[UA] Explain American laws to me

[Ryan Macklin]

Hi. I'm new to posting to the list (been reading the digest for a bit now).

Patrick O'Duffy wrote:

>What is a county, anyway?  Is it what we'd call a 'shire', a local 
>government
>body?  And what's the difference between a sheriff and a regular cop?

Okay, this might have already been said, but I'm a week behind on my mailing 
lists (finally get to play catch-up this weekend). There's a bit of history 
about the word "sheriff", and this it is to the best of my momery:
It comes from an old British term "shire reave" (the second word may be 
misspelled). What parts of the US call a county is, for the most part, a 
shire. The Shire Reave was the head of law enforcement in the shire.

FF to modern day US - contract the words and give it a different spelling: 
"sheriff". And that's exactly what a sheriff is.

Or I'm completely wrong. I learned it in a criminal justice introductory 
class back in Uni, and long sold those books back.

Also, with regards to Nevada and gambling/prostitution - I heard once that 
the counties couldn't have both - just gambling or prostitution. Hence its 
illegality in Clark County (county Las Vegas is in).

Rev. Ryan Macklin
BTW, for those who don't know, the major airport in Las Vegas (Mc Carran 
International Airport, IIRC) has a lot of slot and video poker machines. 
Scary.
_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at 
http://profiles.msn.com.


_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua