"Says the infallible Jubal Harshaw, speaking ex cathedra from his belly button.  See here, son, if a deputy sheriff beats a prisoner to death, it's sweepstakes odds that the county commissioners didn't order it, didn't know it, and wouldn't have permitted it had they known.  At worst they shut their eyes to it - afterwards - rather than upset their own applecarts.  But assassination has never been an accepted policy in this country."