It came about funnily enough, when we were ordered to close the Elks Lodge for Covid concerns. This is a tight knit group of relatively connected people and one of our members is the Sheriff. We met in secret with the Sheriff in attendance, had beers and talked about how we were going to organize a non-compliance. This spread to other parts of the community and we had overwhelming support. We then gathered in the streets in front of county hall to let city council know that we were not going to comply and the law enforcement that turned up didn't arrest anyone. Shortly thereafter the Sheriff made a public statement about how he was not going to enforce the governor's orders and that was that.
There's more to it than this of course, but the governor made a statement in response but took no further action even though he does have the legal right to remove the sheriff. I think that the governor knew that if he did this it would make the entire state angry and they would vote him out. The Sheriff likely made this decision in part to advance his own political career because he made national headlines when he did this, at least briefly. He also did it because I think he saw the writing on the wall and that if he stood in our way of freedom that his current term would be his last.
Thanks for that info - shows the value of clubs. I don't know any of the local law enforcement, but have heard our sheriff is a "constitutional" sheriff, who would not enforce unconstitutional laws. I haven't heard of anyone being arrested for non-compliance, but I moved here late 2021 so I may have missed it.
Our biggest problem here is with the board of health. Our deranged governor and her health commissioner sidekick gave tax payer money to counties that would enforce mask mandates. This county was surrounded by counties that refused the money, but my department of health took it and harassed the businesses that would not require masks - there were only a few of these, but you can be sure those were the businesses I patronized.
How does a head of a department of health have the power to enforce regulations with the force of law? I don't know if it's an elected position. But in trying to find out just now, I learned that a distant family member of mine is an employee of the department. I'll ask him.