Recall of Sheriff Fortney isn’t about defunding police

I was taken aback by the headline, which proclaimed Sheriff Adam Forteny’s main campaign slogan: the recall petition is by those wanting to defund police (“Fortney: Group pushing to defund police is behind recall,” The Herald, Sept. 12) . This is simply untrue. The headline trumpeted a misleading or false claim by those hoping to keep the sheriff in office. The article by Jerry Cornfield should have checked this out and gotten a statement from the petition backers. Poor journalism to have left that out.

I am wholeheartedly behind the effort to recall Sheriff Fortney. I am opposed to defunding police, while strongly in favor of reform and building up a range of responses to improve overall pubic safety.

I support the recall because Adam Fortney has a very poor sense of duty and professionalism. He thinks the office of sheriff is a public platform to take one side against an other in the political divides in our County. He irresponsibly and unreasonably attacked the governor in the middle of a pandemic emergency in our state. He shows a lack of command ability by rehiring officers others had dismissed. His example in that to other serving deputies is detrimental to order and discipline. A good commander leads others to their best efforts, not excuses their worst.

Mark Miller

Snohomish