Neighboring sheriff refutes Santa Cruz County sheriff’s description of ‘peaceful’ protests

A southern Arizona sheriff says protests against border wall construction in a neighboring county have not been as peaceful as the sheriff there has portrayed.

Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said Tuesday his office has statewide authority and is ready and willing to respond if problems continue in Santa Cruz County with no response from its sheriff’s office.

“We’ve been contacted by many of the law enforcement in that area, absent the sheriff’s office, in regard to escalating violence, protesters that were damaging equipment, using bear spray against agents, to include spitting on agents,” Dannels told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona’s Morning News.

Dannels said one protester’s spit got into an agent’s mouth.

“The statements were very clear … from the construction company that called … to the federal agents, that Santa Cruz County would not respond,” he said.

Were Santa Cruz County protesters peaceful?

On Friday, the Arizona Sheriffs’ Association issued a letter responding to Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway’s decision to stop responding to calls from federal agents and contractors about potentially illegal protester behavior. The letter says other sheriffs stand ready to provide law enforcement support in Santa Cruz County if the Arizona Department of Public Safety asks for it.

Hathaway responded with a statement Monday saying the protesters have been “peaceful,” and he alleged that federal agents were the ones committing violence.

Dannels disputed Hathaway’s description of the protests in Lochiel, east of Nogales.

“I don’t mind peaceful protest. That’s a legal right under the Constitution,” Dannels said. “What’s not legal is to assault officers, put spikes in the road, damage property, climb up on it, put cat litter … in their engines, on and on, to damage this equipment. That’s not peaceful protest.”

Santa Cruz County is a small county along the border between Pima and Cochise counties. Nogales is its biggest city.

Protesters tried to stop border wall construction there by occupying the last “grandmother” cottonwood tree in Lochiel. On Oct. 5, Border Patrol agents reportedly arrested at least 20 people and used a cherry picker to remove a protester from the tree, which is over 150 years old, before cutting it down.

What comes next in Santa Cruz County?

Dannels said any future action by law enforcement depends on what the protesters do next.

“I’ve been told the protesters are leaving, which is a good thing,” he said. “I mean, if they want to sit down there and wave a sign, that’s fine, but they’re leaving. We’ll find out more today. If it goes in that trend, this problem will go away.”

In his statement Monday, Hathaway accused the Arizona Sheriffs’ Association of political bias. He said he stopped paying dues and let his membership lapse after years of trying to convince the group’s leadership to be more politically neutral.

Dannels, who has been Cochise County’s sheriff since 2013, shared a different account of Hathaway’s departure from the organization, which currently counts 13 of the state’s 15 sheriffs as members.

“He was voted out in his first term by the Arizona Sheriffs’ Association, unanimously voted out by his colleagues,” Dannels said. “That says it all. That’s never happened, as far as I know, in historical time that the Arizona sheriffs would vote out another member. … I don’t even remember him ever being at a sheriffs’ meeting.”

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