Joe Arpaio is a controversial sheriff in Arizona who fights crime by subjecting prisoners to humiliation tactics, including the famous pink prison uniforms, chain gangs. It works, and the man is very popular with most people in his county, though is disliked by others.Based on his prison programs, one can automatically make several accurate assumptions about the person behind the badge: He's a bombastic, arrogant, headstrong demagogue, and more than a little sadistic: Traits he does not deny, but instead cherishes and claims are the secret to his success.
But what happens when a man like this runs into opposition? He does what any Procrustean law enforcement officer with too much power does: He starts targeting his opposition for arrest... namely Don Stapley, Arpaio's county supervisor, who has been trying to rein in "America's Toughest Sheriff".
After Arpaio's first arrest of Stapley a year ago, the charges were all thrown out. So Arpaio has tried again with 93 new charges. This time around though, Arpaio has a problem: He can find no local prosecutor willing to take the case to court. Arpaio has had to fly in some high-priced prosecutors (the ones who went after Clinton back in the day) from Washington to take on the case. Sorry, but if your case is so toxic that nobody within 100 miles will help you out with it, you really should get a hint that you are on the wrong track.
It's really a logical and obvious progression of behavior: A law enforcement official who uses heavy-handedness against enemies of the law is a man who will inevitably use heavy-handedness against the enemies of the law enforcement official himself.
I think it's called:
ReplyDelete"Code of the West."
Lots of rednecks in AZ.
mataho
Jil,
ReplyDeleteIf only you knew the half of what this loon does, I live in Maricopa county and Arpaio is little more than a one man circus act who craves all media attention.
Actually, Anon, I am aware of what he does... but didn't want to go into detail about it in the article; just enough to illustrate that the man is a heavy-handed control freak with a mean streak and masochistic tendences a mile long. For those of you who want to read about the crazy sheriff, you can go to his wikipedia page which I provided links to.
ReplyDeleteActually,... Sheriff Joe isn't a bad guy. -I mean,... if you don't break the law,... what are you worried about? I don't necessarily agree with EVERYTHING he's instituted since taking office but,... if everyone complains about him,... ---why does he keep getting re-elected?
ReplyDeleteSome of the things I DO like,... 1) TENT CITY, pasting the mugshots of DUI Offenders on Public Billboards in/around Phoenix, Illegal Immigration Enforcement (because, up until the day he took office,... no other enforcement agency was doing it) and, several other controversial policies.
No one's perfect but, I think the reason why he keeps getting re-elected is,... the alternative candidates don't look any better.
They need this guy here!!! He's heavy handed for sure. I have spent a lot of time in Phoenix when I was at Honeywell and lots in the area seem to like him. I in the middle of the road. Its like Marcos he was heavy handed when I was here from 75 to 79 but the corruption was not so, rampant like now. Everyone knew he was the corrupt one and no other were allowed.
ReplyDeleteJil one more news story.
9. http://www.goldstardailynews.com/content.php?id=6647
Randy
M,
ReplyDeleteYeah lots of red necks in Maricopa county I tell you, it gotta be since Maricopa county is home to over 4,000,000 residents which makes it the 4th most populated county in the nation and in fact a greater population than 24 states. Anyway, By your comment I guess you are some back water hick who sees opera, professional sports teams and museams as red neck events.
Jil,
Even better was when the loon had the home of a woman Sandra Dowling, Superintendent of County Schools, raided by 40 swat members and even had helicopters over head etc. All this to serve a search warrant which turned up nothing.
He left the city of Guadalupe without law enforcement at all when their mayor abjected to his racial profiling in the community.
ETC ETC ETC.
Sad thing is the loon keeps getting re-elected by the old folks in Sun City. He lets them organize and call themselves a posse and in exchange they keep electing the human rights violating loon.
One good place to read of sherrif joes exploits is in the Phoenix New Times paper as they have exposed him numerous times in that paper, funniest was when they put his home address on the front cover and got him all worked up in the process.