Sheriff McNamara to back DA 'any way we can...'

Packs strong second amendment message

Waco – In the coming courthouse war, players and pundits will push programs of doom and gloom, clamoring for a change in procedures, but one thing will remain constant, it's clear.

The law enforcement, crime-fighting partnership between the Sheriff's Office and the people's law firm, the Criminal District Attorney of McLennan County, will stand as one of the all-time hang-tough success stories of Jerusalem-on-the-Brazos.

Sheriff Parnell McNamara has seen them come and go, many a prosecutor and DA, because he has worked as a law man since before he got out of high school, when he helped his father, Deputy U.S. Marshal in Charge Thomas Parnell McNamara, Sr., transport prisoners to federal lockups all over North America as a youthful guard.

When he stood up before the Waco Tea Party at Sam's on the Square Tuesday evening, he pointed out the obvious:

• An increased presence in felony investigations throughout the county, in all its cities;
• A new drug task force that has made drug raids in Moody, Mart, McGregor, and assisted in Waco;
• Nine new black Tahoe patrol cars emblazoned with the gold shield and the words, “Your safety comes first;”
• More than 730 arrests since January 1, many of them for drugs. “The stats are just going up and up and up;”
• A jail inspection in which the county lockup “passed with flying colors.”

As he predicted on the campaign trail, “Most of the crimes we investigate have something to do with drugs.”

He recalled with sadness a recent case in which his men responded to a call at a $450,000 house on Rock Creek Road where “a young woman of 28 had drowned in this much water in the bathtub because of a heroin OD and this goof ball sat in the living room playing the guitar while we waited for the crime scene investigators and medical examiner.”

He sounded even more appalled when he mentioned that happened on a Wednesday, and when the narcotics task force returned on Friday, they found kids of 18 shooting the deadly drug, only to serve an arrest warrant the next day and again finding more kids of that age using drugs at the same address.

On a daily basis, he mentioned, people ask “What in the world is the Sheriff's Department doing coming after us in the city?”

There's an answer to that question, too, he reminded his audience.

The Sheriff's Department is the only law enforcement outfit that is headed by an elected official. Cops, DPS, federal officials - and all the rest - are all appointed.

What's more, he has given the patrol division much more investigative authority. They no longer “just fill out a report and turn it over to the detectives.”

The big enchilada is this. Both he and the DA, Abel Reyna, are doing exactly what they told the voters they would be doing.

The first term DA is drawing heavy fire for his get-tough policies on prosecution and an aggressive posture of seeking indictments at a rate that doubles that of his predecessor.

Said Sheriff McNamara, “I want to compliment you, Abel, on the job you're doing, and we're going to back you up any way we can.”

But there is something else he promised, and he intends to make good on that promise.

Second Amendment issues are “so clear,” he emphasized. It states, quite simply, that the right of the people to keep and bear arms “shall not be infringed.”

He recalled his original oath, the one he took so long ago as Deputy U.S. Marshal, to uphold and defend the Constitution.

“I'm going to stand my ground on it...to uphold the Constitution of the U.S. and this state.”

There is one thing the people of McLennan County will never see.

“Every human being has the right to defend themselves...You will never look up at your front door and see the Sheriff's Department come to disarm you and take away your guns.”