Texas Sheriff tells his citizens to go armed

[Cybrludite]

Not sure which is more worrisome: That this Sheriff West said this, or that NPR reported it without editorializing against armed citizens protecting themselves.

[AlaskaTRX]

Cut & paste please? I'm not a member of that forum...

[Cybrludite]

That's [strike]not[/strike] wasn't a member's only part of the forum last time I had checked, but it seems to be one now. Here's a Fair Use sized clip of the article.

Published: April 09, 2010
by John Burnett

Along the border, fears are growing that the escalating drug violence in Mexico will spill into the United States.

Last month, a well-known rancher was murdered in southeastern Arizona. Authorities suspect an illegal immigrant did it.

The murder prompted governors in New Mexico and Texas to send forces to the border. This week, the Mexican government sent dozens of police and soldiers to the Juarez Valley to restore order.

For many on both sides of the border, the fear is very real.

'Arm Yourselves'

Last week, residents held a town-hall meeting in Fort Hancock, Texas — a sleepy agricultural town on the border, about an hour southeast of El Paso, that looks like the bleak set of No Country for Old Men.

A couple hundred people crowded into the grade-school gym to hear a chilling message from Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West.

"You farmers, I'm telling you right now, arm yourselves," he said. "As they say the old story is, it's better to be tried by 12 than carried by six. Damn it, I don't want to see six people carrying you."

His warning was prompted by the killing of the Arizona rancher, and the spiraling violence a couple of miles away in Mexico in a region known as the Valley of Juarez. The notorious smuggling territory is being fought over by the Sinaloan and the Juarez cartels.

"One of the men that works for me had five people killed in front of his house over there [in Mexico] this past weekend," says Curtis Carr, who is a farmer and county commissioner. "And he's moving his family over here this week. It's serious over there. Whether or not it's gonna spill over here, I don't know."

Nobody knows.

'They Poked His Eyes Out'

The sheriff warned citizens to be alert and report strange vehicles on their streets. But at the same time, he said, don't succumb to fear.

"We haven't had anybody kidnapped here yet, but it could come," he said. "We haven't had anybody killed here, but that could come."

I linked to the ZS post so I wouldn't have to link to NPR. (The radio network, not the Alaskan...) I'll fix that in my OP.

[MiddleAgedKen]

A common pleas judge in Ashtabula County, east of here, has said the same thing in response to cuts in the number of sheriff's deputies available for patrol.

[308Mike]

A common pleas judge in Ashtabula County, east of here, has said the same thing in response to cuts in the number of sheriff's deputies available for patrol.

Reading that article makes it plain that these people believed that the presence of lots of Sheriffs in their county could protect them - perhaps now reality has set in and they're finally taking steps to be able to protect themselves:

Ashtabula County Common Pleas Judge Alfred Mackey was asked what residents should do to protect themselves and their families with the severe cutback in law enforcement.

"Arm themselves," the judge said. "Be very careful, be vigilant, get in touch with your neighbors, because we're going to have to look after each other."

Ashtabula County gun dealers and firearms instructors tell WKYC their business has really picked up since the Sheriff's Department cutbacks began some months ago.

"That's exactly why they are coming, so that they can protect themselves," says Tracy Williams, a certified firearms instructor in Jefferson. "They don't feel that they are protected. They want to be able to protect themselves."

Williams says interest in his classes has doubled recently, and many of those coming are people who he would not normally expect to have interest in obtaining a concealed carry permit.

"And as far as him (Judge Mackey) telling you to arm yourselves and protect yourselves, you don't have any other option," Williams told WKYC. "We don't have the law enforcement out here to handle it right now."