Local leaders of last summer’s nationwide push for police reform said they’re alarmed by Tuesday’s revelation that a member of the far-right nationalist Proud Boys accused of participating in the U.S. Capitol riot is married to an Orange County deputy sheriff.
The Sheriff’s Office confirmed Tuesday that Arthur Jackman, who has reportedly served as vice president of the Central Florida Proud Boys, is married to Deputy Sarah Jackman. The agency said there was “no evidence or indication” she had anything to do with the Jan. 6 riot or is a member of any extremist group.
It’s unclear, however, what if anything she knew about her husband’s involvement in the riot, or if she reported his involvement to any law enforcement agency.
Hours after this story was published online, the Sheriff’s Office responded to questions from the Orlando Sentinel with a statement that said the agency has an “inquiry under way concerning what information Deputy Jackman may have had about her spouse’s involvement in the events of Jan. 6.”
The statement said that “it would be concerning if a deputy is associated with people or groups that exhibit extremist ideology,” but did not say if the probe would examine whether the deputy had such associations, beyond her husband, or shared his ideology.
Federal prosecutors say Arthur Jackman was among the hundreds who stormed the Capitol building to disrupt the certification of November’s election, and later confirmed to federal authorities that he is a member of the self-described “Western chauvinist” group associated with white nationalists and anti-Muslim rhetoric.
Local police reform advocates said the connection is concerning enough. T.J. Legacy-Cole, an Orlando activist who advocates for police reform, said Sheriff John Mina should remove Sarah Jackman from duty.
“She no longer has any credibility,” said Legacy-Cole. “We want officers to protect and service out community valiantly. … How can we trust this officer is not going to have any sort of [bias]?”
He also called on Orange-Osceola State Attorney Monique Worrell to review prosecutions involving Sarah Jackman. The State Attorney’s Office did not respond to questions Wednesday.
OCSO said Sarah Jackman, who’s been a deputy since 2015, was working the day of the attempted insurrection. The Sentinel has requested disciplinary records for her, as well as any complaints that involve her, but that request has not been fulfilled.
Attempts to reach her Wednesday were unsuccessful.
Lawanna Gelzer, a leader of activist collective the Movement Coalition, said she wasn’t surprised by Arthur Jackman’s link to the Sheriff’s Office, pointing to a long history of political leaders and law enforcement officials either tied to hate groups or who were members themselves.
“There’s a lot of women who knew their husbands were in the KKK,” Gelzer said. “What am I supposed to think? This is something that’s been around forever.”
Jackman is one of more than 300 people arrested so far in connection to the riot at the Capitol complex, which happened following a rally where then-President Donald Trump and his allies urged supporters to “fight like hell” to stop lawmakers from certifying his re-election defeat.
Proud Boys members as well as other far-right figures celebrated when Trump, during a fall presidential debate against Joe Biden, told the group to “stand back and stand by” — which many extremists took as tacit approval from the president.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, reports the Proud Boys have six chapters across Florida, including one in Orlando. The Canadian government last month designed the Proud Boys a terrorist organization, noting their role in the attempted insurrection.
Data on the extent to which the accused rioters are tied to far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the anti-government Oath Keepers vary.
While the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism found in February that 25% of those charged had affiliations to such groups, a George Washington University report released last month found just 33 suspects charged, or 12%, had direct ties.
That includes 36% of the 33 suspects with military backgrounds, according to the report. At least seven current and former law enforcement officers were charged in the attack, USA Today reported.
More than a dozen members and leaders of the Proud Boys have been arrested since the Jan. 6 attack. Federal prosecutors allege the group coordinated with far-right militia groups like the Three Percenters through Kelly Meggs, leader of the Florida chapter of the Oath Keepers.
The rest of the participants either went alone or in groups not officially affiliated with extremist groups, according to the GWU report. Locally, no other police officers have been tied to the Jan. 6 riot, but Sanford firefighter Andrew Williams was arrested on federal charges in January, after he appeared to boast on video as he and others marauded through the Capitol.
While the presence of police officers and ex-military members among the rioters is alarming, experts say it’s not surprising.
Despite an FBI report finding that far-right extremists “very likely seek affiliation with military and law enforcement entities in furtherance of” their ideologies, law enforcement agencies generally don’t have practices in place to weed out those individuals, said Michael German, a former FBI agent and a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice.
“What we have to understand is white supremacy and far-right militancy is prevalent in our society,” German said. “It shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone that law enforcement officers were involved in the assault on the Capitol. … It infects every aspect of our society.”
While German declined to comment specifically on Arthur Jackman’s ties to law enforcement, he said agencies should be transparent about how they deal with an officer’s familial ties to extremist groups, including opening an investigation “to determine whether they had a role knowledge of some criminal activity.”
OCSO said it will make the outcome of its inquiry into what Sarah Jackman may have known about her husband’s activity on Jan. 6 public, but it’s unclear if that will be enough for some community members.
“I don’t know what they can do… but the ugly truth is that all we have is their word,” Gelzer said, speaking before the agency revealed that it was investigating the deputy. “And frankly, I don’t trust them anymore.”
gtoohey@orlandosentinel.com; creyes-rios@orlandosentinel.com
