Letter to the Editor - Winneshiek County Government Should be Applauded!

Your financial contribution empowers watchdog reporting that protects and informs us all. Editor, With the dismissal of the charges against Sheriff Dan Marx, the Sheriff, the Winneshiek County Supervisors and the County Attorney, have upheld their Oaths of Office! The charges against Sheriff Marx by the Attorney General of Iowa and Governor Reynolds, were flat wrong. Sheriff Marx was upholding his Oath of Office as he was simply wanting to ensure that no citizen of his county had their 4th amendment rights of improper search and seizure, infringed upon. If the ICE Detainers were in order and the detainers validated that the person to be detained had in fact entered the country illegally, then he would fully cooperate with ICE, and he has done that. Sheriff Marx is simply fulling his obligation to the people who elected him…..to protect their rights. That being said, if he had backed down from his statement that he made to the public, via Facebook, he would have failed his Oath of Office. Sheriff Marx stood up to an overreaching state government and his Board of Supervisors and County Attorney backed him 100%. I can envision many County Supervisors and County Attorneys would have said, "We will lose our funding if he doesn't comply," or "We can't spend the taxpayer dollars defending the Sheriff." I surmise most County Supervisors throughout Iowa would have made one, or both of those statements. But by the Supervisors and County Attorney standing with the Sheriff, (as did many, many county residents) they were in fact making a statement. And that statement was, "If we fail to fight back against charges against a Sheriff who was honoring his Oath of Office, then we have failed the citizens of Winneshiek County and failed our Oaths as well." Why? Because the rights of the citizens have just been infringed on by an overreaching tyrannical state government. If the Sheriff had lost his case, then the residents of Winneshiek County (as well as the rest of the citizens of Iowa) would have just lost some of their freedoms. There's been enough of that already by both the state and federal government in recent years. And it's time our elected leaders who take their Oaths seriously do just what Winneshiek County did. Frankly, I wish the case would have gone to court. I realize there is always risk to going to court, but using the defense that Sheriff Marx was honoring his Oath when he made his statement, I find that a jury would be hard pressed to find him guilty. That would have sent a huge message, not only to the citizens of Iowa, but across the nation as well. There's a lot more to this story than I have been able to relate here, but the long and the short of it is, YOU HAVE A GREAT AND HONORABLE SHERIFF, A GREAT BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND A GREAT COUNTY ATTORNEY! Please, thank them! Gary Shawver Wadena, Iowa Unlock a world of knowledge! Sign up for free DecorahNews.com newsletters and receive local news, local events and everything that is happening in and around Decorah.