NASSAU COUNTY, NY - “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”- The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
When a rogue federal government is allowing what amounts to an invasion of our sovereign country, it is up to some community leaders to defend their citizens. And that appears to be the case in Nassau County, New York, where County Executive Bruce Blakeman has decided to deputize private citizens for emergency situations, Fox News reports. That plan has, of course, gotten under the skin of pro-crime Democrats. Blakeman, however, remains unphased.
“I don’t think you can depend on Albany or Washington, D.C., because they’re more interested in giving away billions of dollars to migrants who are unvetted and bringing them to our communities than they are in protecting our communities,” Blakeman said.
“So that’s part of the thought process in my mind…We need a group of citizens who are already trained, who already had experience in police departments and in the military, and have them on reserve in the event that there would be a serious emergency.”
Nassau County, located on Long Island, abuts New York City, where far-left district attorney Alvin Bragg has ignored real criminals and instead has turned his attention to engaging in a political persecution of former President Donald Trump. That, in turn, has returned New York City to the David Dinkins days, with crime running rampant and criminals being allowed to wreak havoc on city residents and visitors with impunity. Some of that crime has spilled over to city suburbs.
Democrats, who embrace the invasion at our southern border and the associated increase in crime it has brought, have slammed Blakeman’s decision, calling the proposed armed citizens a “militia” and comparing them to Nazi brownshirts, taking to staging a protest outside Blakeman’s office calling on him to back down from the proposal. The county executive was having none of it.
“I think it’s completely disgraceful, first of all as a Jewish elected official, to insinuate that I would be associated with anything that represented the Nazi regime, especially stormtroopers,” Blakeman told Fox News Digital. “It is completely reprehensible.”
Far-left criminal-embracing Democrats complain that the “militia” could be used to put down protests such as Black Lives Matter or pro-Palestinian protests (face facts, most turn into riots), while Blakeman counters that he is only creating a database of potential volunteers to assist county law enforcement in the event they are overwhelmed.
“It’s just left-wing, woke, progressive stuff,” Blakeman said. “They claim now that they like the police, but these are the same people who wanted to defund the police.”
Blakeman said the citizen volunteers would only be called upon in the event of emergencies, highlighting past emergencies such as Superstorm Sandy that hit coastal sections of New York in 2012, a blizzard that paralyzed western New York two years ago, or a long-lasting power outage or another outburst of violent rioting by radical leftists.
Blakeman said that even in such events, the provisional deputies would not patrol streets but rather protect vital infrastructure such as hospitals, government buildings, churches, mosques, and synagogues. Moreover, they would only be used if there was a manpower shortage after the activation of active-duty officers and deputies.
“I would not activate anybody unless we had already declared all hands on deck and we found we had deficiencies,” he said. “This would only be in a dire circumstance, Number 1 and Number 2, to disparage people who served with distinction in our police department, in the NYPD, and in the military, I think, is just a disgrace.”
Contrast the reaction of leftists to Blakeman’s proposal to cities such as Los Angeles, where illegal aliens have been hired as police officers and are permitted to carry guns. They have seemingly no problem with that, yet deputizing those who have previously served in law enforcement or the military is a problem.
A reporter asked Blakeman during a news briefing this week if he believed the New York National Guard was “insufficient.”
“The National Guard is a function of the state government that would be under the purview of the governor,” Blakeman quipped. “As we’ve seen, obviously the governor said there’s no crime problem in New York, yet we have National Guard in our subways.”
In order to qualify, applicants would have to already hold a license to carry in New York, which is borderline impossible in New York, consent to a background check and be subjected to a mental health history evaluation. They would also be subject to random drug testing, cannot have alcohol or drug issues, and must receive medical clearance as being “fit for duty.”
Blakeman, who served as commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, said a majority of deputized individuals would either be retired law enforcement officers or military veterans.
“This would be a very extreme circumstance, but what I’m doing is creating this database. God forbid it should ever be necessary,” Blakeman told Fox News Digital. “Because I don’t want to be in a situation in an emergency where I’m scrambling.”
Using emergency deputizations for emergencies or other circumstances is nothing new, Blakeman said, noting that authorities have been in place for over 100 years. He said the new process would allow candidates to be vetted ahead of time and activated immediately.
Democrats, however, have no problem with crime and have come out against Blakeman’s plan. Kim Keiserman, who is running for state senate, posted on X that she stands with those opposed to Blakeman’s plan, referring to the proposed citizens’ deputies as a “dangerous armed militia of vigilantes.” That is what Democrats think of retired police and military veterans.
The responses were priceless:
In an interview with the local Patch, County Legislature Minority Leader Delia DeRiggi Whitton likened Blakeman’s citizens’ deputies to Nazi “Brownshirts.”
“I’ve had some people tell me it’s actually causing them a lot of anxiety,” she told the Patch. “It reminds them not only of the Wild West but of times in Europe with uncertainty. There was something called the Brownshirts, which was basically having civilians all of a sudden become part of law enforcement without the training.”
First of all, we’ll bet that “some people” consist of one or two gender studies students at NYU. Furthermore, DeRiggi-Whitton lacks any understanding of what she's talking about since the proposed citizens' deputies are retired police or military, hardly "part of the law enforcement community without training."
In response to DeRiggi-Whitton’s unhinged characterization of retired law enforcement officers and military veterans as “brownshirts,” Blakeman called on Nassau County Democrats to remove her from her leadership role.
Blakeman responded that candidates for provisional deputies are “patriots,” saying they are retired law enforcement members and military veterans. Among applicants thus far are a former county police deputy inspector who commanded the emergency services unit and marine aviation bureaus, a decorated NYPD deputy inspector who ran an NYPD precinct for over a decade, and a former Army Ranger and hostage negotiator.
Instead of civilians “without the training,” these are highly qualified individuals.
Blakeman said that he collaborated with Nassau County Sheriff Anthony LaRocco to propose the provisional deputy program and acknowledged the Nassau County Police Department is the “most professional in the country.” He said the program isn’t a knock on the police department but rather will serve as a supplement to aid and assist the department if needed. He emphasized that none of the provisional deputies will have police powers except in the case if his office declares an emergency and activates the volunteer corps.
Blakeman has hired 200 new uniformed county police officers, increased funding for the agency, and began construction of a new police training complex in response to the anti-police, “criminal first” policies coming from the state capital in Albany.
Comments
2024-04-15T11:59-0500 | Comment by: Karl
Why is a new program being initiated when there has been a great program around for years? Nassau, Suffolk, and many other counties in NY have very effective Auxiliary Police programs. Auxiliary officers are volunteers trained by the police department to assist them with their duties including performing the duties of a second officer in a two person car under the direction of a full time officer. State law also permits the deputizing of the officers during declared emergencies. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel and support the programs you have.