Wednesday, January 14, 2009

San Diego Sheriff's Try to Weasel Out of Responsibility in Keeping San Pasqual Voters From Exercising Their Voting Rights

Yes, I guess that ISN'T a SD Sheriff's deputy standing shoulder to shoulder with the oppressors from San Pascual?


When members of the Alto family showed up to vote on the San Pasqual Indian reservation on Sunday, they were met by tribal security guards and San Diego County Sheriff’s deputies who prevented them from entering the building where the election was taking place.

That was an apparent violation of their civil rights, according to a federal official.

But a spokesman for the sheriff's department said Tuesday that the deputies were not the ones who decided to keep the tribal members from voting; the tribal government did.

"The standing, elected government of that tribe decides," said Sgt. Bob Bishop, with the Valley Center substation. "They decide who is going to be allowed into the meeting, we don't."

The tribe is embroiled in a long-standing dispute over whether members of the Alto family belong in the tribe.

The federal government issued a tentative ruling in November siding with the family. But some members of the tribal government, including Chairman Allen Lawson, and members of the San Pasqual enrollment committee say the Alto family members, about 59 of them, are not official San Pasqual Indians. Really? The BIA says they are.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Sheriff's should have let the security handle it.

Funny how the sheriff's were INSIDE the gate and not outside of Federal property

Anonymous said...

Responsibility, WHAT responsibility?

JUST BECAUSE they threatened members with arrest doesn't mean they have any responsibility.

Just because they took a faction's word, whom the BIA doesn't recognize at this time doesn't mean they have any responsibility.

They were just getting PAID.

Anonymous said...

The Sheriff's were just doing their job, as were the security for the tribe.