DeSmit: First Amendment auditors need mental health therapy and a good spanking | Editorials

Maybe he was planning this all along but most people suspect it was a YouTube video that finally put him over the edge.

Daniel Warmus of Alden posted the hour-long video, revealing not the “corruption” within the Sheriff’s Department but that Warmus is nothing but a smarmy little weasel who did all he could to provoke deputies into beating him senseless.

For those who haven’t seen the video, Warmus enters Wyoming County Courthouse as part of what he calls a “First Amendment audit.”

At various points in the video he berates deputies, calls them “dumb” and basically is annoying kid brother who puts his fingers “thisclose” to your face and says “I’m not touching you.”

The deputies show great restraint, despite Warmus’s provocations.

I first came across one of these “auditors” in Orleans County, where Kenneth Ortiz, another rat-faced punk, goes into every public space he can to disrupt the lives of working people, including librarians and clerks and secretaries.

Mostly, they go after cops, getting in their faces, demeaning them to the point where no one would blame the officers if they lost it.

I watched dozens of these videos and cannot believe the restraint shown by police officers. In most cases, the officers act with respect. They remain calm and deal with it professionally.

Warmus was able to instigate enough to get the deputies riled.

Rudolph remained calm but has yet to talk about the video.

I’ve known the sheriff for many years and it’s sad to see him go.

I cannot blame him one bit.

He has been through much as sheriff and, before that, as a sergeant and deputy. He has been shot. He was attacked on the roadside in 2018, by a man he thought was in need of help.

He has seen one of his longtime sergeants murder a man, a seedy affair that still reverberates through the county.

He and other police have been lambasted with “reforms” and forced to create committees and master plans and reviews of everything they do. They arrest the bad guys and girls and watch them walk free to commit more crimes.

Respect for police? Gone.

I wouldn’t blame every single police officer in every single department if they quit today.

Yes, there are bad cops. They are, after all, human.

I’ve worked with hundreds and hundreds of officers in the past 33 years and can think of but a few that I didn’t respect and like.

Greg is one of the good guys. The court deputies on Warmus’s video are good people.

Warmus and Ortiz aren’t alone. Search YouTube and you will see the same “First Amendment auditors” throughout the country.

Most are unemployed, rather stupid and blatantly looking for a handout in the form of a lawsuit settlement or enough views to get attention.

All of them are rude and childish. You only have to see Warmus on his video to know that.

Eventually they will go too far. That is a guarantee. Some cop or other public official will lose it and bad things will happen.

I won’t blame them at all.

I’m sure Warmus is smirking right now, knowing that he may have been the last straw for Rudolph. I’m guessing he will post another insipid video to brag, just as he did when he went inside the U.S. Capitol building with all the other morons on Jan. 6.

He needs help. Of that, I’m sure.

As for Rudolph, well, I’m going to miss him and I wish him a stress-free retirement.

Wyoming County needs more people like him.

Scott DeSmit is a general assignment reporter for The Daily News. He can be reached at desmitmail@yahoo.com.