Sheriff Buelton demands military intervention from Carey's commanding general, Major General V.E. Hubik. The general points out that Carey had already retired from the Army, so he has broken no military law. Buelton then demands that Hubik order the post's personnel and tanks to pursue Carey, and that if refused, he will call the governor of Georgia. General Hubik again declines, this time citing the Posse Comitatus Act, which states that the Department of Defense is prevented from interfering in domestic law enforcement outside the military reservation without approval from his superiors or the President of the United States. (As a running joke for the remainder of the film, an ignorant Buelton misinterprets the act's name as a dismissive insult of himself as a "pussy Communist".)