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The Highest Law in the Land
- How the Unchecked Power of Sheriffs Threatens Democracy
- Durée: 14 h
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The Highest Law in the Land
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Description
Shortlisted for Columbia Journalism School’s J. Anthony Lukas Prize
A Publishers Lunch NonFiction Buzz Book
A leading authority on sheriffs investigates the impunity with which they police their communities, alongside the troubling role they play in American life, law enforcement, and, increasingly, national politics.
The figure of the American sheriff has loomed large in popular imagination, though given the outsize jurisdiction sheriffs have over people’s lives, the office of sheriffs remains a gravely under-examined institution. Locally elected, largely unaccountable, and difficult to remove, the country’s over three thousand sheriffs, mostly white men, wield immense power—making arrests, running county jails, enforcing evictions and immigration laws—with a quarter of all U.S. law enforcement officers reporting to them. In recent years there’s been a revival of “constitutional sheriffs,” who assert that their authority supersedes that of legislatures, courts, and even the president. They’ve protested federal mask and vaccine mandates and gun regulations, railed against police reforms, and, ultimately, declared themselves election police, with many endorsing the “Big Lie” of a stolen presidential election. They are embraced by far-right militia groups, white nationalists, the Claremont Institute, and former president Donald Trump, who sees them as allies in mass deportation and border policing.
How did a group of law enforcement officers decide that they were “above the law?” What are the stakes for local and national politics, and for America as a multi-racial democracy?
Blending investigative reporting, historical research, and political analysis, author Jessica Pishko takes us to the roots of why sheriffs have become a flashpoint in the current politics of toxic masculinity, guns, white supremacy, and rural resentment, and uncovers how sheriffs have effectively evaded accountability since the nation’s founding.
A must-hear for fans of Michelle Alexander, Gilbert King, Elizabeth Hinton, and Kathleen Belew.
Ce que les critiques en disent
“In her new book The Highest Law in the Land, Jessica Pishko shines a much needed spotlight on the right wing extremism brewing in Sheriff's offices across the country and asks the tough question about whether we still need this inherently problematic institution.”—Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing
“Jessica Pishko is the leading authority on American sheriffs. As she writes, this is their moment–across the country, their role is increasing in importance as a result of the pandemic and criminal justice reform. Sheriffs are not united on either front. They span the political spectrum, and that makes them an amazingly interesting entry point for looking at the perennial American battle between our dueling impulses toward punishment and mercy.”—Emily Bazelon, author of Charged