Silence from Gilstrap creates exposure for Warren in 2016 Cobb County Sheriff election

Silence from Gilstrap creates exposure for Warren in 2016 Cobb County Sheriff election

By Samuel Rusch, Kennesaw State University

KENNESAW, Ga. - Georgia native and current Cobb County Sheriff Neil Warren is once again campaigning against Lieutenant Gregory Gilstrap of Morehouse College to be the Sheriff of Cobb County. With nearly 40 years of experience, Warren is skeptical about Gilstrap’s campaign efforts and his experience.

“I never hear of him during the off season,” Warren said. “The only time you hear from him is during election year. You can’t just come out and start running for sheriff for four or six months before the election. You have to be involved in the community and be passionate about doing a good job.”

After several failed attempts to arrange an interview with Gilstrap, he eventually responded via email saying “My time is very limited. However, please visit my website and Facebook for information on my stance in this campaign.”

The Marietta Daily Journal experienced similar difficulties attempting to contact Gilstrap.

The fact that the Facebook page “Gregory B. Gilstrap for Sheriff of Cobb County” was created only six months prior to the 2016 election supports Warren’s accusations of Gilstrap’s lackadaisical campaign efforts.

Despite having approximately 34 years of law enforcement experience, Warren doubts Gilstrap’s abilities as Cobb County Sheriff.

“He’s never had that kind of responsibility,” Warren said. “I think the citizens would be devastated if he came in here. My 40 years of experience outweighs his experience of him claiming that he’s been in law enforcement. There’s no way he can match what I’ve done.”

Focusing on the future, Warren hopes to improve upon relations between Cobb County Police and the community.

In 2012, Fox News named Warren one of America’s toughest anti-illegal immigration Sheriffs primarily due to his involvement with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287(g) program. 287(g) has been used to identify hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants for deportation nationwide since 2006 and has been scrutinized as a flawed system.

According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, Cobb County was the fourth most populated county in Georgia by illegal immigrants in 2015. In order to become the least populated county in Georgia by illegal immigrants, Warren said that “the Feds” would need to become more involved.

On September 26, 2016, Warren shared a picture to his Facebook page that appeared to show the Mexico and Guatemala border accompanied by a caption describing illegal immigrants as freeloaders.

Although it seems legitimate, this is actually a photo of a portion of the West Bank barrier in Israel.

Previously an illegal immigrant and a current Cobb County resident, Sarah, 23, said that Warren “needs to get educated.”

Arriving in Brownsville, Texas in 1994, Sarah and her mother abandoned a life of violence and gang activity in Heroica Matamoros, Tamaulipas in Mexico. In order to provide forSarah, her mother and uncle were forced to resort to selling drugs.

“My Mother’s twin brother was literally being killed in front of her over a dispute over drugs,” Sarah said. “His attacker told my mother ‘if I see you or your daughter again I’m going to kill you’.”

Moving to Georgia soon after her arrival in Texas, Sarah discovered that she was illegal when applying for college. Jumping at the opportunity to become a legal U.S. citizen, Sarah claims to be the first person in Georgia to take advantage of President Obama’s DACA policy in 2012.

Sarah is now a legal resident, not a citizen, but her mother still resides within the U.S. illegally.

In response to Warren’s “freeloader” Facebook post, Sarah said, “Ha, that makes me laugh. We [my family] pay taxes; we’re not lazy.”

Not only does Sarah work multiple jobs, but she also volunteers at animal shelters and soup kitchens for the homeless.

“There are so many homeless people out there with Social Security and birth certificates that call themselves citizens just because they’re born here,” Sarah said. “But they’re not out there working. These citizens have all the opportunity and tools to get a job and make a better life for them, but they don’t.”

Having heard Warren say “We’re only kidding ourselves if we say that we don’t have gang problems [in Cobb County],” Sarah said, “Gang violence here has nothing on the gang violence that there is in Mexico. Here, there are threats and over there are promises.”

Despite Warren’s assurance that Cobb County Police don’t profile Hispanics, Sarah said, “I think police profile Hispanics. But the thing is, not every Hispanic is a Mexican.”

Both Warren and Gilstrap have expressed concerns about the steadily declining trust of the Cobb County Police from the community.

“I need to make sure that the community understands that we’re there for them and we’re not the enemies,” Warren said. “In law enforcement, someone might violate somebody’s rights and that’s my job to deal with it.”

Jaron Whitehead, 20, is a Junior studying Biology and a member of the African American Male Initiative at Kennesaw State University. Whitehead said that there is undoubtedly a disruption of justice towards the African American community from the police.

After being pulled over for having a broken taillight by Cobb County Police, Whitehead said that he was searched because of his skin color.

“They were bullying us,” Whitehead said. “They were saying stuff that they knew would personally get us aggravated. I can see how people would see police as [being] out to get them mainly as a result from all the shootings and the police trying to cover it up or do the bare minimum.”

When asked if Black Lives Matter should exist, Warren said “No. We’re all humans. Until people start respecting themselves and respecting everybody else we’re going to have conflict.”

“I think all lives matter,” Whitehead said. “Black Lives Matter focuses specifically on us because it seems like we are getting targeted more often than the majority.”

Warren said that the media plays a huge role in spreading confusion within the community.

“I don’t think the media is biased,” Whitehead said. “I think it’s showing what’s actually

happening.”

Whitehead said that most police officers are doing their jobs correctly and that only a small percentage of them are receiving gross amounts of media coverage.

With the majority of Cobb County being White, Whitehead said that the fact that Georgia is more of a Republican state will have a greater effect on the outcome of the election besides the fact that Sheriff Warren is White.

“I’ve got a record of doing this job and I think it speaks for itself,” Warren said.