New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is getting the hang of his new job. He has been picking up tips from fellow progressives Barack Obama and Mommy Bloomberg, the most important tip of all is if somebody criticizes your decisions, don't listen just make sure they shut the hell up!
With his new SAFE Act (A.K.A. oppressive gun control law) this governor has been able to kill two birds with one stone, not only attacking the Second Amendment of the Constitution, but also the First.
Opposition to the SAFE act has been growing in the state ever since it was rushed through the legislature early this year. And many Sheriffs have spoken out against the law.
In January, the New York State Sheriffs' Association wrote Cuomo with an analysis of the new law, and suggested tweaks. So the leadership of the Association were invited to Albany to (they thought) discuss their suggestions. The group included Sheriffs' Association Executive Director Peter Kehoe and Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss.
"We didn't get a response (to the analysis) from him, but we could tell after the budget was passed that none of those recommendations were taken into consideration," Moss said. "When we got there, we never got to the contents of the letter."
Instead, Cuomo pushed the sheriffs to stop publicly speaking out against the act, Moss said.
"The governor was of the opinion that the sheriffs around the state should not be interjecting their personal opinions in reference to the law," Moss said, adding that Cuomo said sheriffs can't do that and enforce the law.
One person briefed on the meeting said Cuomo threatened to remove sheriffs from office, a little-used power afforded the state's chief executive under the state constitution. Moss would not confirm this. He did say the meeting was heated at times, but overall he described it as "cordial."
Kehoe did not return calls, and Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopardi declined to comment. An administration official, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss a private meeting, "strongly" denied Cuomo had threatened to remove any sheriff.
Of course Azzopardi isn't going to say "Yeah my progressive boss strong-armed the Sheriffs to shut up or he would make them swim with the fishes."
Perhaps in response, the Sheriffs' Association as well as several elected sheriffs filed an amicus curiae brief last week supporting a federal challenge to the SAFE Act.
"We're not really protesting the law; we're protesting the methodology in which the law was forced upon the people without input of the people," said Livingston County Sheriff John York, a Republican who chairs the group's executive committee.
Erie County Sheriff Tim Howard has said he "won't enforce" the act.The bill was unveiled on Jan. 14 and passed through a "message of necessity" that waived a three-day waiting period. In other words neither the legislators nor the Governor wanted any input from law enforcement or the people.
In the amicus brief, the sheriffs wrote: "Law enforcement's work is made more difficult attempting to enforce unclear laws that harm, rather than promote, public safety. The laws appear willfully blind to legitimate safety interests, and instead are tailored to impact, and negatively impact, law-abiding firearm owners."The SAFE Act is named after Cuomo's vision for the NY lifestyle of the future (Silly Anti-Freedom Environment) and is additional proof that this leader doesn't care what the voters think...he knows better than any of us.
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