by Frank Holmes, reporter
Will the last sheriff to leave the Democratic Party please turn off the flashing lights?
No fewer than three sheriffs in southwestern Virginia have left the Democratic Party over the last year over its national campaign to “defund the police.”
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All three are now card-carrying Republicans—and they’re ready to throw leftists’ anti-cop rhetoric in the can. Smyth County, Virginia, Sheriff Chip Shuler said his membership in the Democratic Party became a casualty of the Left’s War on Police.
“My deputies work hard to serve and protect the citizens of Smyth County. As sheriff, it has been difficult to watch my deputies try to move forward during this unprecedented assault on our profession,” Sheriff Shuler wrote in a statement sent to WJHL-TV.
Then he did something he never thought he’d have to do: He defended law enforcement officers as a decent calling, and the men—and women—who put their lives on the line should be able to hold their heads up high.
“We remain an honorable profession,” he wrote.
Then he made a second argument that never would have crossed his mind: No group of people should be subjected to collective guilt.
Police “should not be judged by the bad acts of a few,” Shuler said.
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The chairman of the Smyth County Republican Party, Adam Tolbert, said he was “thrilled” to have Sheriff Shuler as the newest member of the Grand Old Party—and said the lawman has company.
Two other southwest Virginia sheriffs swapped their Democratic Party membership for the GOP in the last year: Sheriff Brian Hieatt of Tazewell County and Sheriff John McClanahan of Buchanan County became Republicans in 2020.
Since the death of George Floyd at the knee of Derek Chauvin, using a maneuver that is never taught to law enforcement, leftists have raged that they need to defund…or even abolish…the police.
Almost all 2020 presidential candidates spoke favorably about the BLM-inspired line, and Joe Biden said that while he didn’t want to totally eliminate police funding, he wanted to starve police of money and resources.
That means danger, or death, for police…and the communities they protect.
“If you take away money and have to pay bottom dollar for certain for all the service and not have the resources to properly train, not have the money to properly test all the new applicants and new people coming in, then you’re not going to get the best,” Sheriff Hieatt told Fox News recently. “If you want better people in law enforcement, then there needs to be more funding to be able to do more testing, to be able to offer better pay as the people come in.”
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The hatred of the thin blue line has continued, just as it did under Barack Obama, when the murders of police and law enforcement officers skyrocketed…and in 2021, it’s only gotten worse.
“We know, law enforcement is taking a hit in this country,” said Sheriff McClanahan in his statement when he left the Democratic Party last September.
He said he had to leave, because“the Democratic Party is going against everything I stand for, pushing for defunding the police and the taking away of safeguards that have been in place for us.”
“If law enforcement is defunded, we will not have the proper means to adequately protect our citizens. This will also mean less training for your law enforcement officers”…and more danger, he continued.
Democrats haven’t just forgotten law enforcement officers—they’ve forgotten the victims of crime.
“When we arrest somebody, when we convict somebody, there’s been a victim of a crime,” Hieatt reminded the liberals. “When you’re changing laws to try to make things better for (criminals), what’s making things better for the victims who had to suffer?”
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At this rate, the Republican Party of Virginia can start its own detectives unit. But it doesn’t take Sherlock Holmes to realize why the boys in blue are joining the party of the Red States: The Democrats have moved way, way too far to the Left.
“The Democratic Party that we know today is no longer the party my grandfather was involved in. The ideologies of the party have shifted away from those traditional values,” said Sheriff McClanahan. “I can no longer be associated with the National Democratic Party due to them introducing bills that negatively affect my community and my livelihood.”
Sheriff Shuler said, “I have always been a conservative throughout my law enforcement career of 38 years.”
That used to be allowed, but now everyone in the Democratic Party has to agree with Ilhan Omar and AOC about devaluing men in uniform in order to redistribute the wealth to their socialist followers.
The Democrats keep doubling down on defunding the police and robbing them of the equipment they need to keep us safe.
Our police officers, communities, and victims of violent crime are all paying the price.
Frank Holmes is a veteran journalist and an outspoken conservative that talks about the news that was in his weekly article, “On The Holmes Front.”