Vital to support sheriff, deputies

Letter to the editor
Published: July 10, 2008

Editor:

As one who served in the defense of this nation for 31 years in more than 30 countries, including a final six years as an action officer with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I’m here to humbly tell you I didn’t serve my country to see the sheriff’s office denigrated, and my local “second line of defense” cut to pieces – by anybody!

To wit, there seems to be some ignorant, maybe arrogant or otherwise, animosity against the Madison County Sheriff’s Office or Sheriff Weaver himself; the latest being a move to cut or diminish funding. Well folks, when “our deputies,” and like it or not they’re our own, move to another job, consider the following because the sheriff is responsible for more than “pushing prisoners” and serving court orders.

When the U.S. 29-Route 230 traffic light is out due to a power failure and its pouring down rain, do you expect to see (and this is nothing against Eddie) Eddie
Dean out there directing traffic? No. It’ll be a deputy in a raincoat.

When there’s a tree down on Route 662 at midnight who do you call, Dr. Jimmy Smith, D.D.S.? No, it’ll be a deputy in a patrol car who shows up with a flare and a cone.

If there’s three (locally reared) bullies throwing rocks at your kid in Etlan, guess who’ll be the first to show up to run the bullies off? If there’s three black cows out on Blue Ridge Turnpike at 11 p.m., who’ll get there first? It sure won’t be the mayor of Madison.

If there is a “borderline citizen,” and this is going to happen sooner than later, robbing the 7-Eleven because he can’t afford gasoline anymore, who’ll be there to lay his life on the line? You got it, a sheriff’s deputy!

Let’s say a Northern Virginia thug is pushing “coke” in the Madison County High School parking lot. Who’s the first responder going to be? Of course, the resource officer, a deputy sheriff. Is a-n-y-b-o-d-y getting my drift?

I could write much more but suffice it to say, “Wake up folks, and smell the coffee,” because times are going to get a lot worse. Put plainly and simply, we need the sheriff’s office not just fully funded but also to have a “rainy day” fund (like maybe gasoline for a starter), because we have many, many rainy days coming!

Al Cuppett
Graves Mill