WTF is up with Sheriffs, and do we still even need them?

[maxrandb]

Count me among Americans who never gave my local sheriff a second thought.

In my 60+ years living all over this country, I've never even known who my fucking sheriff was.

Do democrats just not run for sheriff? Is this another of those things that Dems need to take more seriously? Are counties just so fucking gerrymandered that racist, ignorant dipshits are so easily elected.

Before I started hearing some of these crazy as stories about some of these crazy ass Dipshit sheriffs, I always thought of Nottingham and Sherwood Forest, or Andy Griffith whenever someone talked about sheriffs.

How does a fucking asspickle who defends kidnapping the governor of Michigan get fucking elected as a fucking sheriff?!

Why is this sheriff not getting the shit kicked out of him?

How are fucksticks like this still allowed to fucking have a fucking law enforcement job?

Or a job at all?

I'm sorry to say it, but I don't think there is anyway to reform or fix law enforcement in this country.

News like this out of Michigan just makes me think that the entire fucking thing needs to be torn down to the studs.

I just don't understand why Dems can win by large margins and yet, still have the majority of sheriffs be racist, wingnut dipshits.

[CanonRay]

1. The worst ones like this jerk

are in small, rural (read red) counties. Our sherrif in Lane County, Oregon is a Dem.

[safeinOhio]

2. Being elected, some are way better than others.

I lived in a county 14 years ago that had a great one. Pretty much a all White county and very Publican. We had a Black sheriff that had a PHD in law enforcement and a Democrat. A great guy that saved me from a terrible deputy. He even got re-elected. I'll be a fan of his until the day I die.

[Ex Lurker]

3. In most rural counties, the sheriff is the most powerful elected official

In addition to enforcing the law, he collects the taxes, runs the jail, provides courthouse security, and often is the one who serves legal papers. He controls the most patronage. He can send a deputy to take your elderly aunt to her doctor's appointment. He can put your shiftless brother in law on his payroll. The sheriff's race is usually the most hotly contested one in any election.

[gibraltar72]

4. I actually have had some experience with them.

Some positive, Palm Sunday tornados Mi 1965. Most sheriffs today are not worth the powder to blow them to hell. There are always exceptions we just dodged a bullet in my county the primary include one of the Mi. capitol terrorists.

[SharonClark]

5. Didn't you ever vote when "living all over

the country”?

Our Sheriff is on the ballot and he’s a Dem.

[pamdb]

6. sheriffs

They get elected because they are from little piss ant villages and townships and towns
in rural michigan. Which is where the majority of those terorists were from. I've lived here
all my life, off and on, and Ive never even heard of some of those towns. They're so gerrymandered they are all republican. The trumpican head of the senate and the trumpican head of the house in michigan are both from little spots in the road. But they're gerrymandered and so they get as much power as the larger cities.

[genxlib]

7. John Oliver did a deep dive on his show earlier this year

Worth a watch. Oliver is always great.

[dustyscamp]

12. This is good

[hunter]

8. New Zealand has a single national police department.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Police

They seem to be generally well regarded. The sorts of police misconduct that become national scandals in New Zealand hardly make the local news here in the U.S.A..

I think in many parts of the U.S.A. racist, violent, and corrupt law enforcement is considered a feature, not a bug.

Historically the primary job of local law enforcement in the U.S.A. was to overlook the crimes of wealthy white people and to beat everyone else down, especially people who were not white.

The town I grew up in was 99% white. It was kept that way, in part, by cops who made sport of harassing people who were not white.

[themaguffin]

9. It's just the title of the county police chief.

[Turin_C3PO]

10. Luckily,my sherriff here

in Grant County, NM, is a Democrat. I know though that there are tons of RW sherriffs across the country.

[dustyscamp]

11. They need to be reformed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/23/why-constitutional-sheriffs-wont-enforce-coronavirus-restrictions/
Why ‘constitutionalist sheriffs’ won’t enforce coronavirus restrictions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/us/state-gun-laws.html
When Sheriffs Say No: Disputes Erupt Over Enforcing New Gun Laws

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/08/sheriffs-ice-immigration-detention-gwinnett/
Cold as ICE: How Local Sheriffs Are Driving Trump’s Deportation Agenda

A lot of Sheriffs in this country are scum

[Klaralven]

13. The Sheriffs are typically responsible for law enforcement in unincorporated areas.

Many counties have areas that are not part of an incorporated village, town, city, etc. and the county sheriffs office is responsible for law enforcement in all of that rural territory. Sheriff's enforce the law in more square miles of the country than do police departments.

In some states almost all territory is part of some local government. In those cases the sheriff is responsible for county jails, bailiffs for the county courts, serving various court orders such as evictions, etc.

Generally state police forces do not enforce the law in unincorporated areas. They are typically "highway patrols" that operate on US and state highways.

It would probably be a good idea to expand the functions of state police forces and to limit sheriffs to county jail and court functions.

[central scrutinizer]

14. Incoherent districts

Here (Eugene, Oregon) there are lots of ridiculous boundaries. We have two large municipalities, Eugene and Springfield. Between them is Glendale, unincorporated. West and north of Eugene is River Road/Santa Clara. Some unincorporated, some in the city. Some Idiots fought annexation “ I don’t want sewers, I want to poison the groundwater, it’s in the constitution.” So if your property is annexed into a city, you pay taxes to support the police. If not, you pay taxes to the county sheriff. There are streets where one person is in the city, has police and library services, their next door neighbor has to call the sheriff. So fucking stupid, but freedumb!

[Klaralven]

15. "All politics is local"

Rep Tip O'Neill, D, MA

[Kaleva]

18. My guess is that those sheriffs are Repubs

[Kaleva]

17. Looking at Trump & McConnell, one could make the same argument about presidents & senators

Sheriffs are elected, just like the local DA or PA. Most of our judges at the state and local levels are elected.