Yesterday the Great Falls Tribune reported on alleged sex offenders and other alleged criminals who have safe haven on the Blackfeet Reservation because law enforcement officials from neighboring jurisdictions are not able to serve warrants or extradite suspects for prosecution.
Since the Blackfeet Nation is a sovereign entity, county deputy sheriffs lack the authority to enter the reservation to arrest the suspects. Rodney "Fish" Gervais, tribal spokesman, declined to address any specific case, but said that, in general, the tribe will decline to extradite its residents until it is able to negotiate government-to-government agreements with counties.
Warrants not being served to suspects on Indian reservations is an increasingly common problem, said outgoing Cascade County Attorney Brant Light.
"In fact, I'd say it's the norm by now," Light told the Tribune. "It's getting so bad that we've discovered cases of people who have our bench warrants outstanding against them being arrested on tribal charges on the reservation, but even then our bench warrants have gone unserved."
While I support the Blackfeet tribe and their exploration of sovereignty issues, this isn't the way to do it.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good thing in my opinion. Since it is far to easy to have an arrest warrent taken out on a person these days for practicaly anything,I believe people need a way to evade arrest at least temporararly in certain cases.As far as truly dangerous criminals go,well we can not get them all,and besides lets say a criminal is hiding on a reservation;there is a good possibility that that person will not harm a soul in hopes of indefinatly avoiding arrest ! If this is not the case the Indian authorities can deal with them.I am thinking right now of a time when certain people,''including Indians''truly deserved a safe respite from the long and often corrupt arm of the law.No government should have unlimited jurisdiction !
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