A rural Oregon county is serving as a microcosm of what can happen when we put our faith in the false promises of government, and it inevitably breaks them. North Valley Community Watch is serving as the last line of defense for the law-abiding citizens of Josephine County, Oregon, after the government could no longer afford to fund the sheriff’s department.
The Josephine County Sheriff’s Office was nearly dismantled when voters rejected a May 2012 tax levy to make up a $7.5 million budget shortfall. It was an ill-conceived measure, designed in haste by politicians who thought they would be able to rely upon federal subsidies forever.
They have a long history of being used by the federal government, who took an interest first in the county’s gold mining activities until timber took its place. Today, the federal government owns almost 70 percent of the land in Josephine County, including 28 percent allocated to the Bureau of Land Management, alone. And that was just fine for county officials who chose — most unwisely — to depend upon the federal government rather than diversify the county’s economy.
The federal government, being broke themselves and under the direction of Obama’s green energy policies, cut the county funding. Now, they have no solution to their current economic problem, save for the same solution every out-of-ideas politician proposes, raise taxes.
The major crimes unit has been closed, and dozens of prisoners were released from the county jail after the department reduced operational hours to Monday-Friday, 8 hours a day. The Josephine County Sheriff’s Department issued a press release stating their deputies would only be responding to what they deemed to be “life-threatening situations.”
That’s when Ken Selig — the longest-serving law enforcement officer in all three local agencies before he was forced to retire from the department due to the budget shortfall — felt he had no other choice except to guard his community’s vulnerable members.
Selig and his friend Pete Scaglione formed the North Valley Community Watch to serve as a county-wide organization dedicated to helping citizens in non-life-threatening situations, particularly property crimes.
“Who else is going to protect you when your government can’t?” Selig said. And apparently, he wasn’t the only person who felt so inclined.
North Valley Community Watch is one of a handful of community groups that have formed after the government failed their communities, pressuring them to pass a tax that Selig and others say they cannot afford.
Selig says it is pure politics behind the county government’s decision to not appropriate funds they do have toward law enforcement. “The key is to get the funding somewhere where the local people can get the services they need,” Selig said.
But according to Josephine County Commissioner Keith Heck, God-forbid residents of the county have the nerve to oppose the tax and protect themselves, instead. The less-learned just need to realize there is no place to cut. “The county coffers are at the bottom of the barrel,” he said.
“There is this little shimmer out there of some giant Santa that is going to come and drop all this money on us because we are well-meaning folks,” he added. “The sleigh is broken, the deer are dead, it’s not going to happen. We have to figure out how we are going to solve this problem.”
Heck says he wants everyone to know supports neighborhood watch groups and citizens actively participating in community safety programs, but that an unsubstantiated increase in “aggressive” community watch groups make him worried the situation could escalate to violence. Of course, it would be hard for him to substantiate his claim since there is no police force to document the supposed “aggressive” instances.
“These things seem good on the PR side but fail a little in the reality side,” Heck said, at adding the only real solution is for the county to approve more funds, or taxes. Since the funding will not be approved, and he disagrees with citizens looking after each other, Heck and county officials offered up one more brainless idea — move.
That’s right, the Sheriff’s Office encouraged people to relocate. The actual statement said:
… the Sheriff’s Office regretfully advises that, if you know you are in a potentially volatile situation (for example, you are a protected person in a restraining order that you believe the respondent may violate), you may want to consider relocating to an area with adequate law enforcement services.
While county officials offer nothing but higher taxes and uprooting your family, Ken Selig and the North Valley Community Watch are taking action, meeting once a month to discuss crime and teach roughly 100 members about personal safety. The group, thus far, trained a “response team,” which is made up of 12 people who will respond to the scene of a non-life-threatening situation when called.
Selig said North Valley Community Watch believes that there is no substitute for well-trained law enforcement, but they feel they have no other choice but to protect their community.
“We believe responsible citizens doing responsible things make it hard for criminals to do irresponsible things,” he said.
So far, despite Heck’s claim there is an increase in “aggressive” community groups, not one of Selig’s members have had to fire a single shot.
Watch groups, which were once seen as vital to the health and safety of our communities, had been demonized nationally by media and politicians who share an interest in the gun control agenda during and after the George Zimmerman case in Florida. But Selig and others who stand ready to aid their fellow-citizens have proven how vital it is to rely upon each other, rather than government.
During the George Zimmerman case, Democrats made crystal clear that they would rather live in a world without the right to bear arms, the right to self-defense, and once where the only entity legally within their right to retain the ability to defend one’s own person and property, must be sanctioned by the government.
But amid reports such as the one from Josephine County, and many neighborhoods in Detroit who have been forced to take the same approach as Ken Selig, they are asking for a world that is far too dangerous for the governed.
