Letter from Chip Northrup

Time for a New Sheriff in Town

A county sheriff has been a stock character in literature for centuries, often a villain, like the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood, or a corrupt buffoon, like Boss Hogg in the Dukes of Hazzard.

The stereotypical crooked sheriff runs his office like a cozy criminal enterprise: hiring incompetent kinfolk, handing out jobs to toadies and doing everything possible to keep the enterprise going long past his expiration date.

There’s a reason for this endemic corruption: A county sheriff can commandeer a disproportionate share of a county’s budget, then use the funds for political patronage jobs (and more insidious forms of corruption) which, in turn, are used to keep him in an office without term limits.

The “drain the swamp” political simpletons return crooked sheriffs to office provided the sheriff acts tough with anyone that doesn’t look like them, such as undocumented immigrants, or black folks. We have all seen this movie before. Let’s give it a happy ending. Time to clean house in Otsego County.

Chip Northrup
Cooperstown