Following stories that Ohio sheriff Bruce Zuchowski is accumulating the addresses of people supporting the Democratic nominee for President VP Kamala Harris in an effort to goal them at a later date, Democrats wrote to AG Merrick Garland requesting a right away investigation into Zuchowski.
In different phrases, some Democrats aren’t sleeping on voter intimidation this time round.
With simply three weeks till voting begins in Ohio, members of the Home Committee on the Judiciary Rating Member Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Subcommittee on the Structure and Restricted Authorities Rating Member Mary Homosexual Scanlon (D-PA) wrote to the Division of Justice Civil Rights Division examine the disturbing stories:
I write to request that the Division of Justice Civil Rights Division examine disturbing stories that an Ohio sheriff is accumulating the addresses of people who show marketing campaign materials for Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in an effort to goal these people at a later date. This clear try by an elected Republican official to intimidate Democratic voters in his jurisdiction calls for the Departmentâs instant consideration.”
The proof submitted within the letter contains:
In public Fb posts on each his private and marketing campaign accounts on September 13, 2024, the sheriff of Portage County, Ohio, Bruce Zuchowski, posted images of Fox Information tv tales about âKamalaâs open bordersâ and wrote:
“When individuals ask me…What’s gonna occur if the Flip – Flopping, Laughing Hyena Wins??
I say…write down all of the addresses of the individuals who had her indicators of their yards! Sooo…when the Unlawful human “Locust” (which she helps!) Want locations to stay…We’ll have already got the addresses of the their New households…who supported their arrival!”
Sheriff Zuchowskiâs intimidation efforts seem to have been profitable: after his put up, some residents started following his directions and posted in Fb feedback the addresses of residents with yard indicators supporting Vice President Harris.
That is giving handing over your neighbor who claims she had a miscarriage vibes, and sure, that could be a factor Republicans tried years in the past and appear intent on doing once more.
Residents began the complaints, noting how alarmed and scared they’re. A Republican official even resigned from the countyâs Republican Central Committee as a consequence of Zuchowskiâs focusing on of individuals with completely different beliefs, calling it bullying “from the best regulation enforcement official in Portage County.â
These allegations are deeply disturbing and signify an precise direct violation of the appropriate to free speech. A authorities official focusing on people over political indicators is an precise instance of what the appropriate to free speech is supposed to guard.
The letter notes, “One other resident stated of the sheriff: ‘Heâs a prime regulation enforcement official in Portage County. Heâs imagined to be upholding the regulation ⦠What that assertion was on Fb was supposed for oppression, intimidation, and suppression of freedom of speech. I want to flip to regulation enforcement however what occurs when regulation enforcement is the one making these threats.’”
This type of bullying of Democratic voters has been happening round this nation since Trump first descended that escalator. It’s routine to have Democratic political indicators stolen and destroyed, homes focused, and worse but voters focused exterior of the polling locations. Whereas these tales are typically advised in native papers, individuals I’ve requested if I can inform their story are sometimes too scared to place their names to their fears and experiences. Individuals in MAGA heavy areas are sometimes afraid to place Democratic supporting indicators up, and make informal reference to needing safety cameras in the event that they do.
That is the fact for people who find themselves not Trump voters in the US of America. The MAGA motion is one among political intimidation and even terrorism as we’ve seen from January sixth to Springfield.
But legacy media continues to lecture Individuals that they should “respect” MAGA voters. I observe that they write these opinion items from their politically protected blue cities, from the vantage level of their very own privilege as individuals who can all the time get regulation enforcement to assist them, not like many Individuals.
One factor to remove from MAGA’s ongoing intimidation of voters and election officers is that that is one thing incited by a frontrunner who doesn’t suppose he can win pretty. It’s additionally a transparent signal of how Trump intends to rule if allowed again into the White Home — abusing energy, weaponizing the federal government towards residents who don’t help him, and scaring individuals into submission.
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