Mayor commends law enforcement for "gotcha" exercise response

Calling it the “great post office stand-off,” Mayor Paul Brooks commended the Crook County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday for its handling of the “gotcha” exercise in which two men came to town claiming to be “First Amendment auditors.”

“I’m very pleased with the outcome,” said the mayor. “I think you guys did a great job.”

The aim of the exercise, which saw a father-and-son duo attempt to gain the attention of law enforcement outside the Sundance Post Office, appeared to be to “prove” that local law enforcement goes beyond its remit and encroaches upon citizens’ right to freedom of speech. The resulting video was posted on two social media accounts and the community was flooded with phone calls and messages from across the nation.

Community members who have reached out to the mayor from both the city and the county are virtually unanimous in thinking deputies did a superb job and, “The sheriff showed incredible restraint,” the mayor said during Tuesday’s meeting. In fact, he said, many commented that they weren’t sure they’d have been able to show the same level of restraint.

The mayor and council members discussed the calls they had received personally in the wake of the event, and that were received by the community as a whole.

“They got on Facebook, they found us, they found our children,” Brooks said, referring to the fact that Sundance Elementary School received calls from people outside the area.

As, he said, did City Hall. “Several days of not having the phones work put us a little behind here at the city,” he commented.

“You couldn’t call the sheriff and you couldn’t call us,” said Brooks. “Whoever these guys are…they put our public safety in jeopardy because of their irresponsible actions.”

The incident also had a detrimental effect on community members attempting to go about their daily business, the mayor said.

“They intimidated the community. People that live here were scared to go to the post office,” said Brooks. “You don’t see that in the 39 minutes [of the video], but in the 14 hours over there, you sure heard a lot about it.”

Undersheriff Todd Leimser, present at the meeting, expressed his thanks to the City of Sundance and its residents for the support they have shown since the incident took place.

“What happened here was a real thing and it was really an impediment to public safety when you can’t get a hold of the city and you can’t get a hold of law enforcement because all these outsiders have their lines tied up,” Brooks concluded.

“Thankfully nothing happened, but the opportunity for something bad to happen existed, that’s for sure.”