Brevard Democratic Chair: Does our sheriff only serve Republicans? | Opinion
We live in weird times. Our elected officials seem to spend more time telling us to fear our neighbors than they do actually serving us.
Last month an event titled "A Call To Arms" was brought to my attention. This event, hosted by a group called Truth Fest, was to feature three speakers. One was asking if the solar eclipse was really a "warning to America." Snicker if you want, but the other two speakers were far more serious. One is quoted as saying the "left" is bent on "martial law" and "civil war" and the other, none other than the top law enforcement officer in the county, Wayne Ivey, was the keynote speaker. His topic was "A Call To Arms."
The direct correlation between those two speakers is alarming. Democrats in the county contacted me with honest expressions of fear: "For the first time, I am actually afraid my neighbors are going to kill or harm me and my family if Trump loses!!!" one wrote. Another asked me why the elected sheriff would sign up to be a keynote speaker at an event with hate language and incitement to violence. (Note he is also a keynote speaker at an hosted by Street Cop Training, a group banned from many states for their training of unconstitutional tactics.)
So I reached out to the sheriff, inviting him to address the Brevard Democrats and "answer the concerns of the community." Within an hour of my email, I heard from his campaign manager, who assured me the sheriff would never participate in such a thing and his appearance was being cancelled.
Yet...the event was not cancelled, only postponed. So, I reached out to the sheriff again, inviting him again and again. Three invitations to address Brevard Democrats and calm the ever-increasing fears being stoked in our community. People are being told to take up arms against their neighbors, the same people who they see in the car loop at school, the same people with whom they worship in church, the same people with whom they exchange a friendly wave in their morning jog, the same people with whom they work.
Three invitations to speak and assure the community that the sheriff is their sheriff too. More than half of the voters in Brevard County are not Republican, and many are becoming more and more afraid of their neighbors due directly to the sheriff's choices. All three invitations have gone unanswered, save for the one call from the sheriff's campaign manager, Lindsey Deaton.
At this point we are left to wonder if fear is really the goal all along.
Pamela Castellana is Chair of the Brevard Democratic Party
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Brevard Democratic Chair: Sheriff Wayne Ivey is not serving community
