Dear Editor:

In what universe would it make sense for our county sheriff to send at least 50 seated deputies to fill the meeting room of the Board of Commissioners who quickly adjourned to a confidential executive session on a personnel matter? Many if not all of those deputies were either off duty or on overtime.  Seeing the confluence of 50  or so sheriff deputy cars parked around the courthouse and judicial center, would that not have been a clue to potential lawbreakers that no one was on duty last night?  The sheriff's sad explanation was that the response was justified based on the online suggestion of potential disruption at a routine county meeting. Really? He strains credulity.

County budget meetings are upcoming, and I will not be surprised to see the sheriff pay a heavy price for his unmerited and frankly extreme response to the potential for citizen voices to be heard or known in some way. Deputies will likely suffer because of his extreme action.  Did he, by chance, think that weapons could have been smuggled into the courthouse past the metal detectors his own deputies man at the entrance? Come on.