> Where do you live, and what makes you so certain that unincorporated areas in California are not populated? I live in Southern California, one of the areas o

> Where do you live, and what makes you so certain that unincorporated areas in California are not populated? I live in Southern California, one of the areas of currently under a state mandated stay-at-home order. And I never said unincorporated areas where unpopulated, I said they were rural, which implies that they're sparsely populated. This is partly by definition (a city would either be part of an urban center, or its own urban center), and partly because populations that are dense enough tend to form cities. And to be clear, when I refer to "city", I'm referring to incorporated cities, not just major cities. > Separately, do you really think that if the OC Sheriff says "we are not enforcing Newsom's rules" that the deputies are going to enforce those rules in cities within their patrol areas? If a Sheriff has decided not to enforce a law in his jurisdiction, why would he direct his deputies to enforce that same law in other parts of his patrol area? Yes. Again, Sheriffs only have direct jurisdiction over unincorporated areas of the county. Cities are their own jurisdiction. The cities may contract with the Sheriff for policing, but the deputies would be following the direction of the city government in that case. If the city directs their police to enforce a stay-at-home order (be it the city's own police or Sheriff deputies policing on behalf of the city), the police would have no legal basis to refuse. They may not be able to practically enforce such an order, but that's a different issue.