Mississippi sheriff's solution to the drug crisis? Everyone must "truly find Jesus"
The Monroe County sheriff used a drug bust announcement to proselytize
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A man in Monroe County, Mississippi was recently arrested on charges involving drugs and weapons. Makes sense. But when the Sheriff’s Office posted about the arrest on Facebook, it included a long personal message from Sheriff Kevin Crook that suggested the solution to the local drug crisis was Jesus.
… When I came into office in 2020, we inherited a methamphetamine epidemic in this county. I asked my head of narcotics at that time about the number of people he estimated to be on methamphetamine out of our 36,000 citizens. He stated firmly, "about 10,000". I admit that I did not believe him. It could not have gotten that bad. Now after 5 years in office, I am seeing what he was seeing.
I don't know what the answer is Y'all, other than that we all truly find Jesus, but we have got to get tougher sentences on those who are making their living selling this stuff to our family members.
End of Rant.
Have a blessed and safe week.
Mississippi is the most religious state in the country. There’s more than enough Jesus to go around. Guess what? It’s not helping. While there are a number of causes of drug addiction, and any number of potential ways to address it, more Jesus has never been a decent solution. The systemic problem won’t get addressed if law enforcement officials treat religion as the cure.
It’s not just the wrong answer; it’s completely inappropriate for a sheriff to promote his religion.
Was it just a knee-jerk reaction? Not at all. Last week, Crook posted a video on his official page making the exact same point:
… I don’t know what the answer is. You know, I wish I did. I know Jesus is coming back one day and we’ve all got until that day to figure out our own eternities. And so, on the grand scale of things, today, I would rather be concerned with that than anything else.
He’s entitled to his personal delusions, but what the hell is he doing recording and posting that message on the taxpayers’ dime?
The Freedom From Religion Foundation has now sent Crook a letter warning him about letting this happen again:
As Monroe County’s highest law enforcement official, you are tasked with upholding the law. It is an abuse of power for you to use your position and the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office’s resources to promote your personal religious beliefs and proselytize to Monroe County’s citizens. We ask that you remove any inappropriate social media posts, and refrain from promoting religion or posting religious messages on the Sheriff’s Office’s official Facebook page or through other official communication channels in the future.
Shortly after receiving that letter, the video was still up but the earlier message about the arrest had been edited to remove those personal remarks. (“Have a blessed and safe week” was still up, but that was relatively innocuous.)
There’s no mention of why the post was edited. No apology either.
But it’s not like these actions are new. Kevin Crook is the same person who allegedly dreamed of a Giant Christian Cross on public property and helped get enough donations to make it a reality. The Facebook page for the sheriff’s department used the following image, with three crosses, as its profile picture for the majority of 2022.
Even the current Facebook page features the phrase “In God We Trust” on one of the department’s vehicles.
Maybe if they were less focused on Jesus and more focused on getting people better jobs, affordable health care, and greater opportunities, they would be less likely to resort to drugs.
I would really like to know just HOW Jesus is going to detox someone or help them get shut of any kind of addiction or dependency, regardless of what it is. Seriously, this crap has been tried before, likely in Mississippi and possibly other states in the Deep South, and my guess is that the outcomes in any of those attempts was pretty much the same: some people got right, but MORE people went right back to what they were jonesing after.
I'm no expert, but I still can't help but think that if someone is going to propose ANYTHING as a cure for addiction, they'd better have some DAMNED good evidence, demonstrating that their cure actually WORKS. Crook not only hasn't done any such thing, but in trying to introduce religion into his job, he's in violation of State / Church separation, which is why the FFRF is on his case.
And I can't help but think that he's about to learn his lesson the HARD way.
𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗹𝘆 find Jesus? If he's talking about the Jewish apocolyptic faith healer who got in trouble with the Romans for seditious behaviour around 2 millenia ago (who may not have even existed), he needs to head to the middle east and start digging. Otherwise, he should be able to find him quickly. I understand that Jesus is a somewhat popular name in the Latinx community...