5 Penn. towns disbanding police forces to bust union

[happyslug]

21. In PA the County Sheriff serves papers and protect County property thats all

Sheriff's traditionally did not do patrols, that was either NOT done, or done by local Police.

The reason Sheriff's duties was NOT extended to include patrolling can be related to the 1892 Homestead Strike. In that Strike the Sheriff served papers on the Union and served papers on the Steel Company but that was it. When the Steel Company brought in the Pinkertons, the Pinkertons asked the Sheriff to swear them in as deputies. After the Battle of Homestead, the debate was did the strikers fire on Sheriff Deputies when they fired on the Pinkertons or did they not, if the Pinkerstons had NOT been sworn in? The Sheriff testified he had NEVER sworn in the Pinkertons, the Pinkertons said yes the Sheriff has sworn them in. The case ended on that statement, the Court ruling it could NOT determine if the Pinkertons had been sworn in or not, thus no evidence that the strikers had fired on Sheriff's deputies. The State response to this was to pass a law that no Police officer or Sheriff Deputy could be sworn in unless he had been a resident of Pennsylvania for at least one year.

11 years later, the State formed the State Police, to supplement the existing Coal and Iron Police. The Coal and Iron Police were Police officers, given police power by the State but paid by private coal companies and Steel companies. The Coal and Iron Police started to be formed right after the Civil War. The Coal and Iron Police have been called the really only true America Terrorist organization. They were nothing but thugs (and calling them thugs, is insulting thugs). By 1900 the Reputation of the Coal and Iron Police was so bad, that the Governor at that time decided he would NOT permit any new Coal and Iron Police being made, veto those that the State Legislature had passed and asked for the creation of a State Police Force to supplant the Coal and Iron Police. The State Police were formed to be a State Paid Complementary police force to the Coal and Iron police. It was an attempt to have something an little less brutal to Strikers. In this the State failed, they turned out to be as bad as the Coal and Iron Police, Strikers had a habit of calling them Cossacks, for they rode horse and were as mean to strikers as any Cossack was to any foe.

In 1923, Pennsylvania formed a Highway Patrol, which like most other State's State Police Departments, patrol highways only. These were formed by Governor Pinchot, the second of only two, two term Governors under the State Constitution of 1874 (the 1874 Constitution prevented a Governor from succeeding himself, that was removed with the adoption of the 1968 Constitution, the only other two term Governor from 1874 to 1970 had been the only Demoicartic Governor between 1861 and 1935). Pinchot was Governor 1923-1927, and 1931 to 1935.

In the 1931, Gifford Pinchot, as Governor managed to abolish the Coal And Iron Police. For that single act many people view him as the best Governor Pennsylvania ever had and this is the man the created the Federal Forest Service, expanded the National Park under Theodore Roosevelt and expanded Pennsylvania own State forest while he was governor). During the late 1930s, under the first Democratic Governor Pennsylvania had had since the 1890s, the Highway Patrol was merged with the State Police to form the Pa Motor Police, which adopted the name State Police in 1947.

As you can see the State Police was an Anti-Striker (anti-union) organization from day one. The huge input of the PA Highway patrol reduced that emphasis in the 1930s, but one of the reason the name State Police was NOT adopted in the 1930s was that it had such a bad reputation among working class people by that time.

We have to remember since Pennsylvania had a huge RURAL Industrial base at that time (1900-1930) for the Coal and coke production was in rural areas, to keep the miners in line the Police were given the power of the Coal And Iron Police to patrol these closed mining towns and Coal Patches (Small towns with housing for miners set by the mine) as they were called. The actions of the State Police followed the actions of the Coal and Iron Police and that gave them a similar reputation.

It is for this reason, to keep miners in line, that the PA State Police was given the "duty" to patrol rural areas, where no local police patrolled. It is a duty they State Police have never given up even after most State Police Officers became in effect Highway Patrolmen.

The actions of the Allegheny County Sheriff's department in the Homestead Strike (and his predecessor actions during the General Strike of 1877) was NOT liked by coal and iron mine owners NOR the Iron and Steel mills owners. In both situations the elected Sheriff decided NOT to send out his deputies to put down the Strikers, an act that won him re-election. On the other hand it meant the State was NOT going to give the Sheriff the power to police strikers, for he was to neutral when Anti-Strikers attitude was desired.

Thus between the General Strike of 1877, the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the various coal strikes at the same time period, and the refusal by the Allegheny County Sheriff to have his deputies to act as strike breakers, the State was NOT about to expand the power of the Sheriff, thus when it was determined a police department was needed above the local level the State legislature opt for a State Police force. Thus Pennsylvania's Sheriff''s to this day do NOT do patrols and just serve as agents of the County Courts.