#2420: Ben Wolfinger

Ben Wolfinger is the Sheriff of Kootenai County, Idaho, and he espouses a, shall we say, “American traditional” view of what his role involves. He is tough, independent, likes to lock people up, and has only a relatively dim idea of the distinction between the law and what he’d like the law to be, perhaps in particular when it comes to being gay and other wussy activities.

 

So in 2013 (Wolfinger has been in office for a while), Wolfinger decided to drop his agency’s sponsorship of a Boy Scout troop because the group is now “promoting” sodomy, which according to Wolfinger is illegal. “It would be inappropriate for the sheriff’s office to sponsor an organization that is promoting a lifestyle that is in violation of state law,” said Wolfinger. “Sodomy is against the law in Idaho,” he added. It isn’t. But what can one really expect a chief law enforcement officer of the county to know, right?

 

Diagnosis: Old-fashioned fundamentalist. He’s apparently retiring in January 2021, at least, though given the ideas and behavior of other Idaho sheriffs (Bonner County Sheriff and Covid-denialist Daryl Wheeler, for instance) and candidates for replacing him (Oath Keeper Richard Whitehead and tireless promoter of fake news related to Covid-19 John Grimm, for instance), we’re not particularly optimistic about the future either.