Payette County is 3,000 miles from New York City. The differences can be measured in more than just miles. Payette is an agricultural community, growing mainly fruits and vegetables. In New York, the closest anyone comes to serious agriculture is a bedroom turned into hydroponics for marijuana. The rural Idaho farming county in Southwestern Idaho has just 55 people per square mile while New York City has a shade over 27,000 people per square mile.
It would be understandable if the police in New York City don’t know the name of someone they are booking into jail. In Payette County, it’s laughable.
Yet, that’s what the Payette County Sheriff’s Department is claiming as the reason for not allowing Alma Hasse to see friends or family. The PCSD claim they don’t know who the woman is. Until they either figure out her name, they refuse to process her into the jail. Until the well-known “fractivist” is processed, she can’t see family or friends or receive money for the jail commissary.
Whenever a person whose name is unknown is booked into any jail, large or small, city or rural, and law enforcement doesn’t know the individual’s name, the person is routinely processed as Jane or John Doe.
Sheriff Chad Huff has a history of doing things his own way, but more about him later.
Alma Hasse
“Fractivist” Alma Hasse is currently locked up in the Payette County jail for daring to speak out at a public meeting. Currently on a hunger-strike, Hasse has added two allies to her cause. Attorney John Bujak and the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho.
Hasse’s husband, Jim, has been posting updates on Hasse’s Facebook. ‘Alma is strong and has lost so much weight her wedding rings do not fit her fingers,” was one recent posting.
Some observers have likened the conditions under which Hasse is being held as being similar to ISIS.
Who is Chad Huff?
According to his LinkedIn profile, Huff entered the working world after high school as an apprentice meat cutter at the local Safeway. Unable to see his life as a butcher, Huff then joined the Coast Guard where he was stationed at the USCG Siuslaw River Station where he took park in search and rescue missions, body recoveries and miscellaneous law enforcement duties.
Going from basically scraping paint as a Boatswain, Huff found his life’s calling in Kodiak, Alaska where he became a Military Police Officer when stationed at the USCG Support Center in Kodiak. Upon discharge in 1993, Huff joined the Payette County Sheriff’s Office. His first year he was a Detention Deputy. Huff was then promoted to patrol deputy.
Huff picked up more training in January 1997 when he joined the Idaho State Police. A position he held for 6 and one-half years. Based on his Highway Patrol work, Huff ran for, and was elected, Sheriff of Payette County in January 2005.
Conflict Follows Huff
Conflict seems to follow Huff wherever he goes. In February, 2013, the lawman created waves and upset the citizens with remarks he made during a standing-room-only meeting at Payette High School Auditorium with citizens who were concerned with the direction law enforcement was heading in Payette County. The meeting, reported in the Boise Weekly didn’t go well for Huff — but it was his fault.
“We, as sheriffs, have to decide upon ourselves if laws are unconstitutional,” said Huff. The comment completely missed the mark on how America makes, interprets and enforces the law. David Leroy, a former Idaho attorney general and former Idaho lieutenant governor, said, “We require public officials to take an oath to be faithful to state and federal constitutions when they’re sworn into office. The impact of that is that even a sheriff must obey the laws as interpreted.”
Huff’s ideas about enforcing the constitution weren’t the only remarks that drew attention. Huff has, in the past, talked about creating an armed “posse.” The idea of a posse, which Huff could turn to if things got worse, has been brewing with the lawman for several years and at the high school meeting, he openly admitted it. “Yes, I’ve had a posse proposal sitting on my desk for a while,” Huff told the crowd.
For two straight hours, Huff sounded like an old Mayberry routine. Only Andy and Barney never performed so poorly.
Regarding semi-automatic weapon legislation introduced in California by Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein (pronounced FINE-stine), Huff repeatedly butchered the lawmakers name as Feen-steen. Despite the audience trying to correct Huff’s mispronunciation, he referred to the California lawmaker four more times as “Feensteen.” Feensteen wasn’t the only word Huff had trouble with. He had to get some help in pronouncing such difficult words as “prohibition” and “parochial.”
Maybe about the time Sheriff learns to pronounce names, he'll also remember what the real name is of that lady he has locked up.
After all, in a county with 55 people per square mile, remembering a name couldn’t be THAT difficult.
