In a nondescript suburban Western Washington church, up the street from a KFC and a Pep Boys, an Arizona pro-paramilitary group brought together national far-right figures and local Republican officials to outline a battle plan for the new year.
On January 9, the far-right Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) held a “Save Our Sheriffs” rally at the Experience Church in Puyallup. Nearly three hundred people filled the cushioned seats while others watched the well-produced cavalcade of conspiracists at home on Lindell TV.
The “Our” part of the “Save Our Sheriffs” rally was a curious choice, as most of the hosts and event sponsors were not from Washington State. The primary organizer of the event, CSPOA, is an Arizona-based far-right group with well-documented ties to white nationalists and insurrectionists. The other listed convening group, the American Police Officers Alliance (APOA), is a 527 political organization based in Arlington, Virginia, known mostly for fundraising robocalls, which lists CSPOA’s Richard Mack as its sole advisory board member.
Half of the event sponsors were also out-of-state far-right groups. Loving Liberty is a Utah-based non-profit founded by Kathy Smith, wife of the late “Mr. Sagebrush Rebellion.”[1] Loving Liberty plays host to CSPOA CEO Sam Bushman’s white nationalist-friendly show. Then there was Freedom Law School, a Florida-based organization that promotes bogus schemes for individuals and businesses to try to avoid paying taxes.[2] Both groups received a shout-out onstage at the Puyallup rally.
The only listed local sponsors were various local chapters of the far-right conspiracy-mongering John Birch Society, and State Senator Jim McCune’s MAC PAC.
Sponsors are one thing; what happened inside the sanctuary is what really matters. After concerted community pushback, “Save Our Sheriffs” failed to rally new law enforcement interest. However, the event exposed a worrisome conduit moving far-right ideas from the margins into the mainstream.
Short on Sheriffs, High on GOP Officials
The “Save Our Sheriffs” rally almost wasn’t.
At the start of the year, IREHR warned all Washington State sheriffs, the governor, the attorney general, legislators, and the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission about the CSPOA agenda.
CSPOA founder Richard Mack confessed, “About ten days out, I was looking at cancelling or postponing” the event.[3] Mack added that local contacts in Washington State saved the event. The event was promoted online by the Washington State Republican Party, the Pierce County GOP, and local far-right celebrities like Matt Shea and Loren Culp.[4]
The day of the event did not start well for CSPOA. A pre-rally press conference was attended by only a handful of people, much to the chagrin of rally headliner, QAnon conspiracy figure Michael Flynn.
That evening, local Indivisible chapters gathered more than a hundred protestors outside the event to express their concerns.[5]
Inside the rally, it was plain that Richard Mack’s efforts to attract sheriffs flopped. Despite CSPOA’s claims of strong support, just Klickitat County Sheriff (and CSPOA board member Bob Songer), embattled Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank, and Owyhee County, Idaho Sheriff Larry Kendrick showed up.[6]
At the same time, CSPOA appeared to gain notable support from state and local Republican party leaders and Pierce County officials. Nearly twenty GOP attendees were identified from the podium, including three state legislators, one Pierce County Council member, and several members of the Pierce County Charter Review Committee. Event speakers also announced that many precinct committee officers were also in the audience.
Local “Save Our Sheriffs” Voices
After white nationalist-friendly CSPOA CEO Sam Bushman opened the event with a song, Washington activists took centerstage for the first part of the “Save Our Sheriffs” rally.
The entire event was emceed by Larry Stickney, an aide to Amy Cruver, the Pierce County Councilmember who’s characterized the LGBTQIA+ community as depraved, scary, and lacking “family value.”[7] Like his boss, Stickney has a lengthy rap sheet in bigoted far-right politics, including multiple stints as an anti-LGBTQIA+ campaigner and time as a Texas John Birch Society organizer. He’s also the proud parent of a January 6th insurrectionist.
Also sharing the stage prominently was Washington State GOP Chair and District 19 state representative Jim Walsh, infamously known for wearing a Holocaust-trivializing yellow star at a 2021 COVID denial meeting and offensively comparing vaccine requirements to Jim Crow segregation.
WA GOP leader Jim Walsh(Left) and Pierce Co. GOP chair David McMullen.
IREHR’s 2022 report, Breaching the Mainstream, found that Walsh was a member of more far-right groups than any state legislator in the country. Walsh belonged to at least 24 far-right Facebook groups, including a Washington chapter of Ammon Bundy’s People’s Rights Network, the anti-Indian Save Our Sequim, and Northwest Parents against Critical Theory, a group that declared its “purpose is to expose and destroy Critical Race Theory, the cancer that has afflicted our schools and institutions.” The campaign against the myth of critical race theory served as the precursor to the Trump administration’s racist attack on diversity programs in federal government and higher education – and its subsequent broadened attack on federally-protected civil rights.
Other state legislators involved included Washington State Senator Jim McCune, who spoke at the CSPOA event, and former Washington State Three Percent leader and State Representative Matt Marshall, whom emcee Larry Stickney described as “a rising star in the party” who “is going to be a powerhouse on our side.”
Pierce County Council member Amy Cruver spoke at the event, as did Pierce County Republican Party Chair David Mullen. Other local GOP leaders mentioned from the podium included:
- Kristen Brigdan-Brown (Pierce Co. GOP Vice Chair)
- Dave Prutzman (Pierce Co. State Committeeman)
- Steve Mosman (Snohomish Co. GOP chair)
- Greg Rohr (Lewis Co. GOP Chair)
- Nick Lamothe (2nd Legis. District GOP Chair)
- Mary Kiel (38th Leg. Dist. GOP Chair)
Stickney also gave a shout-out to several Pierce County Charter Review Commissioners, who he described as a “very important group of people who the fate of our sheriff can be in their hands, as well as they’re convening to go through the county… charter. And these folks have a vote.” Those recognized by emcee Larry Stickney included:
- Jerome O’Leary
- Brenda Milewski
- Hollie Rogge
- Sharon Hanek
- Judson Willis
CSPOA’s Mack later noted that the following day’s private CSPOA training had “about twenty-five” people, including “two law enforcement, three county commissioners, a state rep[resentative], and precinct chairs.”[8]
It took emcee Larry Stickney more than five minutes to recognize all the Republican dignitaries in attendance at the far-right CSPOA “Save Our Sheriffs” rally.
Opposing Sheriffs’ Background Checks and Accountability
Throughout the three-hour rally, amid the mish-mash of far-right mainstays, there was the consistent refrain of attacks on law enforcement accountability. Speakers railed against Senate Bill 5974.
Similar to House Bill 1399, SB5974 would establish certification requirements for law enforcement officers, including sheriffs – something Washington State sheriffs, astonishingly, are presently not required to do.
Among other things, it would require criminal background checks and an “inquiry into whether the person has any past or present affiliations with extremist organizations.”
The bill would require sheriffs to uphold the U.S. Constitution as well as “uphold and enforce the Washington state Constitution and laws, as enacted by the legislature and interpreted by the Washington supreme court.” It also bars “volunteers or youth cadets” from engagements “to enforce criminal laws or civil immigration laws; engage in pursuits; detain or arrest; use force; [or] carry or use firearms or other weapons” unless they have “completed peace officer training and maintained certification requirements.” The bill is currently in committee.[9]
Event material targeted these bills, and they were singled out by several speakers, including Bob Songer and Amy Cruver. Dennis Cummins, the lead pastor of the event-hosting Experience Church, has been calling for his followers to mobilize against sheriff accountability bills.[10]
On the topic of policy-makers placing such restrictions on sheriffs, Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank went further:
“So some people say to me, ‘Well, Sheriff Swank, you have lots of sheriffs on the east side of the mountains, and they’re conservative and they’ll really just stand up and defend you.’ Guess what? There’s a couple. The rest of them, who are members of the Washington Sheriff’s Association and the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs, say to me, ‘We should compromise with them. We’ll write up our own bill of qualifications, and then they’ll accept that.’ And I told them they don’t know what they’re talking about. They don’t know politics. They don’t know Democrats. And they try to tell me, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. And I say to them, and I’m saying to you again, I won the election of a county of a million people. I know what’s going on politically, and you can count on that. So, I decided I’d start an organization of sheriffs myself, it’s called…Washington State Sheriffs with Spines. And I got one member tonight. January 15th, they’ll be discussing this bill down in Olympia. I suggest you all go down there. I’m going to change my schedule around to go down there. I’m going to wear my uniform. Uh, I’m going to wear my gun belt.”[11]
Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank at CSPOA “Save Our Sheriffs” rally.
On January 15 in Olympia, Swank’s bombast grew into threats, saying in comments before the Senate Law and Justice Committee that,
“I don’t recognize your authority to impose these controls over me, and when you try to remove me from office, thousands of Pierce County residents will surround the county city building in downtown Tacoma and will not allow that to happen. I hope it doesn’t come to that, but I and they are prepared. Are you prepared?”
As a result, the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs announced that it “intends to initiate procedures as required by our bylaws for the board to consider expulsion of Sheriff Swank from the WASPC.” The organization explained,
“[T]he inflammatory comments made by Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank at a legislative committee hearing on January 15 do not represent the views or the approach of WASPC…The scope of his testimony went beyond reasonable dialogue and devolved into what could be perceived as threatening to legislators and he challenged their constitutional authority. The manner in which he conducted himself was not in line with the professional behavior we expect of members.”[12]
While the absolute autonomy of sheriffs to enforce their perceived version of the Constitution lies at the core of CSPOA politicking, it is important to recognized that, in reality, their project amounts to engaging sheriffs in a broad-based assault on not only federally-protected civil rights, but also the administrative branch agencies attacked by the mis-named Department of Government Efficiency and Office of Management and Budget head Russell Vought.
CSPOA has signaled this, for instance, by featuring far-right figure KrisAnne Hall as a trainer at its events. Hall deems the 14th, 15th, and 19th Amendments – provisions at the center of federally-enforced civil and voting rights – as unconstitutional.
In his booklet The County Sheriff: America’s Last Hope, Richard Mack displays this fact by offensively comparing the Internal Revenue Service to the German Nazi Gestapo, and unilaterally declaring unconstitutional a range of federal agencies engaged in enforcing federal civil rights, addressing economic and educational inequality, and protecting the environment and worker safety, among other things:
“The EPA, FCC, OSHA, Dept. of Education, FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, INS, BATFE, HUD, BIA, SEC, the Federal Reserve, DEA, the Forest Service, BLM, and of course, our own American version of the notorious WWII Gestapo, the IRS, all were never meant to be based upon the enumerated powers granted under the Constitution.”
Recall also that federal branch agencies are created through the processes laid out in the U.S. Constitution – the actual Constitution, not Richard Mack’s.
Call for Sheriffs to Join the Attack on Immigrant Communities
Event speakers also echoed CSPOA leaders’ desire to insert sheriffs into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) crackdown on immigrants, citizens, and Indigenous people (who are also U.S. citizens) currently underway. Sheriff Bob Songer informed the audience that he was under investigation by the state attorney general for violating a state law against cooperation with ICE, spewing that such laws were “unconstitutional,” and declaring, “I will call ICE anytime I feel like calling ICE.”
Openly defying state laws, Songer, dressed in uniform, offered that if Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan came to the state, “he could ride shotgun and we’ll go out and pick up some illegals.”
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer defies state law at CSPOA rally.
Multiple speakers denigrated immigrants with the falsehood that the Trump attack on immigrants, citizens, and Indigenous people – as evidenced most recently in Minneapolis, Minnesota – is connected to tracking down violent criminals and sex and drug traffickers.
Richard Mack would spew such bigoted vitriol, while WA GOP leader Jim Walsh nonsensically lashed out at protestors outside the event as not knowing “what ICE means.”
Despite such rhetoric and nods to the Constitution throughout the day, not one “constitutionalist” present raised concerns about the repeated 4th and 5th Amendment violations underway in ICE’s drive for ethnic cleansing – including the targeting of immigrants with no criminal history, U.S. citizens, and indigenous people.
Election Denial as the Midterms Approach
The far-right sheriffs and their supporters also continued to spread lies about election fraud, seemingly prepping far-right sheriffs and their supporters for potential involvement in upcoming midterm elections.
Michael Flynn continued to show his ongoing stripe as an election denier, referring to the “fake Biden administration” and declaring, “if you’re using machines or you’re using mail-in ballots, they’re so filled with the ability to commit fraud.” Recall that Flynn’s commitment to fair elections is deeply suspect. Several Trump advisors allege that Flynn participated in a December 18, 2020, meeting at which he and others encouraged Trump to take dramatic steps to remain in power after Joe Biden’s victory—while Flynn pleaded the 5th Amendment in testimony before the House select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.[13]
Arizona State Senator Mark Finchem took the stage to announce, “We are fighting a Marxist insurgency.” Finchem, who previously cast his 2022 election bid as a choice between “honest elections & stolen elections, ” was sanctioned by a Maricopa County Superior Court judge in 2023 for “groundless” claims of election fraud – and for filing a lawsuit to that effect, “not brought in good faith – was on hand to boost his so-called Election Fairness Institute.[14]
Patrick Byrne, the former Overstock CEO who resigned after details of his romantic relationship with a Russian spy surfaced, has spent the last several years promoting “deep state” and election denial conspiracies. At “Save Our Sheriffs,” Byrne declared, “Free Tina Peters. That’s right,” a reference to the election denier and former Colorado elections clerk convicted by a jury in 2024 of seven criminal accounts connected to an election data breach in Mesa County.[15] Byrne referred to the “fake election” as part of a conspiratorial “psyop,” or psychological operation, underway in the U.S. The “final solution to this” [his words] is that “your sheriff has to be elected by you, the people.”
At the “Save Our Sheriffs” rally, Patrick Byrne either confessed to espionage or spun a delusional fiction involving Michael Flynn and others to “hack” the election in Venezuela.
At a 2024 CSPOA gathering in Las Vegas, Byrne stoked anti-immigrant fear with lies about “15 million military-aged males” and called for the formation of militia cells linked to Constitutional Sheriffs, with the help of Green Berets.[16]
“Constitutional” Counties and the Lesser Magistrates
In pushing for so-called Constitutional Counties, CSPOA Florida leader Bill Mitchell advocated that counties pass measures to protect their “election integrity,” a term far-right groups use to describe a range of measures rooted in false claims about “election fraud.”
Also of concern, Bill Mitchell recounted his ongoing quest to create so-called “sanctuary cities for the Constitution.” Raised by far rightists who mobilized against policies to stem the spread of COVID-19, Bill Mitchell’s CSPOA biography recounts,
“In 2020, Bill authored what came to be known as Resolution 1776, which called on the Mohave County Board of Supervisors to declare Mohave County the first Sanctuary County in Arizona for the Constitution. This expressed the County Board of Supervisor’s resolve to interpose between the unconstitutional executive orders, mandates and proclamations and therefore upholding, We the Peoples God given rights, during the Covid crisis.”[17]
At the Puyallup event, Mitchell described that now-Collier County, Florida Commissioner Chris Hall had pressed further, passing an ordinance that not only allowed ignoring laws but also authorized authorities to levy penalties for perceived violations.[18] Sarasota County would pass a similar resolution in the name of “medical freedom.”[19]
For its part, and following these moves, CSPOA took up a push for an even more troubling version of such county polices. As IREHR previously documented, this involved a push for what the group called the “Bill of Rights Constitutional Sanctuary Counties.” In the document laying out this plan, Bill Mitchell described,
“A BILL OF RIGHTS CONSTITUTIONAL SANCTUARY COUNTY is a county that, as described in “The Doctrine of the Lessor Magistrates [sic] (Matthew J. Trewhella), interposes “The Lessor Magistrate” [sic] to protect all its residents from state or federal governmental encroachment, upon the God given [sic] rights and privileges of its citizens, that are guaranteed and protected by our original Constitution and Bill of Rights.”
The CSPOA plan, in fact, cites Matthew Trewhella’s book, The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrate, four times as it lays out its aims. Trewhella bases his ideas on the 16th-century Calvinist thinking, holding that government officials have a divine “right and duty” to defy any laws, policies, or court opinions that they believe violate “the law of God. As for what Trewhella believes, he has supported the murder of abortion providers, was an early proponent of forming “Christian” militias, and has written that “sodomites should be executed as God legislated in his law.”
And Trewhella has made clear that his religious “theory” includes a call for violence against higher authorities, writing that,
“There comes a time when the lesser magistrates must move beyond mere squabbling with the higher authority. There comes a time when men must cross swords. The lesser magistrates provide the best opportunity for this to be accomplished bloodlessly, but history has proven there are times when they must redden their swords.”
Not incidentally, in response to polices to address the pandemic, event speaker and Washington State Republican Chair Jim Walsh wrote in 2021, “So, we’re bringing FEMA trailers into WA now because of COVID. What can we do to stop this? I’m worried about what it means…I understand that sheriffs can’t just arrest the Governor. But why can’t they claim the Doctrine of Lesser Magistrates and just deny his mandates?”
While the presence of members of the Pierce County Charter Review Commission at the event gives CSPOA an institutional base from which to push for such a measure, the fact that far-right members of the Pierce County Council are in the minority makes it an uphill climb. But all Council members have a public obligation to speak up and oppose this far-right effort.
Anti-Vaxxer Politics
Landing firmly in the broken record department, speakers reiterated the anti-vaxxer themes prominent among those sheriffs who had opposed state efforts to address the COVID pandemic.
Klickitat County Sheriff Bob Songer, who had once threatened to arrest state officials seeking to enforce such policies, flew his ignorance and disinformation flag, declaring that “a lot of people died from that shot” in reference to the COVID-19 vaccine.
CSPOA gained support during the pandemic by arguing that law enforcement could “interpose” to stop measures such as mask requirements and vaccine mandates. CSPOA founder Richard Mack even landed a $20,000 a month gig on the board of the COVID Denial group, America’s Frontline Doctors.
Event speaker Patrick Byrne babbled about the Nuremberg codes barring forced medical experimentation, somehow implying that the COVID-19 vaccine was an example of this. Byrne continued that a conspiratorial “psyop” was underway, consisting of phases ranging from creating “COVID trauma,” to disorienting people through “Antifa and BLM,” the “fake election” and “cancel culture.”
Not surprisingly, the host venue has a history of anti-vaccine advocacy. During the pandemic, Experience Church held a “One Washington Pro Choice Vaccine Mandate” rally.[20]
Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism undergirded much of the “Save Our Sheriffs” rally. Disgraced former lieutenant general Michael Flynn said the often quiet part out loud, which is actually never quiet for the far-right QAnon conspiracy figure:
“I’ve been called every name in the book and then the opposite name in the book. So, you know, I mean, semite, antisemite, right? Zionist, anti-Zionist, uh, you know, crazy stuff when I say things like, you know, I’m a Christian nationalist, right? [applause]… I’m a big uh prolife person. Huge. But…I don’t like the term, uh, unborn, unborn because I believe in the moment of conception…So I’m a nationalist, I believe in nationalism…And that’s fine. And I’m a Christian.”
State legislator Jim McCune, whose MAC PAC had a table at the event, attacked the left for wanting sheriffs to answer to “woke politics,” and displayed the melding of religion and law at the heart of Christian nationalism:
“The Bible is a blueprint…Law is good if one uses it lawfully. It is made not for the righteous but for the lawbreakers and insubordinate. God’s law and man’s law were never meant to be enemies…America has drifted far from its principles that made her strong. Biblical justice, moral accountability, liberty under God, and the Democrat party has been leading us adrift leftward for decades…God will not be mocked…Support our law enforcement officers, defend the rule of law, and restore the truth of real justice that flows from God.”
State Senator Jim McCune.
Emcee Larry Stickney asserted that “Jim’s [McCune] a wealth of knowledge; he’s, he’s read and memorized David Barton books. I know that,” a reference to the Christian nationalist pseudo-historian who dedicates himself to attacking the separation of church and state.
Experience Church leader Dennis Cummins was on hand to attack transgender people and bolster his version of masculinity, declaring that
“The world can’t seem to define what a woman is, but it’s because the church has forgotten what it means to be a man…The greatest crisis that we’re dealing with is not violent men. It’s effeminate men… When men refuse to lead, others fill the vacuum. When men shrink back, families are weakened. Systems rot. And you know what? Masculinity is not toxic. Silence is.”
Pastor Eric Lundberg of the Living Word Lutheran Church in Graham, Washington, was on hand to call far-right Christians into an “ideological civil war” with progressives, seeming to place sheriff accountability laws as part of a civilizational battle:
“I believe marriage is between one man and one woman. I believe that life begins at conception. I believe that there are two genders, man and woman. And I believe that Christians, especially pastors, must speak out about the issues of the day…What brings me here tonight is because I believe in law and order. And I believe that law and order were both designed by our God to hold society together and to protect our culture from evil. As a minister, I have noticed that over the past decade, a sharp decline of the nuclear family, a decline of morality, a decline of American values, all fueled by the rejection of both divine and civic accountability. There is a systematic agenda towards a Marxist takeover of the American ideology, citizen government relationship with truth and reality being the primary target. We can no longer deny that our nation is torn in two by an ideological civil war and caught in the crossfires of that spiritual and ideological battle is our good law enforcement officers. I strongly believe that law enforcement and public service is far more than employment and duty. It is a calling. I believe it is a divine calling to protect, facilitate, manage, and uphold the laws of our nation and the order of our society. There is a progressive agenda that works to deconstruct that calling by creating laws that are fluid, unconstitutional, and ultimately designed to serve the wicked and punish the righteous. These attempts are already working to erode the order that holds our society together and with it those who are charged with protecting that order. What we see activated in legislation and committees and boards and councils all across our area is a battle plan targeting that order with the scheme of shaping a new world outside of the accountability our laws hold us to and outside of that order that makes us a civil society. The strategy to underfund and undermine the sheriff’s department has little to do with fund availability and everything to do with the attempted removal of accountability that tethers us to American values. This is the left’s global campaign against liberty, freedom, the Constitution, and American ideals. And our officers are the last line of defense. We are watching as the citizenry, especially over the last few days, become manipulated by the left’s agenda to reject the laws of our nation and focus that rejection onto our officers at every level.”
Pastor Eric Lundberg.
C.L. Bryant, a Florida far-right activist and the only African-American speaker at the event, described the easy slide from the far-right religious politics to the Tea Party (Freedom Works) to supporting the Trump administration to joining league with the likes of CSPOA:
“I’ve served on two of President Trump’s advisory boards. I’m a filmmaker, and of course, uh, I served for 15 years as senior fellow with Freedom Works. And Freedom Works was the largest grassroots organization in the nation… Now, Annie and I were married at Mar-a-Lago about three years ago. So I’m a Trump supporter. You guys should know that [applause]…I knew Charlie Kirk when he was 18 years old. When I was working with Freedom Works, he came to us with an idea to go to college campuses. I was with Freedom Works for over 15 years as their senior fellow. And we said, ‘That’s a great idea, Charlie.’ We basically patted him on the head, sent him on his way. Charlie was looking…for us that day. Two years later, we were looking for Charlie. I had gotten out of this game, and Sam Bushman called me and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to have you on uh Loving Liberty as one of our radio hosts.’ And you can still hear the show on Loving Liberty. And Sam talked me into doing it. He and Kathy Smith. I had to get back into this game after they killed Charlie.”
Like the white nationalist-friendly CSPOA CEO, Bryant has had a show on Smith’s Loving Liberty network since 2019.[21] Since the Tea Party era, Bryant has been putting his voice to white supremacy. Amidst calls for justice following Trayvon Martin’s killing by police, Bryant called Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “race hustlers” and accused them of “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”[22] In the wake of the police killing, Bryant also repeated the white nationalist refrain on violence, “The epidemic is truly black-on-black crime,” Bryant told the Daily Caller. “The greatest danger to the lives of young black men are young black men.”[23]
Anti-Indian Politics
Another ideological piece on display at the event was anti-Indianism. During the press conference preceding the main event, far-right congressional candidate Jerrod Sessler asked a question implicating a call for sheriffs to step in to suppress the treaty and fishing rights of Indian nations. Sessler asked,
“So, um, general question to you again, it’s kind of the same thing. I’m an engineer. I want to know what are the steps are that we can solve or fix this problem or stop it from happening. I recently did a documentary on the Klamath River Dam removals that happened in Oregon and California. And one of the one of the questions I asked, they removed four dams down there. One of the questions I asked them is, where were the sheriffs? Why did the sheriffs not stop him from blowing up these dams?”
Mike Flynn answered by discussing sheriffs’ power, but never specifically answered the question, instead saying, “Every state constitution actually has the authority to secede if they want,” and that he did not want that.
In an under-examined aspect of CSPOA politics, the event also highlighted the strong presence of anti-Indian politics within its networks. In addition to GOP state leader Jim Walsh belonging to the anti-Indian Save Our Sequim Facebook group, Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank also recently rubbed elbows with a leading regional anti-Indian figure—Glen Morgan of the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights.
Event emcee Larry Stickney has assailed Indigenous Peoples’ Day and promoted the variety of historical revisionism that denies the atrocities committed against Indigenous peoples with the coming of Christopher Columbus.
Swank also recently mingled with a regional anti-Indian figure, also providing an example of how anti-Indian activists in such networks often run alongside proponents of radical attacks on federally protected civil and voting rights. In November, Sheriff Swank was scheduled to appear at the Liberty First Summit in Gig Harbor, Washington. Another announced speaker at the event was Glen Morgan of We the Governed.
Morgan has a history of anti-Indian organizing. While at the Freedom Foundation, Morgan opposed the inherent sovereign right of the Chehalis Tribe to develop tribal properties free from county taxation. And through the Citizens Alliance for Property Rights, where he serves as Executive Director, Morgan built a close relationship with Elaine Willman of the Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA), an organization long dedicated to the outright termination of Indian tribal sovereignty and abrogation of treaties signed between tribes and the U.S. government. The Gig Harbor event also featured occasional CSPOA trainer, KrisAnne Hall.
In keeping with attacks on tribal rights, CSPOA event emcee Larry Stickney has assailed Indigenous Peoples’ Day and promoted the variety of historical revisionism that denies the atrocities committed against indigenous peoples with the coming of Christopher Columbus – in 2024, for instance, posting a meme declaring, “Today is Columbus Day, not ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Day.’ Columbus was a great man of history who fundamentally reshaped the world we live in today. He accomplished a million times more in his life than all of his modern critics combined.”[24]
A Place for Crass Antisemites
Despite Richard Mack’s repeated refrains that this organization has no ties to bigotry, and in the face of mounds of documentation to the contrary, the event managed to find an important place for someone who has promoted antisemitism in its crassest, even Nazi-esque form.
This is Casey Whalen, a former leader in Ammon Bundy’s People’s Rights Network, a principal at North Idaho Exposed, and Richard Mack’s handpicked event videographer. On December 25, just weeks before Mack’s Washington State visit, Whalen posted to Facebook the following comments:
“Just gonna leave this here. Confirming you’ve been lied to your whole life. Post from Max Igan. Jews have been planning their world take over and the extermination and subservience of all non jews (sic) for the last 3000 years. And they admit it. The world needs to wake up and get this vermin out of your Governments asap.”[25]
A photo posted by Whalen on the first day of the event shows him operating a camera at the Experience Church.[26]
Casey Whalen at CSPOA “Save Our Sheriffs” Event
In the end, despite the lack of law enforcement attendance, the “Save Our Sheriffs” rally exposed a serious pipeline for far-right ideas to move into the mainstream. CSPOA appears to have gained support from state and local Republican party officials while providing a platform for supporters of the January 6th insurrection. Moreover, the rally demonstrated that CSPOA continues to prepare its followers and sheriff recruits for election denial activities in the lead up to the midterm election; encourages sheriffs to flout state laws aimed at holding sheriffs accountable to basic policing standards; and aims to move sheriffs into league with ICE’s attacks on immigrant communities; and pushes the notion of “Constitutional counties” that would institutionalize the group’s quest to make sheriffs unaccountable to professional policing standards and state laws.
The CSPOA anti-democratic travelling road show lays out all the reasons decent-minded community members and political leaders must speak up loudly and consistently to drive out this ongoing threat in our backyards.
NOTES
[1]Bert Smith is most remembered for founding the far-right National Center for Constitutional Studies with Cleon Skousen and for calling Cliven Bundy a “hero.” Gehrke, Robert. “Bert Smith, king of surplus and devout constitutionalist, dies at age 95.” The Salt Lake Tribue. April 11, 2016. https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2016/04/11/bert-smith-king-of-surplus-and-devout-constitutionalist-dies-at-age-95/.
[2] U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Public Affairs. “Tax Defier and Member of Freedom Law School Sentenced to Prison for Tax Evasion.” U.S. Department of Justice Archive Website. November 10, 2016. https://www.justice.gov/archives/opa/pr/tax-defier-and-member-freedom-law-school-sentenced-prison-tax-evasion.
[3] Mack, Richard. “CSPOA Posse Intel Webinar 01-14-2026.” CSPOA Website. January 15, 2026. https://cspoa.org/cspoa-posse-intel-webinar-01-14-2026/.
[4] https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1FbEP47ake/
[5] Wade, Madison. Protesters in Puyallup speak out against Pierce County sheriff’s stance on ICE shooting. KING5. January 9, 2026. https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/protesters-puyallup-pierce-county-sheriff-stance-ice-shooting/281-e9d043db-0efb-4bdd-ab7f-8cd2f6d45c3f;
[6] In the lead-up to the event, Mack indicated that Adams County (Washington) Sheriff Dave Wagner and Winneshiek County (Iowa) Sheriff Dan Marx were slated to speak. However, none of them appeared onstage. Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes attributed to event speakers and descriptions of the January 9 CSPOA event are taken from the following broadcast: Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. LIVE NOW: SAVE OUR SHERIFFS EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE. Lindell TV. January 9, 2026. https://rumble.com/v743y2c-live-now-save-our-sheriffs-emergency-press-conference.html; Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. LIVE NOW: SAVE OUR SHERIFFS RALLY . LindellTV. January 9, 2026. https://rumble.com/v744b4o-live-now-save-our-sheriffs-rally.html.
[7] Yoon-Hooks, Alexandra. “Pierce County Council member won’t sit in chambers over Pride flag.” Seattle Times. July 8, 2024. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/pierce-county-council-member-wont-sit-in-chambers-over-pride-flag/.
[8] Mack, Richard. “CSPOA Posse Intel Webinar 01-14-2026.” CSPOA Website. January 15, 2026. https://cspoa.org/cspoa-posse-intel-webinar-01-14-2026/.
[9] Washington State Legislature. SB 5974 – 2025-26. https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=5974&Year=2026. Accessed January 14, 2026.
[10] Cummins, Dennis. Facebook. January 14, 2025. https://www.facebook.com/reel/33026488050328137/.
[11] Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes attributed to event speakers and descriptions of the CSPOA event are taken from the following broadcasts of the event. Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. LIVE NOW: SAVE OUR SHERIFFS EMERGENCY PRESS CONFERENCE. Lindell TV. January 9, 2026. https://rumble.com/v743y2c-live-now-save-our-sheriffs-emergency-press-conference.html; Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. LIVE NOW: SAVE OUR SHERIFFS RALLY . LindellTV. January 9, 2026. https://rumble.com/v744b4o-live-now-save-our-sheriffs-rally.html.
[12] Washington Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs. STATEMENT ON SHERIFF KEITH SWANK’S COMMENTS. January 15, 2026. https://www.waspc.org/assets/Statement%20on%20Sheriff%20Swanks%20Comments%201-15-26.pdf.
[13] Cohen, Zachary; Murray, Sara; Sneed, Teirney; Grayer, Annie. “First transcripts from Jan. 6 committee reveal key witnesses refusing to testify.” CNN Website. December 22, 2022. https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/21/politics/house-jan-6-committee-transcripts-fifth-amendment.
[14] Associated Press. “Ex-Arizona lawmaker sanctioned over election fraud lawsuit.” AP Website. March 6, 2023. https://apnews.com/article/election-fraud-allegations-maricopa-county-lawsuit-88df1d36dd9150cac62de46cc19aaa1d; Finchem, Mark. Telegram. October 29, 2022. https://t.me/MarkFinchemAZ/1924.
[15] Lofholm, Nancy. “Former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years in prison for role in 2021 breach of election system.” The Colorado Sun. October 3, 2024. https://coloradosun.com/2024/10/03/tina-peters-election-security-trial-sentenced/; Mangan, Dan. “Trump election conspiracist Tina Peters sentenced to 9 years in prison by Colorado judge.” CNBC. November 5, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/10/03/trump-election-conspiracist-tina-peters-sentenced.html.
[16] Sheriff Mack (CSPOA). “23 Patrick Byrne.” YouTube. October 11, 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjtpRGjh6UI.
[17] South Lake Republican Club. “Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. Bill Mitchell Biography.” SL Republicans Website. https://slrepublicans.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Bill-Mitchell-Bio-3-3-25.pdf. Accessed January14, 2026.
[18] Silverberg, David. 28 Aug. 2023 A hurricane, a fugitive and the fall of Troy: Fallout from Collier County’s anti-federal ordinance. August 28, 2023. https://www.theparadiseprogressive.com/blog-the-paradise-progressive/a-hurricane-a-fugitive-and-the-fall-of-troy-fallout-from-collier-countys-anti-federal-ordinance.
[19] Kimel, Earle. “Sarasota County declared a ‘Bill of Rights Sanctuary’ in vote tied to ‘medical freedom’. “Naples Daily News. October 11, 2023. https://www.naplesnews.com/story/news/local/sarasota/2023/10/11/sarasota-county-leaders-ok-medical-freedom-bill-of-rights-resolutions/71128430007/.
[20] “Once Washington Pro Choice Vaccine Mandate.” Experience Church.tv Facebook Event Page. August 25, 2021. https://www.facebook.com/events/270723387836731.
[21] Loving Liberty Website. Homepage Archive. January 2, 2019. Internet Archive Wayback Machine. Accessed January 19, 2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20190102163748/http://lovingliberty.net/.
[22] Rosario, Frank. “Ex-NAACP big rips Al & Jesse for handling of Trayvon Martin shooting.” New York Post. March 27, 2012. https://nypost.com/2012/03/27/ex-naacp-big-rips-al-jesse-for-handling-of-trayvon-martin-shooting/.
[23] Ibid.
[24] Stickney, Lawrence Helge. Facebook. October 14, 2024. https://www.facebook.com/larry.stickney.9/posts/pfbid024pXCpv7NAP7EpyDvYJwRbqKCV1nHdT3dKekwRjE2Y1AzBUcxtHPBc6YxGKV854tPl
[25] Whalen, Casey. Facebook. December 19, 2025. https://www.facebook.com/casey.whalen.522/posts/pfbid02wwgaBNim8JBd9EXU7TEfYwHSVxNfZH1oJdFvczcdcZVwaHrhDCFD619HWYkSwfnal
[26] Whalen, Casey. Facebook. January 9, 2026. https://www.facebook.com/casey.whalen.522/posts/pfbid02JqvDxPNnf8aJ8tFCd5pxQL5HtiSHRBxgKx2yM4dnYnKycdKaojaw6KVKZJim3UJ9l.
