Washington sheriff backs deputy who said cops need military hardware to fight right-wing extremists [View all]

[DonViejo]

SCOTT KAUFMAN
18 DEC 2014 AT 10:21 ET

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich tried to grapple with the fallout after one of his deputies said something in a video that was picked up and became a viral hit at InfoWars, the website of conspiracy enthusiast Alex Jones. In the video clip, the deputy said military-grade equipment was necessary because of gun-hoarding “constitutionalists” who have made police work dangerous.

The woman interviewing the deputy asked about the need for a Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle in America, to which the deputy replied, “We’ve got a lot of constitutionalists and a lot of people that stockpile weapons, lots of ammunition. They have weapons here locally.”

The InfoWars website jumped on that quote as evidence that there’s a conspiracy by the country’s law enforcement agencies to target Americans who hold conservative views. “Constitutionalist” is how many on the far right — including the majority of InfoWars’ audience — describe themselves. However, as Sheriff Knezovich noted, “people need to understand that there are people who carry that title who have killed police officers.”

As the Sheriff said in his YouTube response (below) to the InfoWars video, his deputy was not referring generally to those who support the Constitution, but to self-described “constitutionalists” like Jerad and Amanda Miller.

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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/washington-sheriff-backs-deputy-who-said-cops-need-military-hardware-to-fight-right-wing-extremists/