The DuPage County Sheriff’s Office won’t enforce Governor J.B. Pritzker’s stay-at-home order as a criminal offense says the office.
In a Facebook post James Mendrick said “is not the time to introduce fear into our society,”.
“We are not stormtroopers”
“We are not stormtroopers. We are peacekeepers. All these years, you have told us that you want law enforcement that thinks before arresting, doesn’t violate your rights and treats their citizens with decency. Now you have that and are asking us to regress into what you didn’t want and didn’t deserve. Please let us be the law enforcement you always asked us to be. Non oppressive,” said Mendrick.
A Reason For the Post
The DuPage County Sheriff made the post in part because the Governor has threaten to hold up federal dollars at the state level for counties in which law enforcement refuses to enforce the stay-at-home order.
“As Sheriff, I feel that my own 1st amendment constitutional right to free speech has been completely trampled on by a governor who has threatened my Office’s reimbursement and grant funds as a tool to force me not to speak. I just can’t do this any more. I stand with our citizens and businesses of DuPage County who have offered no trouble or no resistance to any rule we put upon them, no matter how strange,” said Mendrick.
Mendrick, who’s been serving as the county’s sheriff since 2018 believes DuPage isn’t experiencing the same problems as Cook County and believes they should have a different timetable of re-opening. “
“We can re-open responsibly and with proper care. We’re not just going to open up with no precautions but science suggests a potentially different route. We did all say from the beginning that we would follow science to the end correct? We have now created “super hot spots” for COVID-19 within our most coveted resources. Our primary food sources. (Costco,Jewel, etc),” Mendrick said.
New Challenges
The DuPage sheriff mentioned the county has been experiencing a rise in crime, and new challenges to the correctional facility.
“This is not the time to introduce fear into our society by threatening class A misdemeanors, but instead it’s a time to assist our citizens and businesses to get back on their feet. I feel DuPage County is ready to re-open responsibly before everything is gone and I will not victimize lawful residents of DuPage County trying to put food on their children’s table,” said Mendrick.
For the full post you can check out James Mendrick on Facebook.
Naperville News 17’s Christian Canizal reports.
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