BUTLER COUNTY, Ohio — An outspoken Ohio sheriff is speaking out about tense relations between police and the communities they serve in recent months.
The Butler County Sheriff's Office near Cincinnati posted a release on Facebook Wednesday addressing actions aimed at police. Sheriff Richard K. Jones referred to reported incidents of people dumping water on officers, throwing bricks and frozen water bottles at police and shining lasers in officers' eyes in Portland, Oregon.
Jones also said officers have been shot at in Chicago and other cities across the country.
“I won’t tolerate it, period," Jones wrote. "You shoot at the police expect us to shoot back. I will not allow my deputies or any law enforcement officer in Butler County to take the abuse I have seen over the past several months."
The post had been shared more than 2,600 times by midnight Wednesday.
It's not the first time Jones has been outspoken on social media. In 2016, he took part in a video proclaiming himself as "The Most Interesting Sheriff In The World." In that video, he said he loves snitches and asked residents to turn in drug dealers to get heroin off the streets.
Butler County sits on the Indiana-Ohio state line and includes suburbs northeast of Cincinnati, plus Middletown and Oxford.
