Erie County, New York has the dubious distinction of producing an unusually high number of those arrested and charged with crimes related to the January 6th insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.[1] Six months after the attack, in June 2021, the county ranked second among the country’s 3,069 counties[2] for the number of residents arrested and charged for alleged participation in the attack—outstripped only by Ohio’s Franklin County.[3] By January 2023, as the largest criminal investigation in U.S. history[4] continued and the number of people charged had nearly doubled, Erie County still tied for producing the sixth-highest number of arrestees.[5] Among those arrested were White residents from affluent Buffalo suburbs who later pled guilty[6] to misdemeanors. Others faced more serious charges. One man from Buffalo’s high-income suburb of Amherst was charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers—a felony that carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison—and has since been sentenced to 50 months in prison.[7]
The extent of the county’s far-right mobilization surprised many observers. Erie County encompasses a large swath of Western New York and is reliably “blue;” Democrats significantly outnumber Republicans despite the GOP’s modest inroads in recent years.[8] It’s also largely metropolitan—only about 9.4 percent of residents live in rural communities.[9] But the Right is rising in Western New York in part because conservatives perceive themselves as an embattled minority. Far-right activists in suburban and rural areas, many of whom are current or former law enforcement officers, have driven this rightward shift, and local public officials have enabled it.
Given that respect for law enforcement is a core right-wing demand, it’s ironic that Capitol insurrectionists attacked police. It also makes a strange kind of sense. Many right wingers believe that officers of the law are defenders of safety and order who must be obeyed. Yet they also believe that when any public official, including a police officer, seeks to enforce a law they deem unconstitutional or certify an election they falsely believe was stolen, that official is a “tyrant” who must be opposed. Local officials have behaved as if their authority, based on their interpretation of the Constitution, is ultimate, and supersedes that of a majority of residents, the governor, and the president—in their minds, sheriffs elected by around 35 percent of the county’s registered voters[10] are the ones who most directly represent “the people.” Many of these beliefs are rooted in White supremacy and derived[11] from Christian theories, including Christian nationalism—the notion that America is a Christian nation that should be led by Christians—and Dominionism—the common-among-conservative-Christians belief that God intended[12] Christians to exercise dominion over society, including political and cultural institutions. The belief that their power comes directly from God encourages officials to abuse it and promote selective vigilantism, undermining democracy in the county and nationwide.
White Conservatives in a Blue County
Much of Erie County’s right-wing sentiment is the local version of national phenomena such as Trump’s enduring popularity with his base and the unsubstantiated belief—shared by 69 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents—that he was the 2020 election’s true winner.[13]As in other parts of the country, Erie’s rural and suburban residents are more politically conservative than their urban counterparts.[14] Trump banners, American flags, and occasional Confederate flags dot the landscape in less populated areas, while LGBTQ pride flags and signs proclaiming that “Black Lives Matter” and “Immigrants are welcome here” are more common in Buffalo. White, conservative-leaning rural and suburban voters are crucial bases of support for elected sheriffs throughout the country; even in predominantly Democratic Erie County, voters haven’t sent a Democrat to the sheriff’s office since 1993.[15]
Many White conservatives in the area feel deeply aggrieved:[16] they are surrounded by Democrats and through their families, workplaces, and broader communities, regularly interact with people who don’t share their beliefs. Conservative residents support the Far Right because they perceive their Democratic friends and neighbors as members of a “Far Left” that must be restrained.
The visibility and militancy of Erie County’s Right is fueled by anxieties resulting from demographic change and some White residents’ perceived loss of status. Around 29 percent of the county’s 950,000 residents live in Buffalo, the county seat and New York’s second-largest city. The county is largely White—in 2021, it had six times more White residents[17] than residents of any other single race or ethnicity—but Buffalo is around 33 percent Black and home to 69 percent of the county’s Black residents.[18] January 6th participants from Erie County and elsewhere are mostly White conservatives living in areas that used to be Whiter.[19]Both the number and percentage of White Western New Yorkers have been falling for decades, and Erie County’s White population shrank by more than 41,600 residents between 2010 and 2020.[20] Area conservatives are also subject to laws and policies—e.g., gun control measures and Covid restrictions—they view as arbitrary, unconstitutional, and imposed by overreaching Democrats. Research[21] published by the University of Chicago in 2021 found that counties with a declining number of non-Hispanic Whites, like Erie,[22] were six times likelier[23] to produce a Capitol insurrectionist. Political scientist Robert Pape found[24] that counties with the greatest declines in non-Hispanic Whites were the most likely to produce a January 6th participant—a finding that held true even when controlling for population size, distance to Washington, D.C., unemployment rate, and urban or rural location.
Sex, Race, and School Boards
Against this backdrop of racial anxiety and grievance, some locals are clearly inspired by national anti-immigrant and White supremacist movements—particularly their campaigns to end public health mandates and restrict what children learn in school. Jackie Best, who founded an Erie County chapter[25] of Moms for Liberty, began speaking out[26] against Covid restrictions at Hamburg school board meetings in 2021; in 2022, she and two allies ran and lost a school board race. Per its website, Moms for Liberty is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.” It is best known as the far-right organization behind the recent proliferation of school book bans.[27]
Best is not the only one to base a school board run on opposition to public safety measures and eagerness to ban books. In 2022, 8 of 26 candidates running in Erie and Niagara counties and backed by a group called Western New York Students First, which was formed during the pandemic to fight Covid restrictions, won their school board races.[28]The Constitutional Coalition of New York State—a Far Right anti-government group[29] based in Erie County’s Cheektowaga— supported many of the same candidates as Western New York Students First and claimed 22 wins in school board races across the region.[30]
Organizations like Moms for Liberty claim they defend “liberty” and “parents’ rights;” to them, this means restricting what kids learn about race, racism, and sexuality. According to the pro-freedom-of-expression organization PEN America, 41 percent of the 2021–22 school year’s banned books explicitly address LGBTQ+ themes or have protagonists or prominent secondary characters who are LGBTQ+; 40 percent have protagonists or prominent secondary characters of color; and 21 percent directly address issues of race and racism. [31]
While denying that her group is anti-LGBTQ+, Best has expressed concerns that “gender ideology” and “critical race theory” are being taught in schools.[32] These efforts, like many on the Right, have surfaced amid increasing anxieties around race, sexuality, and gender fueled by demographic shifts. The Brookings Institution’s research found[33] that Moms for Liberty is most active in suburban areas, and a disproportionate share of chapters “are in areas where the white population has been declining”[34]—just as the University of Chicago research on Jan. 6 insurrectionists found.
Far-Right Militias Garner Local Officials’ Support
Several far-right militia groups have also established a presence in Erie County. Though small, these groups have powerful local allies. New York has the most law enforcement officers who belong to the Oath Keepers of all U.S. states.[35] Six Oath Keepers were convicted of seditious conspiracy for their role in the Capitol insurrection. Erie County’s sheriff from 2005 to 2021, Tim Howard, spoke in uniform[36] to supporters of then-President Trump at a 2017 rally in Buffalo; at an earlier rally, he spoke beneath[37] an Oath Keepers sign. Some participants in the 2017 rally carried flags and signs bearing Confederate and Nazi imagery, while others held White supremacist recruitment pamphlets. After leaving office, Howard became the town supervisor of Wales, a 99 percent White, 3,000-person Erie County town. When journalist Cloee Cooper and I interviewed him in 2022, he described his relationship with the Oath Keepers as casual and indirect.[38]
Howard’s far-right ties extend beyond his appearances at right-wing rallies. During his tenure as sheriff, he was also associated with the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, or CSPOA. The CSPOA asserts[39] that sheriffs are counties’ ultimate authority figures and defenders of citizens’ constitutional rights, arguing that sheriffs’ law enforcement powers supersede[40] those of any agent, officer, elected official or employee from any level of government, up to and including the president of the United States. These views are derived from Christian resistance theories like the doctrine of the lesser magistrate,[41] which holds that when a ruler becomes a tyrant, he is no longer a legitimate ruler—conferring on his subordinates not just the right to resist, but the obligation to do so.[42] Howard told me that although he had once attended a CSPOA meeting in Las Vegas, he didn’t agree with everything the group stood for and was not a member.[43]
Howard faced plenty of criticism while he was sheriff; aside from the rallies, 32 people died[44] after being detained in county jails he supervised.[45] But he experienced no lasting consequences and left the office voluntarily, in part by maintaining plausible deniability about his far-right ties: he never confessed to knowing exactly what the Oath Keepers or the CSPOA stood for; claimed he didn’t agree with everything they said; and never officially joined as a member.
How and Why the Far Right Claims Neutrality
While a small but vocal group of avowed White supremacists call Western New York home, most area conservatives are eager to avoid appearing openly racist.[46] This is partly because the American Left, while not as politically powerful or violent as the Right, has gained social power in recent decades. Local right-wing activists would rather portray themselves as independent-minded, educated, professional, nonpartisan, and even, to some extent, pro-diversity, allowing them to deny that their politics are a reflection or expression of racial hostility and White supremacist beliefs. This extends to those affiliated with the Far Right: When Cooper and I spoke with Howard in 2022, he stressed that there were “quite a few” Black sheriffs nationwide and suggested we contact one of them: Trump super-fan and former Milwaukee county sheriff David Clarke.[47] Even in communications initially thought to be private, such as leaked emails sent by area law enforcement officers who had joined or aspired to join a far-right militia group called the Oath Keepers, Erie County conservatives appear to be more concerned with self-identifying as patriots and “strong supporters of the Constitution” than as White Christians.[48]
When the Far Right and official allies like Howard deny that a group is White supremacist in nature or origin, using misleadingly vague, neutral, or ambiguous terms to describe its goals and beliefs, that denial serves a dual purpose: it complicates efforts to hold officials accountable by obscuring their views and involvement and makes the groups more palatable. From a recruitment perspective, abstract concepts like “liberty” and “community” are more compelling to a broader swath of Americans than specific-but-repellent-to-many terms like “White nationalism.”
When we spoke, Howard talked around questions about what should happen when people violate laws they consider unjust—for example, should local business owners have stayed open in defiance of state-imposed Covid restrictions? Despite his evident right-wing sympathies, Howard sought to portray himself as an independent thinker. Throughout our conversation, he returned repeatedly to the issue of Second Amendment rights, which he presented as non-partisan. Asked about the history of sheriffs siding with local authorities against the U.S. federal government in defense of White business and property owners, Howard said he does not believe that “White privilege,” as he understands the term, exists.[49]
Claiming to value diversity provides far-right actors and their allies a cover of neutrality amid allegations of racism. Take, for instance, statements by Charles Pellien, a former police and corrections officer with longstanding local right-wing ties and founder of the New York Watchmen, a local militia[50] affiliated with the broader militia movement.[51]During a 2020 appearance on “Edge of the Falls,” a local podcast, Pellien boasted that his group was “created by guys with Master’s degrees” and is not just “some ragtag bunch of guys…that don’t know what we’re doing.”[52] He also noted that “Professionalism and image is a big thing for us” and complained that critics were calling his group “a White supremacist group, a bunch of racists,” despite the fact that it had “some diversity.”[53] Pellien has also insisted that his group is not anti-government. “We’re pro-government. We’re pro-police. We back the blue,” he told the Buffalo News in 2020, adding that “Ethnic supremacy is absolutely not tolerated.”[54]
Local and federal government officials have promoted the Watchmen. Clad in a Watchmen T-shirt during a 2020 Facebook Live video shot outside of his former home in East Aurora, Erie County, Michael Caputo, then Trump’s Dept. of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs, urged those “in Buffalo or anywhere in New York” to “look up the New York Watchmen.”[55] Like Howard, Caputo would later deny being a Watchmen member and any knowledge of the group’s activities.[56] Other officials openly embraced the group. After a 2020 confrontation in Buffalo between protesters seeking to end pandemic-related restrictions and demonstrators calling attention to COVID deaths, then Erie County Comptroller Stefan Mychajliw thanked the New York Watchmen and the Buffalo Police Department, saying he was “grateful for their protection.”[57] By thanking the police and the Watchmen, he implied that he needed protection from violent left-wing radicals. His comments also established a link in the minds of county residents between the police and the Watchmen—one that does not officially exist.
Through such endorsements, officials like Caputo and Mychajliw give far-right groups like the Watchmen the stamp of professionalism they crave and enable them to project authority they don’t officially have and share in the glory and prestige commonly attributed to law enforcement. This type of support from public officials helps to legitimize far-right groups, insulate them from consequences, and intimidate their opponents.[58]
Impunity and Far-Right Threats of Force
Expecting and experiencing the ability to act with impunity—as many law enforcement officers and their right-wing associates do—fosters neither good judgment nor restraint. According to a 2020 report by a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, the government’s response to known connections between law enforcement officers and far-right groups has been “strikingly insufficient,” and few officers have been held to account.[59]
As part of their effort to project authority and legitimacy, the New York Watchmen have courted and claimed law enforcement officials as members. “We take the military guys and former police officers and we’ve got special forces veterans,”[60] Pellien said on the “Edge of the Falls” podcast. Without being explicit, what they say indicates that they see conservative White men as heroic defenders of America and its values—and Black Lives Matter activists, students, Democrats, and “antifa” as the enemy. “Black Lives Matter” and “rioters” are mentioned as if they are one and the same; “antifa” is invoked as a bogeyman but never defined.[61]
On the podcast, Pellien portrayed his group as nonpartisan through equivocation. After disparaging antifa and Black Lives Matter—an organization the show’s host implied was on “the opposite side” [62]—Pellien claimed he would defend the latter’s First Amendment rights to protest. He also went further. “It’s not ‘us against them,’ it’s good against bad, good against evil,” he added, suggesting that he sees White male conservatives like himself and his comrades as defenders of goodness and Black Lives Matter activists as allies of evil.[63] Howard, the former sheriff, echoed this Manichean worldview when we spoke. He questioned what makes us do “good things” and “bad things,” arguing that we should focus on “what can we do as a country to encourage more of whatever it is that makes us comply with the law, or comply with what is good, and refrain from doing what is bad.”[64]
While professing to be pro-police, Pellien and many of his associates are willing to defy the police when they believe it’s necessary. When an “Edge of the Falls” host asked him about police being told to “stand down” during a confrontation with Black Lives Matter protesters, Pellien replied, “They were told to do absolutely nothing, and then they told us that we needed to go home and do absolutely nothing, and we refused to do that. That’s why we’re here.”[65]
County officials who avoid endorsing far-right groups by rejecting extremism “on both sides” nevertheless reveal their perspective by implying there is a Far Left in the U.S. as organized and violent as the Far Right. When I asked current Erie County Sheriff John Garcia if it was appropriate for Howard to appear in uniform under an Oath Keepers sign, he replied obliquely, “You’re not going to find me there…I’m against it 100 percent,” adding that “there’s right-wing extremists and left-wing extremists and there’s no room for…any kind of people that hate others or violence towards others.”[66]
Unlike Garcia, who sees the Right and the Left as equally prone to having “extremists,” Pellien sees it as his duty to stand up to what he perceives as a radical and out-of-control Left. He started the New York Watchmen mainly because he was “thoroughly convinced” that if Donald Trump were reelected in 2020, “the Left is not going to accept that,”[67] making him part of a far-right universe of people and organizations involved in efforts to stop Democrats from purportedly “stealing” the 2020 presidential election.[68] Groups like the Watchmen, he continued, serve as a necessary counterforce to “these protests and these rioters” (presumably referring to the 2020 Black Lives Matter uprisings), which are “like a river with no banks…You got to have some dams, you got to have some resistance, and that’s what we’re going to try to be.”[69]
Why Sheriffs Believe They Are the Ultimate Authorities—And How the Far Right Benefits
Although police officers routinely face no or minimal consequences for violating the law and/or departmental policies, they are still theoretically accountable to bosses and state and municipal authorities.[70] As Howard explained, “The police chiefs answer to the superintendent; the state police answer to the governor. The town police answer to town supervisors,” whereas “The sheriff is the only law enforcement executive that answers directly to the people.”[71]
In New York State, only the governor can remove an elected sheriff from office, giving sheriffs enormous leeway to act unilaterally with little meaningful oversight and considerable discretion to enforce the laws they like and ignore the ones they don’t. This has led several sheriffs, including Howard and, less overtly, Garcia, to insist that their power comes directly from “the people” and is limited only by their interpretation of the Constitution. Presenting sheriffs as the most accountable public officials by virtue of being elected lends authoritarianism a democratic veneer.[72]
Even when they don’t identify publicly as “White Christians” or “Christian nationalists,” far-right actors’ views draw on Christian nationalist and White supremacist theories and beliefs. As mentioned above, many Christians believe that America is a Christian country that should be led by Christians. And many conservative Christians are guided by Dominionism, or the belief that God intended Christians to rule over society, in part by injecting their version of Christian values into politics and government. Groups like CSPOA derive their views from theories like the aforementioned doctrine of the lesser magistrate. They also rely on the slender legal basis provided by the Supreme Court’s 1997 ruling in Printz v. United States,[73] which invalidated a section of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act that compelled local law enforcement to enforce the law’s background check requirements, saying that it violated the Tenth Amendment,[74] and empowered local law enforcement officers to flout laws they deem unconstitutional.
Howard’s apparent belief that he was answerable to no one was reflected in his interactions with various authorities throughout his tenure as sheriff. When the U.S. Department of Justice sued[75] the sheriff’s office for a host of constitutional violations related to abusive treatment of inmates in 2009, Howard wouldn’t let federal investigators into his jails to monitor conditions.[76] When county legislators questioned him about body cameras in 2019, he likened those calling for cameras to those who doubted the resurrection of Jesus.[77] Garcia has been less combative than his predecessor, but no less autocratic; the Buffalo News sued him in 2022 to force the release of body camera videos that showed a deputy kicking a restrained inmate in or near his head.[78]
Far from being held accountable, deputies were empowered to hurt and humiliate residents who questioned their authority.[79] In 2019, when a jury convicted deputy Kenneth Achtyl of reckless assault of a University at Buffalo student who sought information about a friend’s arrest, official misconduct, and falsifying business records,[80] Howard attended Achtyl’s trial in what Achtyl understood as a show of support.[81] He later maintained that because Achtyl was convicted of misdemeanors and not felonies, he would not automatically be fired. Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn told me in 2019 that the sheriff’s office “should have fired him,” per New York State’s Public Officers Law.[82] Achtyl was instead permitted to resign and back-date his resignation letter to make it appear that he’d submitted it before his conviction.[83]
Tensions between the Erie County sheriff’s office and accountability-seeking regional authorities also reflect a broader trend. In recent years, conflicts over hot-button issues have erupted between the federal government and state or local authorities. Under Trump, Democratic state and city officials began invoking states’ rights and local control—concepts long associated with the Right. After then-President Trump signed an executive order to slash aid to “sanctuary cities,” mayors and councils in cities like Boston, New York, Denver, Los Angeles, and Santa Fe vowed to protect residents from the anti-immigrant federal government.[84] Others promised to protect women from anti-abortion municipal ordinances. Explaining why he was suing cities and counties that had passed such ordinances, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez pointed to the state’s constitution, which he says guarantees a woman’s right to choose.[85]
These jurisdictional disputes are less about what the federal Constitution and state constitutions say than whose rights these documents exist to protect—and who has the power to decide. A sheriff could theoretically refuse to arrest an undocumented family because he believes the Constitution protects them from discrimination based on race and national origin. But so-called constitutional sheriffs would be much likelier to, say, refuse to arrest a priest who kept his church open during a pandemic. Local police officers and sheriffs have railed against and openly defied Covid restrictions,[86] gun restrictions,[87] and efforts to safeguard immigrants’ rights[88] and rein in police brutality.[89]
Public officials like Howard and groups like the CSPOA, Oath Keepers, and Watchmen empower the Far Right and each other by making it clear that (a) law enforcement shares many of their beliefs and exists to protect them and (b) they are willing to defend those who “take matters into their own hands.” When public officials tacitly or overtly endorse the theory that individuals have the duty and the God-given authority to take back their government, somebody—right-wing agitators, insurrectionists, or murderers like the shooter who killed ten Black people in a racist massacre at a Buffalo grocery store in 2022—will heed the call. The Buffalo shooter, who grew up in a 90 percent White town in the Binghamton area, acted alone but was inspired by reading about “great replacement” theory, the racist, far-right belief that Jews and other minorities are seeking to “replace” White people. Given the county’s shifting demographics and high degree of racial segregation, it’s no surprise that far-right theories have flourished in Western and Central New York.
Law enforcement officers who believe they are the ultimate authority are the law, for all intents and purposes: there is no higher power to appeal to when a sheriff like Howard leaves office voluntarily after presiding over jails where dozens of people died and immediately gets elected to another office, or when a deputy convicted of crimes is permitted to resign rather than being fired, in defiance of state law. If you believe God has empowered you to stand up for law and order and parental and constitutional rights, it’s easy to believe you’re behaving righteously, regardless of the facts. Western New Yorkers and the entire country are paying a heavy price for this dangerous worldview.
Endnotes
[1] Phil Gambini, “Erie County a dubious national leader,” Investigative Post, June 17, 2021, https://www.investigativepost.org/2021/06/17/erie-county-a-dubious-national-leader/.
[2] The total number of counties does not include “county equivalents” that exist as geographic distinctions without government power. “About NACo,” National Association of Counties, https://www.naco.org/page/about-naco.
[3] Spectrum News Staff, “Erie County ranks second in U.S. for January 6 Capitol riot arrests, report says,” Spectrum News, June 17, 2021, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/news/2021/06/17/erie-county-ranks-second-in-u-s—for-january-6-capitol-riot-arrests.
[4] Spencer S. Hsu, Devlin Barrett, and Tom Jackman, “The Jan. 6 investigation is the biggest in U.S. history. It’s only half done,” The Washington Post, March 18, 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/18/jan-6-investigation-2000-charged/.
[5] Tom Dinki, “Two years after Jan. 6, most WNY defendants are on probation after pleading guilty,” WBFO, January 6, 2023, https://www.wbfo.org/politics/2023-01-06/two-years-after-jan-6-most-wny-defendants-are-on-probation-after-pleading-guilty.
[6]Dinki, “Two years after.”
[7] WGRZ Staff, “WNY man sentenced to 50 months in prison for role in Jan. 6 riots at US Capitol,”
WGRZ, July 28, 2023, https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/crime/wny-man-sentenced-to-50-months-in-prison-for-role-in-jan-6-riots-at-us-capitol/71-addab32f-0a4f-402a-840c-65c64181a7a5.
[8] Ed Reilly, “How did Joe Biden and President Trump do with WNY voters?”, WKBW, November 6, 2020, https://www.wkbw.com/news/election-2020/how-did-joe-biden-and-president-trump-do-with-wny-voters.
[9] “Health Equity in Erie County,” Erie County Department of Health, January 2023, https://www3.erie.gov/health/sites/www3.erie.gov.health/files/2023-02/healthequityreport.pdf.
[10] This figure is a calculated estimate based on data available in certified election results for the county’s 2017 sheriff’s race. Of 623,559 registered voters (according to the Board of Elections homepage as of January 22, 2024), 228,501 voted in 2017 in the sheriff’s race. Erie County Board of Elections, https://elections.erie.gov/Files/Election%20Results/2017/2017-General.pdf.
[11] Anthea Butler, “Elected officials who say they were put in place by God are as scary as they sound,” MSNBC, October 31, 2023, https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/eric-adams-mike-johnson-god-appointed-rcna122243.
[12] Frederick Clarkson, “Dominionism Rising: A Theocratic Movement Hiding in Plain Sight,” The Public Eye, August 18, 2016, https://politicalresearch.org/2016/08/18/dominionism-rising-a-theocratic-movement-hiding-in-plain-sight.
[13] Jennifer Agiesta and Ariel Edwards-Levy, “CNN Poll: Percentage of Republicans who think Biden’s 2020 win was illegitimate ticks back up near 70%,” CNN, August 3, 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/politics/cnn-poll-republicans-think-2020-election-illegitimate/index.html.
[14] New York State Board of Elections, Enrollment information by election district, https://elections.ny.gov/enrollment-county.
[15] Matthew Spina, “Three Democrats jockey for party line in Erie County sheriff’s race,” The Buffalo News, June 18, 2021, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/three-democrats-jockey-for-party-line-in-erie-county-sheriffs-race/article_e4228756-cde2-11eb-801b-a3348759f0e0.html.
[16] Refer, for example, to concerns about race voiced during the Cheektowaga Town Board meetings in September and October 2023. Cheektowaga Town Council, “Town Board Meeting 9.26.23,”YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iprVT-PuBg4&t=2566s for public comments at 11:20 to 12:00, at 34:59 to 38:27, and at 40:50 to 44:21; Cheektowaga Town Council, “Town Board Meeting 10.10.23,”YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ0VPSzFVVY&t=1057s, at 17:50 to 20:10. On the local political context for these comments, see Raina Lipsitz, “How a Democratic Socialist Won the Top Office in a Conservative Western New York Town: An Interview with Brian Nowak,” Jacobin, December 12, 2023, https://jacobin.com/2023/12/ceektowaga-brian-nowak-town-supervisor-dsa-…).
[17] “Erie County, NY,” Data USA, https://datausa.io/profile/geo/erie-county-ny.
[18] Andy Young, “Focusing on poverty, segregation in Buffalo following the mass shooting,” Spectrum News, May 22, 2023, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/buffalo/tops_buffalo_mass_shooting/2023/05/22/focusing-on-poverty—segregation-in-buffalo-following-the-mass-shooting; Quick Facts, “Erie County, New York; Buffalo city, New York,” United States Census Bureau, https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/eriecountynewyork,buffalocitynewyork/RHI225222.
[19] “White population drops in Erie, Niagara counties,” Buffalo Law Journal, November 12, 2012, https://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/buffalo-law-journal/2012/11/white-population-drops-in-erie-niagara-counties.html.
[20] Caitlin Dewey, “Buffalo’s population growth outperformed other upstate cities—and more census takeaways,” The Buffalo News, August 14, 2021, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/buffalos-population-growth-outperformed-other-upstate-cities-and-more-census-takeaways/article_97a8dff0-fd3b-11eb-addb-affb23763d67.html.
[21] Dr. Robert A. Pape, “Understanding American Domestic Terrorism,” The University of Chicago Division of the Social Sciences, April 6, 2021, https://d3qi0qp55mx5f5.cloudfront.net/cpost/i/docs/americas_insurrectionists_online_2021_04_06.pdf?mtime=1617807009.
[22] “White population drops.”
[23] Pape, “Understanding American.”
[24] Alan Feuer, “Fears of White People Losing Out Permeate Capitol Rioters’ Towns, Study Finds,” The New York Times, April 6, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/politics/capitol-riot-study.html.
[25] Erie County’s chapter is listed on the Moms for Liberty website.
[26] Tom Dinki, “’This Isn’t just happening in a few places anymore’: There’s efforts to ban books in WNY schools,” WBFO, October 19, 2022, https://www.wbfo.org/politics/2022-10-19/this-isnt-just-happening-in-a-few-places-anymore-theres-efforts-to-ban-books-in-wny-schools.
[27] Will Carless, Chris Ullery, and Alia Wong, “What’s behind the national surge in book bans? A low-tech website tied to Moms for Liberty,” USA Today, October 5, 2023, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/2023/10/05/website-driving-banned-books-surge-moms-for-liberty/70922213007/.
[28] Barbara O’Brien, “Despite losses, national politics make inroads in school elections,” The Buffalo News, May 19, 2022, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/education/despite-losses-national-politics-make-inroads-in-school-elections/article_5d1e1d4a-d6df-11ec-b7a0-77906bb1dca9.html.
[29] “Antigovernment general,” Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/antigovernment-general; “In 2022, 53 hate and antigovernment groups were tracked in New York,” SPLC, https://www.splcenter.org/states/new-york. The SPLC lists the Constitutional Coalition of New York State among antigovernment groups that are part of “antidemocratic,” “hard-right” movements, believe that the federal government is “tyrannical,” and “traffic in conspiracy theories about an illegitimate government of leftist elites seeking a ‘New World Order.’”
[30]O’Brien, “Despite losses.”
[31] “PEN America Index of School Book Bans – 2021-2022,” PEN America, https://pen.org/banned-book-list-2021-2022/.
[32] Dinki, ”This isn’t just happening.”
[33] Sana Sinha, Nicolas Zerbino, Jon Valant, and Rachel M. Perera, “Moms for Liberty: Where are they, and are they winning?,” The Brookings Institution, October 10, 2023, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/moms-for-liberty-where-are-they-and-are-they-winning/.
[34] Sinha, Zerbino, Valant, and Perera, “Moms for Liberty.”
[35] Geoff Kelly, “New York’s Oath Keepers,” Investigative Post, September 14, 2022, https://www.investigativepost.org/2022/09/14/new-yorks-oath-keepers/.
[36] Raina Lipsitz, “24 Prisoners Have Died on Erie County Sheriff Timothy Howard’s Watch,” The Appeal, January 7, 2019, https://theappeal.org/24-prisoners-have-died-on-erie-county-sheriff-timothy-howards-watch/.
[37]Free Upstate, “Sheriff Tim Howard (Full Speech 4-1-14),” YouTube, April 5, 2014, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iisPzGI48FQ&t=654sl. Sheriff Tim Howard at the Stand Up for Your Rights Rally at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York on April 1, 2014.
[38] Author interview with Tim Howard at his office in Wales, New York, November 1, 2022.
[39] Political Research Associates, “Profiles on the Right: Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association,” The Public Eye, November 22, 2013, https://politicalresearch.org/2013/11/22/profiles-on-the-right-constitutional-sheriffs-and-peace-officers-association.
[40] Cloee Cooper, “How a Right-Wing Network Mobilized Sheriffs’ Departments,” The Public Eye, June 10, 2019, https://politicalresearch.org/2019/06/10/how-a-right-wing-network-mobilized-sheriffs-departments.
[41] Jake Meador, “The Doctrine Of The Lesser Magistrate In The 21st Century West,” Davenant Institute, https://davenantinstitute.org/the-doctrine-of-the-lesser-magistrate-in-the-21st-century-west/.
[42] Abortion opponents also use rhetoric aligned with this theory. See Cloee Cooper and Tina Vasquez, “No Sanctuary: Anti-Abortion ‘Abolitionists’ Go to City Hall,” The Public Eye, November 9, 2020, https://politicalresearch.org/2020/11/09/no-sanctuary.
[43] Author interview with Tim Howard.
[44] Raina Lipsitz, “Why do people keep dying in Erie County’s jails?” The New Republic, March 31, 2023, https://newrepublic.com/article/171009/erie-county-sheriff-garcia-howard.
[45] Matthew Spina, “A list of 34 Erie County inmates who have died since June 2005,” The Buffalo News, August 20, 2017, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/a-list-of-34-erie-county-inmates-who-have-died-since-june-2005/article_2162650b-9207-5321-9c5e-93a52d433458.html.
[46] Lou Michel, “Bombs, drugs, white supremacist lit part of case against Niagara Falls man” The Buffalo News, February 4, 2020, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/bombs-drugs-white-supremacist-lit-part-of-case-against-niagara-falls-man/article_c0942628-4be1-5658-97b1-085435036f92.html.
[47] Author interview with Tim Howard.
[48] Kelly, “New York’s Oath Keepers.”
[49] Author interview with Tim Howard.
[50] Heidi I. Jones and Cloee Cooper, “Anti-Vaxx Events in New York Highlight Alignment Among Far-Right Militias, Alternative Health Promoters, and Local Politicians,” Political Research Associates, June 21, 2021, https://politicalresearch.org/2021/06/21/anti-vaxx-events-new-york-highlight-alignment-among-far-right-militias-alternative; Jerry Zremski, “‘New York Watchmen’ aim to guard against civil unrest,” The Buffalo News, September 16, 2020, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/government-and-politics/new-york-watchmen-aim-to-guard-against-civil-unrest/article_a3124f7c-f853-11ea-9c7b-63195ed04912.html, on the New York Watchmen and its ties to other far-right organizations. Alex Findijs, “Who are the New York Watchmen?,” World Socialist Website, October 18, 2020, https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/10/19/nywm-o19.html, reports that the group has chapters in Buffalo and Rochester.
[51] “Militia Movement,” SPLC, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/militia-movement. According to the national Watchmen website, the group was founded in June 2020 and is headquartered in North Carolina.
[52]The Edge of the Falls, “The Edge of the Falls,” Facebook, https://www.facebook.com/100063566920755/videos/366252554584103; reference to “real professionals” and “ragtag bunch of guys” at 29:24 to 29:50. The program’s Facebook page presents the show as “A voice for Niagara Falls New York, a forum for new thinking, for action, and for holding accountabl [sic].”
[53]“Edge of the Falls.” Reference to professionalism and image at 19:50 to 19:55; reference to being called a White supremacist group and diversity at 35:40 to 35:49.
[54] Zremski, “‘New York Watchmen’ aim to guard.”
[55] Tom Dinki, “Extremism in WNY: Local politicians have ties to far-right groups,” WBFO, June 22, 2022, https://www.wbfo.org/local/2022-06-22/extremism-in-wny-local-politicians-have-ties-to-far-right-group.
[56] Dinki, ”Extremism in WNY.”
[57] Ron Plants, “Confrontation over COVID-19 protests in Niagara Square,” WGRZ, December 19, 2020, https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/local/confrontation-over-covid-19-protests-in-niagara-square/71-e4a8b02a-959f-47fd-b47b-a34957505fc0. Although Mychajliw said he “felt threatened,” he was not harmed at the rally, and Buffalo police reported no major injuries or arrests.
[58] Jeff Coltin, “New York City Council Member Vernikov arrested for gun possession after rally,” Politico, October 13, 2023, https://www.politico.com/news/2023/10/13/new-york-inna-vernikov-gun-arrest-00121408.
[59] Michael German, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Racism, White Supremacy, and Far-Right Militancy in Law Enforcement,” Brennan Center for Justice, August 27, 2020, https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law.
[60] “Edge of the Falls.” Reference to former police officers and special forces veterans from 29:30 to 29:46.
[61] Stirring up panic over “antifa” became a common right-wing scare tactic during Trump’s presidency. See Shane Burley, “The Great 2020 Antifa Scare,” The Public Eye, July 13, 2021, https://politicalresearch.org/2021/07/13/great-2020-antifa-scare.
[62] “Edge of the Falls.” Host’s reference to “the opposite side” is at 33:13 to 33:15; reference to antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM) at 26:21 to 26:41; reference to BLM at 33:28 to 33:40.
[63] “Edge of the Falls.” Reference to BLM at 33:28 to 33:40; reference to “’us’ against ‘them’” at 33:33 to 33:48.
[64] Author interview with Tim Howard.
[65] “Edge of the Falls.” Reference to being told to do nothing at 32:19 to 32:50.
[66] Phone interview with John Garcia, February 7, 2023. Along with attributing extremism to both sides, Garcia noted that he runs “a professional law enforcement agency” and “a constitutional office,” sharing the framing and language of his colleagues.
[67] “Edge of the Falls.” Reference to the Left not accepting the election results at 34:10 to 34:30.
[68] Jim Heaney, “The rise of the radical right in WNY,” Investigative Post, May 18, 2022, https://www.investigativepost.org/2022/05/18/the-rise-of-the-radical-right-in-wny/.
[69] “Edge of the Falls.” Reference to rioters like a river with no banks from 34:30 to 34:41.
[70] German Lopez, “Cops are almost never prosecuted and convicted for use of force,” Vox, November 14, 2018, https://www.vox.com/identities/2016/8/13/17938234/police-shootings-killings-prosecutions-court.
[71] Author interview with Tim Howard.
[72] Brian Meyer and Vanessa Thomas, “Howard succeeds Gallivan as Sheriff,” The Buffalo News, June 24, 2005, https://buffalonews.com/news/howard-succeeds-gallivan-as-sheriff/article_a77a1746-83f1-505e-82af-fcbba2ea3c50.html. It’s worth noting that Howard was originally appointed to his position, though he was subsequently elected and reelected.
[73] Printz v. United States, Oyez, https://www.oyez.org/cases/1996/95-1478.
[74] Printz v. United States, 521 U.S. 898 (1997), Justia, https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/521/898/.
[75] Matthew Spina, “U.S. sues county over alleged jail abuses,” The Buffalo News, October 1, 2009, https://buffalonews.com/news/u-s-sues-county-over-alleged-jail-abuses-justice-department-asks-judge-to-ensure-civil/article_9f15de15-9150-58e2-bf74-5c560018b7d6.html.
[76] Fire Sheriff Tim Howard, “Sheriff Tim Howard: A National Disgrace,” Facebook, October 9, 2010, https://fb.watch/pV4e5DPG8x/.
[77] Geoff Kelly, “Sheriff Tim Howard, body cameras and Jesus,” Investigative Post, April 23, 2019, https://www.investigativepost.org/2019/04/23/sheriff-tim-howard-body-cameras-and-jesus/.
[78] Mike McAndrew, “Judge orders Erie County to make public video of officer kicking handcuffed inmate,” The Buffalo News, February 17, 2023, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/judge-orders-erie-county-to-make-public-video-of-officer-kicking-handcuffed-inmate/article_ee350184-aef9-11ed-80f5-2318763ec409.html.
Garcia claimed he was withholding the footage out of respect for the inmate’s privacy. A state Supreme Court justice ruled in February 2023 that Erie County had “no reasonable basis” for denying access to the tape. l
[79] WKBW Staff, “Verdict reached in case against Erie County Sheriff’s Office Deputy,” WKBW, September 27, 2019, https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/verdict-reached-in-case-against-erie-county-sheriffs-office-deputy.
[80] Matthew Spina, “Deputy’s brutality trial shows photos of him hitting Bills fan with baton,” The Buffalo News, September 23, 2019, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/deputys-brutality-trial-shows-photos-of-him-hitting-bills-fan-with-baton/article_f71f1330-7fc3-5c6b-9e64-695547e3d054.html.
[81]Matthew Spina, “Achtyl tells lawyers sheriff was in his corner; Howard disagrees with verdict against convicted deputy,” The Buffalo News, July 11, 2021, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/achtyl-tells-lawyers-sheriff-was-in-his-corner-howard-disagrees-with-verdict-against-convicted-deputy/article_56edefc2-df3c-11eb-bc7d-f7d3cb4a3233.html.
[82]Phone interview with Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, December 13, 2019.
[83]Matthew Spina, “Achtyl dates his resignation letter the day before he was found guilty,” The Buffalo News, October 2, 2019, https://buffalonews.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/deputy-achtyl-dates-his-resignation-letter-the-day-before-he-was-found-guilty/article_db60ce82-8b34-55b5-8dc4-1fb811995e28.html.
[84] Julia Preston, “Decoding Trump’s Immigration Orders,” The Marshall Project, February 3, 2017, https://www.themarshallproject.org/2017/02/03/decoding-trump-s-immigration-orders.
[85] Spencer Shacht, “AG Raúl Torrez sues state counties, cities over abortion ordinances,” KOB, January 23, 2023, https://www.kob.com/new-mexico/ag-raul-torrez-sues-state-counties-cities-over-abortion-ordinances/.
[86] WGRZ Staff, “Law enforcement officials in nine WNY counites won’t enforce Cuomo’s 10 person limit on private gatherings,” WGRZ, November 19, 2020, https://www.wgrz.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/law-enforcement-officials-in-nine-wny-counites-wont-enforce-cuomos-10-person-limit/71-a3da2ccd-10bb-4afa-b848-a1f6c317011f.
[87] Phil Fairbanks, “Sheriff Howard on SAFE Act: ‘I won’t enforce it,’” The Buffalo News, May 17, 2013, https://buffalonews.com/news/sheriff-howard-on-safe-act-i-won-t-enforce-it/article_55649152-04ac-5ddf-b033-d66d96111d1c.html.
[88] Alex Howard, “Monroe County Sheriff agrees immigration order is ‘political,’” Spectrum News, September 18, 2017, https://spectrumlocalnews.com/news/2017/09/18/monroe-county-sheriff-sides-with-tim-howard-on-immigration-order-.
[89] Kelly, “Sheriff Tim Howard, body cameras and Jesus.”