— Longtime resident with criminal justice training & experience seeks to end the divisive and unnecessary “war on your rights” –
CADILLAC, MI – May 13, 2024 – Today, longtime resident Jake Bassett launched his campaign to be
elected as Wexford County sheriff. His message to voters? “A county sheriff is the local community’s last
line of defense to protect our Constitutional rights against political trends and ill-conceived laws that
divide us.” Bassett added, “It’s an elective public office that should always be under civilian control by
people whose top priority is to respect our individual liberties as we peacefully go about our day-to-day
business. It should never be a one-way transmission line for state-level bureaucrats to impose mandates
from Lansing or anywhere else.”
Bassett described his law enforcement vision: “Everybody,” he says, has “something to gain from an
approach that minimizes interference with our peaceful activities.”
• Deputies know that statistically, when there is a good bond between the public and law
enforcement, communities are safer and more law abiding.
• To achieve this goal, deputies want to be viewed as true servants of the community, not a
distant, imposed element. By acting as servants of the Constitution – as people who are subject
to the same laws they enforce – they can achieve this goal.
• Accountability is at the heart of being viewed as community servants. And there really is a
hunger for accountability among law enforcement professionals because they know it will attract
and hold onto the best and brightest for Wexford County.
Bassett said that this approach minimizes friction between residents and reduces tension between
residents and over-active deputies: “When people mind their own business, they get along just fine as
good neighbors. They’re not trying to control others or worried someone’s trying to control them. And
deputies won’t be in the business of enforcing tension-producing laws that cost a lot of money to
enforce and litigate.”
Mr. Bassett anticipates support from the 2nd
-Amendment community, LGBT community, opponents of
victimless crime laws, deputies who understand that good relationships are based on minimizing the
number of unnecessary conflicts with citizen-taxpayers, conservatives, homeschoolers, people who value
Constitutional protections, and those who just want to be good neighbors and otherwise left alone.
Now employed by a local lumber and delivery business, Jake Bassett has held private security positions
at major retail establishments in the community and has a longstanding interest in law enforcement,
criminal justice, and resolving tensions surrounding police activities. He has completed training in a
criminal justice program sponsored by West Shore Community College.
