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Sheriffs

Lonecowboy

Well-known member
In the United States, the government's sole and primary purpose, as laid out in the Constitution, is to defend and protect the God-given rights of its citizens, but ask the people around you, and they will very likely tell you that they received their rights from the government. Unfortunately, if a government may give you your rights, it may also take them all away.

For this reason, the framers created a Constitution that gave the government no authority or power outside of a few specific functions. The framers understood that people were already created with rights and that government must not be allowed to control these rights. To reassure the states, the framers expressly denied the federal government's authority in specific ways by creating a series of amendments to the Constitution -- the Bill of Rights.

Amendment 1: "Congress shall make no law . . . ."
Amendment 2: " . . . the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed"
Amendment 4: " . . . against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, . . . ."
Limiting the government's power was not the only brilliance displayed by the framers, the Checks and Balance system was also implemented to ensure that no one branch of government could get out of control. As long as at least one branch of government kept it's primary goal as liberty, it could stop encroachments on the freedom of the people by the other branches.

But, what would happen if all three branches of government changed their agendas from freedom to power and coercion? Well, there was a check and balance for that as well. The framers knew that a law is only as good as it's enforced. Imagine the suffering that could have been averted if Hitler's laws and edicts were ignored by law enforcement. If German law enforcement had just simply refused to enforce such outrageous infringements on people's rights, we would have a much different world today.

Fortunately, our system of government gives the power to the County Sheriff to either ignore or enforce Federal law. The President of the United States cannot tell the County Sheriff what to do in his own county. Neither can Congress. Neither can the Supreme Court. The County Sheriff is not the Gestapo of the federal government. Quite the opposite. The County Sheriff is elected by the people - not employed by any branch of the government. He takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. Therefore his loyalty is towards protecting freedom.

Ultimately, the County Sheriff is the check to balance any overreaching authority of the federal government. He decides which laws are Constitutional and will be enforced and which laws violate his citizens' rights and will be ignored. And for the choices he makes, he will answer directly to the citizens of his county - not the federal government.Obviously, it is imperative that every citizen knows who their Sheriff is and what he believes in. Remember, in our country, the People are the highest authority and have the ultimate responsibility.

http://usa1911.com/balance.html
 

Ben H

Well-known member
I just read into this myself a few months ago, I never knew or really understood what exactly a sheriff really was. It was obvious it was an elected position, but it's an election that not many people around here pay too much attention to. For one thing, the towns surround Portland out to the town I border (I live on that border) all have their own Police forces, but most of the other towns in the county that are just a little further from the coast, all rely on the Sheriff's department. Sometimes it seems a bit wasteful looking at these town police departments. I think at least three towns in this County have their own SWAT/SRT teams. Portland just got a few M113's (Armored Personnel Carrier), one is for parts, one they plan to mount a battering ram.

One thing I'm still confused with is the jurisdiction between County Sheriff and Town/City Police departments?
 
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