Attention

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not represent our advertisers

Thursday, March 07, 2019

Rural Sheriff's Ominous Warning To Citizens: "Lock Your Doors, Load Your Guns, & Get A Barking, Biting Dog"

Is this a sign of what is coming for the rest of the nation?

In Martin County, Kentucky times are very tough right now. Thanks to severe budget cutbacks, there are only two paid law enforcement officers covering a deeply impoverished 231-square-mile area that sits right in the heart of America’s raging opioid crisis. Needless to say, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk feels greatly outnumbered by the thieves, sexual predators and drug dealers that he has to contend with on a daily basis, and he recently issued a very ominous warning to the citizens of his county

Before making a wave of cutbacks across his department, Martin County Sheriff John Kirk delivered a grim warning to residents of this hardscrabble Appalachian community.

“Law enforcement as we have known for the last four years will not exist,” he posted on Facebook last month.

“WE ARE BROKE… LOCK YOUR DOORS, LOAD YOUR GUNS AND GET YOU A BARKING, BITING DOG. If the Sheriff’s office can’t protect you, WHO WILL?”

So why can’t Martin County afford more law enforcement officers?

Well, like so many other local communities all across America right now, they are deep in debt and flat broke

The county has accumulated $1.4 million in debt — a surprise to many of its new officials.

“I don’t sleep well,” said Susan Hale, the county’s new treasurer, who is sifting through the bills left by the previous administration: $230,000 to a regional jail that houses its inmates, $140,000 to a state association that provides liability insurance, plus dribs and drabs for mundane items such as office supplies and toilet paper.

More

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Salisbury MD you better wake up!!

Anonymous said...

Not that the average Martin County Kentucky resident has a lawyer, but they should consult one about the legal requirement for using deadly force to protect one's property. T protect one's life is a different requirement, but the fear for one's life has to be proven. That sheriff could be heaping a huge liability on the citizens with his advice.

Anonymous said...

I lived in Philadelphia 25 years ago and they said the same thing then. DEMOCRATS can't govern. They believe government can control everything and raise taxes. NOBODY is left in Philadelphia anymore. I mean the tax base has left the city. They continue to absorb more of the suburbs but people keep moving out until like me. GET OUT OF THE ENTIRE STATE. I do HAVC for a living. I refused to go into north or west Philadelphia. Soon I said to hell with it all together. If the animals see a WHITE. Your DONE. I was carrying a gun without a permit for protection. Due to a couple of incidences that convinced me to do so. SALISBURY and just over the line in Delaware it's beginning to get like Philadelphia. But like I said. I don't service those areas.

Anonymous said...

Man, that is not good. Don't get a dog unless you can afford to feed it. A good shotgun doesn't eat much.

Anonymous said...

Isn't this the state which has Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul?
Hmmmmm?

Anonymous said...

Wake up Duncan & Jake this is already Salisbury. Crime in the Presidents Neighborhood is swat teams, police vans, cops with long rifles what makes everyone thing it could be it's already here folks. The same house has been hit twice but seen no one carried away.

Anonymous said...

12:28 Hmmmmmm what? Martin County is in Appalachia. It is coal country. Any and all the problems in Martin county are the fault of ghetto garbage lying obama and the rest of the democrats' asinine policies none of which have ever done any good in this country. Next time check your facts before making foolish comments.

Anonymous said...

231 square mile area .... no body, no story

Anonymous said...

I have a dog and a gun and a baseball bat at each of my doors just in case.

When I was a child growing up here on the shore, the only time we locked our doors was when we went on vacation. The rest of the time we never locked our doors and in the summer we latched the screen door with the doors open.

I live in the country and now I have to lock all my cars and my house each night before I go to bed. I've had my car broken into more that once and had stuff in my glove compartment thrown all over the floor of my car and truck.

I and my neighbors have called the police about this and have never had to worry about this until recently. The police told me, most of them are just looking for money to buy drugs.

I keep a camera at my house window now because I have had packages stolen from my front steps.