your community? What do you want to change?

James McLynas: I think that police spending is actually a scam upon the taxpayers. They keep trying to scare us and tell us that we keep needing more officers, more officers, more officers. And I can't drive down a one mile stretch of street here without passing three or four or five of them sitting in banks and behind churches. [inaudible 00:09:55] actually caught them on video cameras sleeping. We have too many of them. And just to give you an example of how bad it is, here in Pinellas County, Sheriff Gualtieri's only been in office for nine years, but in that nine years his combined budget has been $2.3 billion that he has sucked out of the taxpayer's pockets. And he is actually nothing more than a cancer that's bleeding this county dry. And that $2.3 billion does not even include the half a billion dollars that they spent on what they call capital improvements, a $100 million dollar jail, an $85 million new police headquarters.

They have a $75,000 statues, two of them, $75,000 each, cast in bronze, of two Pinellas County Sheriff's deputies, one handing a Bronx flag to the other. Why do we need $150,000 worth of bronze statues out in front of the police department? Why do we each one of these officers get to drive a car home? Why does school resource officers get a $70,000 police patrol car that they drive back and forth to the school, that's actually just sitting in the parking lot? Do we give the teachers cars every day? Because I'd rather give them a car every day than give these police officers a car. So there is literally massive amounts of waste.

And another great example is he has three helicopters here. Each one of them has a $45,000 custom paint job on them that only the grounds crew will ever see. So if you give a police agency money, then they will keep spending and spending and spending. And I personally am going to go in there and I'm going to cut at least 25% across the board, starting with my own paycheck.

Taya Graham: One of the biggest issues that has defined American policing is accountability. Theoretically, could a sheriff investigate or hold a police department accountable for a crime they commit? Basically, where does a sheriff fit into the structure of law enforcement in your jurisdiction?

James McLynas: Well, a lot of people don't understand the difference between a sheriff or a deputy and a police officer or a cop. And there's a huge difference. In the police agency, typically those police chiefs are not really the people that are in charge of that police industry or agency. The mayor is in charge, the city council is in charge. And if the mayor doesn't like it, he will be fired. Here in Pinellas County, the St. Pete police mayor, Rick Kriseman, was just on a newscast wearing a black polo shirt with the St. Pete police badge on it. And on the right hand side it said mayor.

He is literally the head of the police. So all these protesters are going down there and they're picketing Anthony Holloway and they're picketing the St. Pete Police Department. Those officers don't give a damn about any of this. They just want their paycheck and they want their pension and that's what they're there for. Chief Holloway can't do anything on his own unless Mayor Kreisman and the city council tell him to. And if he does not do what he wants them to do, they will fire him and put somebody else in there. So he's just a figurehead. He's just a puppet of the local administration.

Whereas a sheriff is actually an elected administrative position, much like a mayor. And what they keep trying to do is they keep trying to tell the public that you only have the right to vote for who they pick when we have the right to vote anybody into this office. I was out at a protest last Saturday and somebody said, "How can you possibly run the police agency if you've never been a law enforcement officer?" And I pointed across the street to the same St. Pete city hall and I said, "Rick Kreisman right now is the mayor of this city and he's in charge of the police. Did he have to go to mayor academy? Did you make him be a mayor for 20 years before you elected him?" No. You elect your officials based on their ideas, their concepts, and what they're telling you they will do. And what the police industry is telling you they're going to do is to continue to beat you, rob you, take your money, abuse your rights and allow racist policies to continue to go on just like they have for a hundred years.

And the only way to change that is to bring in somebody new. And I like to say that me, I am the new face of police reform. A non LEO. The new face of police reform is non LEOs running for sheriff all across the country, starting with me.

Taya Graham: So how would you handle the power of police unions? I have seen them bring mayors to their knees. How would you handle it?

James McLynas: But the mayors that were on their knees did so voluntarily. The problem that we're having here is that the police industry is the flee that's wagging the dog, the city, the people. Less than 0.5% of the population here at Pinellas are police officers, but yet they're telling the rest of the population what to do, including the unions. I've looked at the union contracts here and they have things in there that are absolutely asinine. Like as an example, if you fire a police officer, you can arbitrate. But Sheriff Gualtieri actually signed a union contract that says that the union gets to pick the arbitrator. That's insane.

So the bottom line here is you have these police captains, and sergeants and sheriffs, that claim that they're under the eight ball with these unions when actually they're just part of the same system. And they're agreeing to this stuff because they want to be covered under it too. Yet, as Sheriff, I will not negotiate with these unions, these things will be stripped out of there. What are they going to do? Quit? If they quit, go ahead. Because my position is I'm going to end cannabis enforcement, I'm going to need to get rid of the third of the dirty officers anyway. And if those are the ones that don't like it, fine. There's the front door.

Taya Graham: And finally, how have people responded to your candidacy? Do you think people are receptive to your ideas? And is it something that could be replicated across the country?

James McLynas: If you're in the police industry, you hate my ideas because I'm bringing accountability. However, if you're outside the police industry and you've been paying attention to anything that's going on, people are very receptive to my ideas. Just to give you an example, I just put my McLynasforsheriff.com website up, not even a month ago, and already our website has been shared in over 37 countries, in 47 States, and over 3000 cities. And 80% of my donations are coming from outside Florida. And I've actually had to return numerous donations from foreign countries. So the message that I'm talking about is something that resonates. What I am offering is literally every single thing that the protesters are asking for, and it can be implemented literally with one vote for sheriff, by just voting for me.

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