Republican political candidates vary in the depth of their support for gun rights for us little people. Some talk a good game at election time then get soft post-election. Others offer full-throated support and back it up with actions, before and after elections. Sheriff Jim Mendrick has already proven himself one of those who will not retreat from his pro-gun beliefs just because of withering media and Democrat criticism for it.
Mendrick currently serves as the DuPage County Sheriff. It’s Illinois’ second largest county behind Cook County. It’s a huge operation. Sheriff Mendrick spoke about his work running all of the divisions of the office while simultaneously building new programs for his guests at the jail.
Known as “Sheriff Hug-A-Thug” to people who thought they were smarter than everyone else in the room, Mendrick synthesized a program offering drug rehab, education and vocational training to those in custody. Basically, he works to make inmates employable upon release, especially in the trades, turning them into productive taxpaying members of the community. It’s worked better than anyone imagined and has dropped his recidivism rate from 75% to 18%. And that’s with 80% coming in as substance abusers and 60% coming from Cook County (because DuPage County’s where the money’s at).
When it comes to guns, the good sheriff was among the very first to reject Pritzker’s gun and magazine ban, saying is department would not make arrests for PICA violations. He said that repeatedly, in public, and endured a whirlwind of scorn from the leftists not only in DuPage County, but from Cook County and of course the mainstream media. Yet he didn’t back down. He’s also a huge fan of good men and women packing heat in public.
Sheriff Mendrick in Decatur.
Talking campaign stuff during question and answer, he didn’t think it was a certainty that JB Pritzker would run for governor again if he thought he had a path to win the Dem nomination for the 2028 Presidential race. He’s also working to leverage relationships built through people he’s met in the jail to help him in this campaign.
Either way, he’s the only Republican in the race at the moment. He’s well known in his part of the state and even critics generally respect the work he’s done to lower recidivism rates while working with the other agencies in his county to provide better services for each of them.
He also noted how the so-called “SAFE-T” Act – otherwise known as No Cash Bail – and other misguided “criminal justice reform” laws have done nothing but embolden criminals by allowing them to commit crimes with a fewer consequences.
The sheriff will join us at our LaSalle County meeting on June 19th (Juneteenth!) to meet another contingent of GSL members.
June 19? A little behind?