North American Network Operators Group

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[OT] Re: Sheriffs and Vigilantes

  • From: William Waites
  • Date: Mon Sep 29 06:19:37 2008


Le 08-09-29 à 10:40, <[email protected]> <[email protected]> a écrit :


It is not vigilantism, it is the common law, rooted in
ancient English history, of the "shire reeve", who we now
call the "sheriff".

Reeve means "called", from the Germanic verb "rufen". In other words, this person is someone who is called to the duty by the shire.

George Trevelyan's History of England gives the distinct impression that the sheriff was not quite so grass-roots an office as this thread might have one believe. The office was created at the instigation of the Norman monarchs so that they would have a parallel administrative structure from that of the feudal barons. This was to make it harder for the uppity barons to unseat the king as happened regularly in pre-Norman times.

In other words, this person checked the property of his
peers. He was one of the community which selected him.

I wonder if the reeve (gerefa) was thought of as called by the community or by the king. Trevelyan and etymonline suggest the latter. Who, within the community, got to be sheriff was probably the community's choice. But once in office the sheriff was likely answerable to the king. In the absence of a monarch, is NANOG now trying to behave like the North American Regency Council? Hmmm...

In Spain, a vigilante is a security guard, almost always
unarmed, whose job it is to be vigilant and call the police
if something bad happens and take temporary measures if
possible in the meantime. That type of vigilante would seem
to correspond quite closely with the job of the responsible
network security/operations person.

Cheers,
-w

--
William Waites VE2WSW                <[email protected]>
http://www.irl.styx.org/          +49 30 8894 9942
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