Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford takes on the 'culture of death'

By many metrics, the tenure of Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford has been a success. The JSO has not dealt with the scandals it dealt with during previous administrations, and he has built up his political bona fides to the point where it seemed to some observers — such as this writer — that he would have made a great mayoral candidate this year.

That was not to be, of course; the outgoing sheriff has been a high-profile supporter of Lenny Curry, and any run for mayor will have to wait at least four more years. That being said, his political career is not over: word is that he’s considering a run for the Florida Legislature in House District 12 — in Lake Ray’s seat, which City Council President Clay Yarborough might be eyeing also.

That race, were it to manifest, would be an interesting peek behind the curtain of Republican politics in this town, with the sheriff being able to put his record up against that of Yarborough, whose brief Council presidency has been fraught with controversy (especially having to do with the MOCA funding flap).

Many of those on the inside of city politics claim that Yarborough insists upon staff members calling him President Yarborough in conversations, and that he crumbles under pressure when presiding over Council when dealing with thorny agenda items, such as the recent decision not to add the PFPF Pension Revisions to the Council agenda earlier this month. Those on hand claim privately that, were it not for old hands like Bill Gulliford keeping councilmembers in line, that Yarborough’s tenuous authority would have been usurped on that issue.

Perhaps with this run for Legislature in mind, Rutherford last week spoke to News4Jax and the Florida Times-Union about some big-picture topics, in an effort seemingly designed to illustrate his thinking on hot-button issues and provide a functional transition from law enforcement to law creation.

Rutherford’s comments elicited comment thread and Facebook criticism from the left and the right — a neat trick, but one that’s indicative of the price of ideological evolution in Jacksonville politics.

The comments that people on the left found most interesting had to do with the “culture of death” that Rutherford claims has emerged in the country since Roe V Wade.

“We no longer believe in the sanctity of life,” he said to the Times-Union. “They almost glorify death. … I don’t think these kids when they are killing each other understand they ain’t coming back. … This whole culture of death we have created, it’s a major problem.”

“Whether you kill a baby in the womb or a woman on First and Main, it’s the same thing,” he said. “There’s no respect for that life.”

He amplified these comments in talking to WJXT.

“I think the first degradation of the sanctity of life began with Roe v. Wade,” Rutherford said. “It goes on, and you see the movies, the games the kids play. The video games, the violence in those games, all of that contributes to what I call a culture of death.

“And I believe in the sanctity of life. Whether you kill a baby in the womb or you kill a baby… neither one of those respects the sanctity of life, and that has been an issue with me for a long time. And that changed my position on the death penalty, because every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.”

These comments had something to infuriate everyone. Those who take a pro-choice abortion position bristled at the equation of capital murder with the termination of a pregnancy. Those who take an aggressive law and order position meanwhile thought that his opposition to capital punishment was a mark of cowardice.

Both extremes could dial down their rhetoric some. What Rutherford is doing is attempting to elucidate a consistently Catholic pro-life position; as someone who was raised and educated Catholic, I know first hand that many Catholics wrestle with their positions on the death penalty and legalized abortion.

At the end of a career in law enforcement, it is courageous for him to take a position opposing the state’s right to take a criminal’s life. The equation of murder of an adult on the streets of Jacksonville with the termination of a pregnancy may not make sense to those outside of the Catholic paradigm, but for those familiar with the discussions American Catholics have had for decades, it is a consistent (if perhaps overstated) stance to take.

A less noticed point from the Times-Union piece would be the sheriff’s advocacy for asset forfeiture programs, which the T-U claims has taken “money from drug dealers [to] fund crime prevention programs through the Sheriff’s Office asset forfeiture program. Hundreds of thousands of dollars that had belonged to criminals were granted to programs and organizations like the Police Athletic League and the Justice Coalition.”

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced significant changes to asset forfeiture programs such as the one in Jacksonville. Very likely, the next sheriff of Jacksonville will have to find a way to make up for this lost revenue. The profitability of the drug war for local police departments will become more of an open question under the new paradigm.