Labor & Employment Law

Wisconsin Sheriff Stands Up for Democracy

By James Parks

Sheriff David Mahoney

Dane County (Wis.) Sheriff Scott Mahoney is a man who respects the Constitution and the right of people to protest. Mahoney pulled his deputies from the guarding the Wisconsin Capitol building entrances this week after Gov. Scott Walker and his aides tried to crack down on dissent by closing the building. Walker was trying to stifle the mass demonstrations by working people who were protesting his plan to take away bargaining rights for state employees.

As Mahoney said during a press conference on March 1:

When asked to stand guard at the doors that duty was turned over to the Wisconsin State Patrol because our deputies would not stand and be palace guards. I refused to put deputy sheriffs in a position to be palace guards.

In an article on TheNation.com, John Nichols profiles Mahoney and asks why he would refuse to act as the governor’s palace guard. Mahoney’s straightforward response: He believes it is important to respect the Constitution and maintain a free and open space for honest debate and dissent.

“I smile every day at what I am seeing take place in this building,” Mahoney says.

We’re an example to the world about how to run a democracy.

Read the entire article here.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on March 06, 2011 (boomark / email).