A group of far-left activists staged a protest against Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman‘s decision to create a program designating various Nassau County civilians licensed to carry firearms to become deputy law-enforcement personnel for the county in various emergency situations.
While we often question the motives of far-left organizations such as the ACLU and the National Organization for Women (both once highly respected independent groups that have morphed into sycophantic arms of the Democratic Party), we have to agree with their contention that there doesn’t seem much of a need for the creation of this force.
What was Blakeman trying to accomplish with this announcement, other than to involve members of the far-right cop wannabes in Nassau to become more active in his administration?
The Nassau County police force is one of the best in the nation. There is no hint that the police department would be ill-equipped to handle emergencies in the future.
We have defended Blakeman in the past, even when he veered way beyond his official jurisdiction on issues such as males playing female sports or defending subway hero Daniel Penny.
In both cases, he was beyond his jurisdiction, but was at least trying to make a salient commonsense point to push back against the crazy leftists who now control New York State. However, this deputy proposal seems like an unforced error and bolsters the argument from his leftist detractors that he veers too far from his main job as county executive.
It’s perfectly acceptable for an executive to use his platform as a bully pulpit, even if it often will go beyond the scope of his duties. But these actions seem superfluous and appear designed merely to garner publicity. Most problematic is that doing so will lessen credibility for the other times where making these types of statements really matter.