Saturday, December 29, 2007

El Paso's Sheriff Leo Samaniego, R.I.P.

Spare months after announcing his retirement, long-time El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego (see his pdf bio prepared by El Paso County) passed away yesterday, succumbing to cancer that had not been previously disclosed. While this blog disagreed with Samaniego on certain policies (particularly his desire for the local Sheriff to enforce immigration laws), by all accounts he was a man of integrity, an old-school cop who acted on what he believed in rather than just talk about it. In choosing politicians, I've learned from bitter experience to prefer pols with integrity who may disagree with me to spineless ones who say what I want to hear, and Samaniego, to my mind, always fell in the former category. El Paso was lucky to have him, and I hope his family and friends will accept Grits' bloggerly condolences as they honor the Sheriff and a full life devoted to public service.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Scott I have a question for you regarding a potential paying gig.....i need help researching a project for PEP and my own interest. I am a Dallas board member of Prison Entrepeneurship Program and have been assigned a task which you may be able to help with. Please let me know the best way to contact you. Thank you

Stephen A White

Gritsforbreakfast said...

Sure, Stephen, my email is shenson[at]austin.rr.com. I'm about to head out to see my Dad for a while, but shoot me an email and I'll get back to you.

Anonymous said...

I have heard about the PEP and it is a fantastic way to support prisoner rentry into society. I hope the program will expand soon to provide services to more prisoners!

Anonymous said...

Someone has to enforce the laws, and I suspect that a sheriff in El Paso would know more about it than the rest of us.