Deputy Joshua Leyk of the Kootenai County Sheriff got a slap on the back from CDA Police Officer Nick Knoll last week. Leyk borrowed a play from Officer Knoll’s “F the Fourth” playbook, and oh boy did it pay off big time. In Spring 2019 Joshua Leyk saw a vehicle that appeared to need help along I-90 near the Harrison exit. When he approached, he found Brandon Garrett and Crishun Singleton, two Southern men on a trek through the great Idaho mountains. Now, obviously Deputy Leyk wasn’t there to help these stranded travelers – he was there to protect Idaho from the extreme dangers of a green leafy plant known as… cotton.

Well, that’s at least how it started out.

When Leyk approached the vehicle he noticed a few things. First, he noticed the Louisiana license plates. Next, he noticed the two men were black. Finally, Leyk noticed a white fluffy substance extruding from the man’s mouth. Now, this could be a seizure, however given his first two clues, and given his extensive education about black Louisiana men from his 8th grade viewing of “Gone with the Wind,” he knew it must be cotton. And you know the ol’ cop saying “Where there’s a black man with cotton, there’s a black man with marijuana.”

So, rather than helping the stranded travelers, or getting medical attention for the potential seizure, Deputy Leyk cited the cotton in Singleton’s mouth as his probable cause to search the vehicle. And O’ Boy was it a cottenpickin good time. According to witnesses, Deputy Leyk hummed “Song of the South” and “That’s the night that the lights went out in Georgia” as he tore apart Singleton’s green Ford pickup truck. Surprise, surprise, what did he find? “Hippie Cotton,” also known as hemp or marijuana.

“We knew something was up when we saw black men in Idaho,” Sheriff Wolfinger reported. “It’s as odd as a watermelon growing in February. Not illegal, just odd. We’re very proud of Deputy Leyk for recognizing something was out of place, pretending to help the stranded travelers, and then making up a reason to search their vehicle. This is the ‘above and beyond’ effort we look for in the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department.”

Sheriff Wolfinger strenuously denied that racial profiling was involved with the arrest. “It’s just like when you see a turban wearing brown man wearing a bulky winter coat at the airport. Stopping him isn’t considered racial profiling, it’s considered smart. Stopping a southern black man with cotton in Idaho is the same thing. You know, ‘See Something, Say Something.'”

It is rumored among the Department that Deputy Leyk is up for the prestigious “2020 Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane Award” for his heroic actions that day. “It’s no F the Fourth award but it’s pretty much the Nobel Prize of white law enforcement.” said Wolfinger.