Republican judge in Texas warns of 'civil war' if Obama reelected

A Republican judge in Lubbock, Texas told a reporter on Tuesday that he and other officials are making plans for the possibility of "civil war" if President Barack Obama is reelected, warning that should the president cede control of the country to the United Nations, he'd prevent troops from entering the county.

"He's going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N., and what is going to happen when that happens?" Lubbock County Judge Tom Head (pictured, left) asked a reporter for a local Fox News affiliate during an interview that was supposedly about county business.

"I'm thinking the worst," he deadpanned. "Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we're not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we're talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy. Now what's going to happen if we do that? If the public decides to do that? He's going to send in U.N. troops."

Head concluded: "I don't want 'em in Lubbock County, okay? So I'm going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say 'you're not coming in here.' And the sheriff, I've already asked him. I said, 'You gonna back me?' He said, 'Yeah, I'll back you.' Well, I don't want a bunch of rookies back there. I want trained, equipped, seasoned veteran officers to back me."

His comments were apparently intended to drum up support for a tax hike of 1.7 cents to hire more police and give the county attorneys a raise.

Speaking to The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, County Sheriff Kelly Rowe denied that he'd ever had such a conversation with the judge.

For Head, a longtime police officer who's served as Lubbock County Judge since 1999, the remarks aren't his first run-in with public uproar. He faced calls to resign in 2009 after county commissioners removed a poster Head placed on a public bulletin board featuring photos of African-American men who were arrested while wearing Obama campaign gear, along with a passage that suggested they had all staged armed robberies and smoked crack cocaine.

The Avalanche-Journal noted that Head defended the poster by saying, "Apparently it's performing its task now, because somebody got emotional about it."

Despite the incident, Lubbock County's Republicans reelected Head in 2010, which he said validated his belief that even conservatives understand the need for higher taxes.

This video was broadcast by MyFox Lubbock on Tuesday, August 21, 2012.

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