As you might have noticed on facebook, Attorney General Marty Jackley spent some time in Brookings today, and I was invited over to have coffee with a group of others to listen to Marty address a number of topics in a free form Q & A session.
I had a exchange with Marty regarding law enforcement training in dealing with people with disabilities with a few things I’m going to follow up on; and it brought up a frightening statistic – there have been 19 officer involved shootings during his tenure, and almost all have involved either drug use, mental illness or both. Scary stuff, and it illustrates what officers on the street have to deal with, and potentially make life or death decisions regarding at a moment’s notice.
It was definitely an open, free wheeling discussion as Attorney General Jackley spoke on a broad range of
topics, from immigration, to the Flandreau pot situation, to terrorism, human trafficking, and many other things. A freshman poly sci student who was having breakfast asked to join us, even though he admittedly was from Minnesota, and a Democrat. Marty didn’t care, and openly invited he and his companion into the conversation.
I did get the sense of frustration that Marty believes Congress as a whole should be using the power of the purse to go after federal agencies, as opposed to Attorney Generals having to band together to sue them, as in the case of WOTUS, which just had an injunction handed down today. That could potentially come up as a campaign theme to set himself apart should Marty decide to run for higher office, whether Governor or Congress.
I did ask about all the “petition crimes” that are being heaped upon his office, and whether some of them should be reduced to misdemeanors, so he could spend his time going after rapists and murderers. He noted that while he felt that some laws could be changed to give the Board of Elections and Secretary of State more authority to deal with minor matters, it’s up to them to ask for the authority, and the legislature to determine what weight they want such matters to have. And he’ll act accordingly.
Regardless, it was one of those rare opportunities to sit down with one of our statewide elected officials in an open, freewheeling discussion, and to get some insight, along with candid observations from their point of view.
Perhaps if people are suffering from mental illness they should wear medic alert bracelets the way people with other medical conditions do. Then when law enforcement deals with them, they would have a heads up on what kind of problem is going on
Does Marty have a Steve Barnett for Auditor mug next to his feet? Those things are great for coffee.