Pitt County Sheriff enraged over anonymous blog comments
Submitted by scharrison on Thu, 02/18/2010 - 10:55am
The Democratic Primary heats up in Pitt Count:
A “distorted” political poll, anonymous blog conversations and negative comments on local media Web sites about Pitt County Sheriff Mac Manning compelled the sheriff to publish a four-column paid response in The Daily Reflector on Wednesday, Manning said.
“They allow anonymous bloggers to post all kinds of garbage, accusations and comments,” Manning said. “I hold The Daily Reflector accountable, in part, for this mess I’m in now, because when it comes from a reputable publishing company, it takes on an air of legitimacy and people think it must be true.”
Dude. Seriously. Lesson #1 on what not to do when faced with a handful of Anonymice comments on a hometown newspaper blog or an embarassing poll: publish a letter in the paper paper that draws a lot more attention to those previously obscure issues.
check the hits
I too think the high sheriff may be going overboard with his response. He might want to check the actual number of "hits" these comments receive. The Reflector recently switched from allowing comments to be posted with an email address only to a registration format. The number of comments has dropped. The controversy the good sheriff finds himself in has been swirling through the coffee shops for months. I think the rumor mill around Pitt County gets more hits than the newspaper. Nasty business!
Can anyone come up with a
Can anyone come up with a reason Sheriffs are elected officials in the first place? Shouldn't they be county employees under the county manager just like a police chief asnwers to a city manager? We don't elect fire chiefs.
NC Constitution
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Legislation/constitution/article7.html
Article 7
Gaston County
I believe Gaston County has a county police department in addition to a sheriff. In most places with such arrangements the sheriff runs the jail, serves warrants, and provides courthouse security. Most other functions are provided by a professional police force. It's not clear to me which arrangement is better. I have seen issues with both.
What I have seen
What I have seen in most counties is that there is a police force for cities and the Sheriff's office takes care of the county outside the city limits.
The way you have put it on Gaston County is odd. But, hey, whatever works.
As mentioned above,
the election of sheriffs is part of the NC Constitution. As to why it's in the Constitution, there are a few reasons.
Historians (and sheriffs) might say the primary reason has to do with the history of the office itself, which (in Western Civilization) dates back to as early as the 8th Century. As these were royal appointments, the sheriffs exercised great powers producing even greater miseries, and that reality didn't change much over the centuries leading up to our independence. When we finally broke from the King, the idea of a sheriff being appointed by anyone except the people was not to be countenanced.
But a more likely and realistic explanation is the simple fact that many of the electors sent to frame the NC Constitution were sheriffs. ;)
I still like the first reason better, though.
Could it be politics SPLib?
just a guess.....
somebody please, please, please...
...ask the sheriff this:
"thomas paine wrote "common sense" anonymously. why do you hate thomas paine?"
thank you.
"...i feel that if a person can't communicate, the very least he can do is to shut up." --tom lehrer, january 1965