There are several people at the Warren County Sheriff’s Department I believe are very good deputies. However, I am writing this to bring attention to the inadequate security provided by Sheriff Martin Pace at this year’s Relay for Life.

As I observed the deputies, I noticed they had very little training in crowd control. I even witnessed one deputy trying to tell a child to move to another area only to be laughed at by the child.

The deputies were not doing what was originally asked of them, so we called the sheriff.

When the sheriff got to the event, he walked up to several different committee members at different times to tell them that we were not going to have another event at the school again. He proceeded to tell us that all of this chaos was our fault and that he was not going to be responsible for any of it. He spent the first 20 minutes of his time finding someone to place blame on instead of taking care of the problem. All he needed to do was to remove all of the young people there who were not there specifically for the event.

It came to my attention that prior to the event Pace had a meeting with the committee chairs to discuss security for the event. Very little of what was promised by the sheriff came to fruition. It seems as if Pace does not like this event and would rather it not take place at all.

So, shame on you Martin Pace for throwing a temper tantrum about having to do a little extra work to maintain safety and security for a worthy charity like Relay for Life.

Paul Naya

Vicksburg