If Hilton Head Island doesn’t like how it’s policed, it should start its own force

On Hilton Head

I have a suggestion on how to settle the feud between the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and Fantasy Island, also known as “Hilton Head Island.”

At one point in history — in the late 1970s to early 1980s if memory serves me correct — certain factions on Hilton Head Island made a move to secede from Beaufort County (Oh, the irony) and ostensibly be a county of its own.

Failing that, Hilton Head Island decided to incorporate.

But unlike the other smaller and poorer municipalities in the county that somehow managed to have their own police forces, Hilton Head Island preferred to pay the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office to do it for the community — sort of like paying a maid to clean a house.

But the hired help is not about to take a pay cut.

So back to my suggestion: Why doesn’t the largest and most affluent municipality in Beaufort County break down and create its own police force — and be done with it?

Then if the police don’t pay enough attention to Hilton Head Island — as has been preposterously suggested about the fine, dedicated men and women of the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office — it will be able to handle it without going to court.

Henry Robertson, Beaufort

On Trump

We should be concerned with how President Trump accepts the real possibility of defeat in the coming election and resultant damaging consequences for our country.

In his book “Will He Go? Trump and the Looming Election Meltdown in 2020,” Amherst College legal scholar and professor Lawrence Douglas writes, “Our Constitution does not secure the peaceful transition of power but rather presupposes it.”

Douglas indicates three possible catastrophic scenarios in which Trump would still consider himself president. Trump’s delaying departure actions and tweets could contribute to — among other things — “violent clashes“

Further, even with an overwhelming defeat, don’t expect an orderly constitutional transition — a disastrous prospect during a pandemic recession.

University of Birmingham professor Nic Cheeseman, an expert on contentious elections, wrote “How to Rig an Election,” listing five warning signs from world history:

▪ Organized militia.

▪ Leader not prepared to leave.

▪ Distrustful political system.

▪ Disinformation.

▪ Contentious, potentially close contest

Currently the United States is threatened by all five, so how can our nation prepare?

Cheeseman recommends establishing a bipartisan pact, a broad coalition of representatives including past presidents and members of Trump’s administration.

Further, he recommends shoring up public confidence with state officials’ oversight, audits, a demonstrated integrity of process and media-educated voters on election administration while state and local officials prepare contingency plans for a pandemic election.

Should President Trump attempt to torch conventional norms of democracy, we in the Lowcountry must be prepared. The period of Nov. 4 through Jan. 20, 2021 may be less threatening if we are vigilant.

From a lifelong registered Republican and now independent conservative.

Earle Everett, Hilton Head

On Milbank

Washington Post Writers columnist Dana Milbank recently wrote a very despicable and inflammatory op-ed —and your paper had the audacity to actually print it.

It was a compilation of outright lies and lies by omission. How dare you print such garbage.

If it weren’t for the crossword puzzles you publish, I would cancel your rag.

Thomas Martin, Hilton Head