Do state troopers have authority over local police?
No. If a state trooper tells a local cop to go get his dry cleaning, the local cop will likely ignore him.In most cases, they are both commissioned through the same agency (most local cops are commissioned by the state). They work together and have different jurisdictions. For example, in Dallas, State Troopers are tasked with law enforcement on the Dallas North Tollway. So if you call 911 about a crash or dangerous driver, the Troopers will respond. 10 feet away, on the surface streets, DPD would be the responding agency. If a Trooper chases someone off the road, they have full powers on the surface street they wouldn’t be called out to.That said, if the Troopers take over an investigation, the local police would likely let them. There’s little spelling that out formally, but that level of formality isn’t required.
Why did Neil Armstrong refuse to swear on the Bible that he actually did go to the Moon?
First, Neil was a deist. He believed in the existence of God, but believed that this God was more of a clockmaker observing his creation, not an interventionist who sends prophets and holy books. Thus, he didn’t believe in the Bible, and swearing on it had no personal significance to him.Second, Neil knew that Bart was a liar and a cheat who only wanted to defame him. Why would he play along with a slanderer? He also knew that even if he did agree to perform an action which made no sense to him in order to satisfy a denialist, Bart would simply pretend it had never happened so that he could continue pushing his false narratives. That’s what happened with Edgar Mitchell, who walked on the Moon during the Apollo 14 mission.Edgar Mitchell was kind of like Agent Mulder in space: he was not a skeptical man and believed in government UFO conspiracies, energy healing, and psychic phenomena. This all-embracing acceptance of the supernatural extended to religion as well, and Mitchell gladly agreed to swear on the Bible that he had gone to the Moon. This was extremely generous considering the fact that Bart had lied his way into Mitchell’s house, falsely pretending to be part of the History Channel. Despite Mitchell’s testimony, Bart pretended it hadn’t happened.The same would have happened if Neil had agreed.