Law Enforcement Professionals Call on Garcia Campaign to Remove False Attack Ad

Erie County Sheriff candidate Kim Beaty, surrounded by law enforcement colleagues, today addressed the baseless attack ad produced by the Garcia Campaign which was designed to allude that if elected Sheriff, Kim Beaty would institute policies to slash police funding and make our county less safe. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Guy Zagara, a retired Buffalo Police Captain who served under then Chief Beaty in Buffalo’s E District—at the time the most difficult district in the city—set the record straight on the leadership of his former commanding officer, saying “I know Kim. I worked under Kim. Kim was my Chief when I was a Captain in the Buffalo Police Department. Kim always advocated for more officers for her district, more manpower for every shift, and more resources for our department.

Zagara added, “During her 35 years in law enforcement she has continued to stand up for the men and women under her command, including at the Buffalo Police Department, and as a decision-maker who managed and continues to manage a police force, the proof is in her record.

“John Garcia’s ad is a nasty lie. I call on him to stop lying to the voters of Erie county and take the ad down. A sheriff who is willing to lie to the public for personal gain does not deserve the trust of the people of Erie county.”

“There is a crisis right now in the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. Our deputies are overworked, our jails are understaffed and our equipment and facilities are in dire need of modernization. This is the result of 16 years of mismanagement and absenteeism.” said Kim Beaty, “It’s time for new leadership.”

“As Deputy Police Commissioner, I managed an annual budget of over $100 million and oversaw over 800 personnel. As Director of Public Safety, I currently manage a law enforcement agency. I am the only candidate for sheriff who can manage the scale of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office. It is irresponsible to hand over the reins to someone without experience because there are lives on the line.

“We must put a stop to the millions in taxpayer dollars that are being spent settling lawsuits and in mandatory overtime. This starts with making sure that the Sheriff’s Office is properly staffed. I plan to immediately start an aggressive recruitment campaign from within our community to fill our ranks.

“If there is anyone who has advocated for ‘defunding the police’, it’s the people responsible for the status quo. Sheriff Howard continues to privatize police work and outsource vital security services to private firms such as the one owned by John Garcia

“716 Security Investigations and its subsidiaries Gallivan, Donovan, and Yarnell (GDY) and Employee Benefit Concepts (EBC) have benefited from almost $300,000 in contracts with Erie County alone since 2015, for work that should be done by union police officers. It’s not about wanting to better the Sheriff’s Office for our community or for the rank-and-file deputies. It’s about money.

“As Sheriff, I will put an end to the nonsense. I will aggressively root out corruption and end conflicts of interest and self-dealing. I will immediately review how our budget is being spent and all existing contracts between the Sheriff’s Office and our partners. The taxpayers deserve it and the dedicated men and women of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office deserve it.”

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Mike Johnson slams brakes on key vote amid GOP rebellion over warrantless spying



With just a month until a key Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act spying power expires, US House Speaker Mike Johnson was planning to try to push through reauthorization legislation next week, but the Louisiana Republican leader is now reportedly delaying the vote while “still dealing with a dozen or so Republican members who want reforms.”

Privacy advocates and lawmakers across the political spectrum have long called for reforms to FISA’s Section 702, which empowers the US government to surveil electronic communications of noncitizens located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information, without a warrant.

Citing three unnamed sources familiar with discussions in the House of Representatives, Politico reported Friday that “with a GOP hard-liner revolt over warrantless surveillance threatening to tank the legislation,” Johnson “will instead work through the remaining issues over the upcoming two-week recess and try to put the extension on the floor the week of April 14.”

Welcoming the development, Demand Progress executive director Sean Vitka said in a statement that “Speaker Johnson is backing away from his plan to ram through a FISA reauthorization vote next week because he knows his members don’t want it and the American people don’t want it.”

Republicans, Democrats, and independents all overwhelmingly want Congress to take serious action to protect privacy—in particular against AI and data brokers—and oppose any efforts to rubber-stamp the government’s warrantless mass surveillance powers as is,” Vitka continued.

“Before any vote on reauthorizing FISA,” he added, “Congress must first enact real protections for Americans’ privacy, in particular by closing the data broker loophole to prevent the government from circumventing the courts and independent oversight through the purchase of Americans’ private location, web browsing, and other sensitive information.”

Various bills, including the bipartisan Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act introduced last month by Sens. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), would close the loophole that agencies use to buy their way around the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which is supposed to protect Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Demand Progress has endorsed that bill, and on Thursday partnered with the Project On Government Oversight and over 130 other artificial intelligence and civil rights groups for a letter urging Republican and Democratic congressional leaders to impose “much-needed privacy protections against government agencies’ warrantless mass surveillance of people in the United States.”

President Donald Trump and his pro-spying deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, have fought for a “clean” reauthorization, but the GOP has slim majorities in both chambers of Congress. In the House, Johnson can only afford to lose two votes, and in the Senate, most bills require at least some Democratic support to get to the president’s desk.

The conduct of Trump’s second administration has fueled calls for reform. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), a member of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a Thursday statement that “as the Trump administration continues to run roughshod over our Constitution, we cannot continue to give them a further opening to sacrifice our civil liberties in the name of national security. We cannot give Stephen Miller a blank check to conduct domestic surveillance in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”

“I have been working on essential reforms to FISA across administrations, and I have not wavered—whether it is a Democratic or Republican president,” she noted. “This has always been a bipartisan issue for good reason. Americans across political parties care deeply about privacy and not being surveilled. Congress has a duty to protect those fundamental constitutional liberties. Any attempt to push forward a ‘clean’ reauthorization of Section 702 will put our private, sensitive data at risk.”

Jayapal stressed that “this Trump administration has been particularly brazen in its use of domestic surveillance to suppress our constitutional rights and dissent. In just the last six weeks, the administration has blacklisted Anthropic for refusing to stand down on its requirement that its technology not be used for the mass surveillance of Americans, and we learned that the Department of Justice surveilled me—and likely many other members—while reviewing the Epstein files, seeking justice for survivors.”

“In Minnesota, federal immigration agents have surveilled and intimidated US citizens exercising their First Amendment rights to document agents’ unlawful actions,” the congresswoman noted. “It is time to reform FISA, ensure our Fourth Amendment protections are guaranteed, and stop the government surveillance of Americans.”

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