Concealed-carry corruption: California sheriff indicted for selling permits

[SVPete]

Concealed-carry corruption: California sheriff indicted for selling permits

https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2021/12/16/concealed-carry-corruption-california-sheriff-indicted-for-selling-permits-n435868

What happens when public officials get the authority to act capriciously and arbitrarily to determine whether citizens can exercise their rights? Eventually, some of them explore all of the wisdom contained in the axiom “power corrupts.” A civil grand jury indicted the sheriff of Santa Clara County, California yesterday on several counts of corruption, mainly involving the abuse of Laurie Smith’s may-issue authority for concealed carry permits.

A criminal grand jury may not be far behind at this point either:

The Grand Jury leveled seven counts of willful corruption or misconduct in office against the Sheriff, mostly stemming from allegations she leveraged her authority to issue concealed carry weapons (CCW) permits to illegally secure campaign contributions or favors from “VIP” applicants. One count alleges that Smith refused to cooperate with civilian jail monitors probing a 2018 incident that left mentally ill inmate Andrew Hogan with permanent brain damage after he injured himself during a jail transport.
...
Last year, the District Attorney’s Office secured criminal indictments against two high-ranking members of Smith’s inner circle within the Sheriff’s Office, in addition to a collection of security executives and prominent community members for their alleged roles in the CCW pay-to-play scandal.

Three of those defendants have pleaded guilty and are now cooperating with investigators. Two of the cases have been dismissed, and five other defendants, including Sheriff’s Captain James Jensen and Undersheriff Rick Sung, entered not guilty pleas earlier this year and their cases remain ongoing.

This has been percolating for quite a few months, possibly for over a year. The interesting question to me is whether Smith masterminded this corruption or "merely" took a cut for tolerating it. IIRC, Smith is up for reelection next year.

[DefiantSix]

Reason #27,879 why FREE CITIZENS of a Constitutional Republic don't bother begging government for permission to exercise a right that government never bestowed on anybody in the first place.

While I live in a (too damned recently) 'Constitutional Carry' state, that only codified in law behavior I was already doing beforehand.

[Eupher]

This is EXACTLY the reason that lawmakers make it a "shall issue" situation vice a "may issue" situation -- they know full well that sheriffs are just as corrupt as they tend to be.