The relentless raptor sinks his beak into the tyranny of Sheriff Joe Arpaio and County Attorney Andrew Thomas

The Bird can give you more than 43 million reasons, Howie. That's as in the $43 million-plus in lawsuit payouts Joe's cost the county.

Then there's the incompetence of Joe's regime, the 40,000 unserved felony warrants, the still-unexplained adventures of underling Chief Deputy David Hendershott in Honduras, the retribution against Joe's enemies, the cruelty in his jails, the unconstitutional sweeps targeting Latinos.

Danny Hellman

Related Content

• Sheriff Joe Arpaio's Secretly Recorded '09 Staff Meeting -- Hear It Here
  April 16, 2012
• Joe Arpaio Avoids Getting "Leid" by Anti-Birther Activists Ticked that He Sent a Deputy to Hawaii
  May 24, 2012
• Joe Arpaio Thinks Tennessean Who Said Satan Told Him to Kill "Birthers" Might Be After Him
  May 23, 2012
• How Does it Make You Feel That Joe Arpaio Used Tax Dollars to Send a Deputy to Hawaii for "Birther" Purposes?
  May 23, 2012
• Joe Arpaio Investigating Obama's Birth Certificate at "No Cost to Taxpayers" -- Except for the Deputy in Hawaii Right Now
  May 22, 2012

More About

• Howie Fischer
• Joe Arpaio
• Dan Pochoda
• Dan Saban
• Candy Thomas

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

Jumpin' jaybirds, what do you have to do, catch Joe gnawing the heads off bambinos?

Plus it's particularly asinine for some blather-mouth like Fischer to kvetch that Dan Saban hasn't made his case when little if any media is following Saban on the stump as he speaks several times a day, attacking Joe. This bark-scratcher caught Saban speaking to a Sun City group recently, and the former Mesa commander and Buckeye police chief offered a withering appraisal of Joe's misdeeds in office and the hits county coffers have taken because of it.

Saban's even challenged Joe to a series of debates, sending Arpaio a registered letter to this effect in June. Joe's response so far? Silence.

"He's a coward," Saban told this tweeter, referring to Arpaio. "Clearly, when you watch his tactics and the way he operates. He's not man-to-man. Come out; let's go. You're the self-appointed 'toughest sheriff in America.' Why would you fear a mere mortal like me?"

The Bird asked Arpaio about Saban's challenge at one of Joe's recent book-signings for his prevarication-friendly tome Joe's Law. Joe shrugged it off, said he gets lots of letters, and refused to answer any follow-ups.

Is there any reason Fischer and the other deans of the local journo pool here in the PHX haven't questioned Arpaio directly as to why he won't debate Saban? Could it be that Howie is afraid of losing his precious media access to our corrupt county constable? New Times isn't afraid to ask the sheriff anything. As a result, its scribes are banned from MCSO press conferences.

At the very least, Fischer, et al. have a duty to get their facts straight and not just repeat Joe's propaganda. Read something other than your own articles for a change, Fischer. That is, if you want people to think you're anything other than Howie the Hack.