To the Editor,

I guess since the 2016 elections, it is de rigueur for the national press to print stolen documents. Was it too much to ask that The Robesonian not to follow suit?

What I find disconcerting about our sheriff’s election is that someone in our local community breached sheriff candidate Ronnie Patterson’s personnel files and the newspaper published confidential information. This is in direct violation of a judge’s order.

Admittedly, Mr. Patterson is a public figure and is held to a different standard. But the same people who question Mr. Patterson’s character and condemn him based on an incident that occurred a decade ago, fail to hold President Trump to any standard.

The president has admitted to assaulting women, and there is compelling evidence that he has had extramartial affairs. That includes his personal attorney paying one woman $130,000 to not disclose an affair. Yet the president has continued to deny having knowledge of any of these affairs or payments to silent these women.

Why is the person holding the most powerful position in the world morally and ethically fit to be president of the United States and Mr. Patterson with 29 years in law enforcement held to a higher standard? For the last 10 years Mr. Patterson has had an exemplary career as Red Springs police chief and has shown a significant reduction in crime.

I have not decided which candidate for sheriff I will support, but my decision will be based on proven accomplishments.

I also wonder if this newspaper is holding all the candidates for sheriff to the same standard. We have a candidate who may have been a suspect in the disappearance ofevidence (drugs and money ) during Sheriff Hubert Stone’s tenure. Will that file make the same trek to the newspaper that Mr. Patterson’s file allegedly did? I bet not! Will there be a lead story investigating that incident some years ago? I bet not!

Let us be fair, if we are going to bring up possible past indiscretions of one candidate for sheriff, then let us revisit possible past indiscretions for them all.

Hodge Stephens

Lumberton