County

"Perhaps your mother was the sort who raised you by the old adage, 'If you can't say something nice about someone, then don't say anything at all.'Mine was.

But...say something nice about cops?

It's difficult to say anything even coldly polite about the slinking spies andtrigger-happy thugs who make up the police force. I shall not. Accept this guarantee:the policeman is not your friend.

Neither is your county sheriff your friend. Neverthless, I shall endeavor to saysomething, if not nice, at least polite about the sheriff. For the sheriff is the most tolerable of an intolerable bunch. If in this imperfect world, we must endure police, let us leave the limited police power we allow at the level and in the office of county sheriffs.

The sheriff is both less intrustive and less odious than the fed because the sheriff has roots. He is part of the county over which he presiides...The sheriff wants to be reelected...."the office of sheriff is an ancient one, with roots in Anglo-Sacon tribes. Hence, it is a link to the organic tradition of freehodlders, the common law, and militias...Still, sheriffs are ultimately cops. Therefore, not all sheriffs are good. They never have been. Remember the Sheriff of Nottingham?"

This is what Ned said.