MECKLENBURG COUNTY, NC- What is it with some of these sheriffs and their complete lack of knowledge and common sense? The latest example is Mecklenburg County Sheriff, Democrat Garry McFadden, who was flummoxed when asked basic questions about how government works that a fourth grader could answer.
McFadden, who refuses to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), was testifying at a North Carolina House Oversight Committee hearing investigating the killing last summer of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, Fox News Digital reports.
Republican state representative Allen Chesser appeared shocked when he asked McFadden, “What branch of government do you operate under?”
McFadden stammered and stumbled for a moment, then answered, “Mecklenburg County.” It should be noted that McFadden is the sheriff in the county where Zarutska was brutally murdered on a commuter train.
Clearly stunned by McFadden’s illiterate response, Chesser repeated the question, “What branch of government do you operate under, sheriff?”
“The Constitution of the United States,” McFadden replied, prompting Chesser to reply, “This is not where I was anticipating getting stuck. Um, are you aware of how many branches of government there are?” McFadden curtly replied, “No.”
Clearly taken aback by McFadden’s ignorance of civics basics paused for a moment, then advised McFadden, “For the sake of debate, let’s say there are three branches of government: legislative, executive, judicial. Of those three, which do you fall under?”
Answering like someone who is completely clueless about how government works, McFadden answered, “I believe I fall under the last one…judicial.”
“You are incorrect, sir. You fall under the executive,” an exasperated Chesser instructed McFadden.
Chesser continued to question McFadden about how he reconciles his responsibilities under the executive branch to enforce the law with his stated opposition to cooperating with immigration authorities. Chesser pressed McFadden on a previous statement he made in which he said, “We do not have a role in enforcement whatsoever, we do not have to follow the rules and the laws that are governed by our lawmakers in Raleigh.”
McFadden claimed Chesser took his quote out of context, saying it referred only to immigration enforcement.
While refusing to add any additional context to that statement, McFadden admitted that his office is now following state law that requires cooperation with ICE, saying, “We follow the law, when the law is produced, we follow the law.”
Chesser spoke with Fox News Digital the day after McFadden’s embarrassing performance. An Army veteran and former police officer, Chesser told the outlet that, “Obviously, those weren’t the cache of questions that I was thinking we were going to get him on.”
“I had several statements that he had made to the media and to the local press and in different interviews that kind of conflicted with some of the testimony that he provided yesterday about following the law. We made it to [only] one of those statements because we got held up on what I thought was the baseline, just kind of setting a baseline of how we were to establish that his role is to enforce the law,” Chesser explained, adding, “I was not expecting to have to get into a fifth-grade civics lesson with a duly elected sheriff.”
Chesser accused McFadden of deciding “to make himself kind of a centerpiece in the refusal to enforce immigration law here in North Carolina,” while adding, “It’s not so much the refusal to enforce immigration law, but it’s the refusal to enforce state law that says he must cooperate with ICE and ICE detainers when people are in custody in his facilities.”
“Last summer, we had the unfortunate death of a young Ukrainian national that had sought refuge in our country and in our state,” Chesser said.
“I think that all North Carolinians, and all the people who find themselves in North Carolina, should be able to count on one thing when it comes to public safety, and that is whether or not you are safe and whether or not the law will be enforced is not dependent on what country you find yourself in.”
Chesser said that North Carolina “is a safe state for all the people who choose to come here,” and explained the point of the Oversight Committee hearing was “making sure that the law is equally applied and fairly applied across all imaginary lines in our state.”
As a point of information, children in K-2 learn about the three branches of government and their basic roles. Children in grades 3-5, but mostly in grade 4, learn about how the Constitution was created and how the balance of power works. Yet we have a sheriff in the largest county in North Carolina who is completely clueless about it.
It is mind-boggling that dimwits such as McFadden and the embarrassingly idiotic sheriff of Philadelphia (PA) County, Rochelle Bilal, who just posted a recruiting video starring her and a bunch of Ozempic-starved deputies doing a version of the Electric Slide, are elected. It says as much about the voters as it does about them.
Frankly, we don’t know if Bilal was embarrassed by the ridiculous video, but most normal police officers were embarrassed for her.
Sadly, it isn’t just sheriffs. There are the police chiefs in New Orleans, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, and Portland, to name a few, who couldn’t lead a McDonald's, let alone a large municipal police agency.
We cannot imagine having to serve under such incompetence.
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