He’s not the only Texas sheriff whose name appears on hacked rolls of the Oath Keepers, a right-wing militia group
, turning up dozens of public officials, many of whom have confirmed an affiliation with the militia.
The Oath Keepers actively recruit from law enforcement. And the group has taken a keen interest in sheriffs, who are often the most powerful law enforcement officials in their county jurisdictions. Sheriffs are subject to few checks-and-balances, apart from having to run for reelection. And in rural areas without city police forces, the sheriff can be the first, and last, word on what’s lawful.
“These sheriffs, we’ve given them a gun, we’ve given them a badge. We expect them to keep everyone within a community safe,” says Alex Friedfeld, a researcher at the Center for Extremism, housed at the Anti-Defamation League. “That’s a lot of power. And their affiliation [with the Oath Keepers] puts their ability to use that power in question.
Texas Sheriffs take an oath to “preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.” The Oath Keepers asks its members to take a separate, promising to disobey a series of hypothetical “unconstitutional orders” that read like something out of a right-wing fever dream.
“The Oath Keepers subscribe to conspiracy theories that frame the American government as an entity out to destroy American liberties,” says Jared Dmello, a professor of criminology who will be teaching at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. “It is highly problematic from a criminal justice perspective when law enforcement, especially those in leadership positions, like Sheriffs, are involved with these forms of far right activity,” he says.