Instead of dropping the lame charges, Arpaio ally County Attorney Andrew Thomas wasted taxpayer funds seeking prosecution, and on September 1, he lost, big-time. After the prosecution rested following a day and a half of proceedings, JP McMurry blasted the MCSO for the arrests and acquitted the five defendants without needing to even listen to their defense.
"The First Amendment and the right to petition your government trumps [everything]," stated McMurry, who also said the arrests were "a mistake and wrong," and then ordered defense and prosecution lawyers to draft memoranda "discussing whether or not I have the power to award the defense attorney fees in this matter."
Dennis Gilman
Lookout, Joe. Something's going on in Tent City, and Outlaw Fleetwood aims to fix it.
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This was the most recent of several such losses the MCSO's been handed in incidents involving anti-Arpaio activists getting collared by sheriff's deputies for no good reason. Both Sandschafer and her then-fellow ACORNer Theilen were also acquitted on bogus trespassing charges from last year, when they were arrested for sitting quietly in the lobby of the Board of Supervisors' offices, along with two other activists. In that case, too, Theilen and Sandschafer ended up spending a day in the Fourth Avenue Jail for processing.
(Theilen, formerly ACORN's lead Tucson organizer, is no longer with the group.)
As Supervisor Don Stapley learned recently, after he was re-arrested by the MCSO following the dropping of all charges against him by Pinal County, Arpaio is a poor loser. Which is probably why Arizona ACORN should batten down the hatches and be prepared for an MCSO raid.
Because Hell hath no fury like an Arpaio whipped in court.
OUTLAW'S ANTHEM
It's been years (or seems like it) since I first met the MC who now wears a mask and calls himself Outlaw Fleetwood. We swapped stories and matched each other drink-for-drink at Tempe's Palo Verde Lounge. He was an unforgettable character and the only African-American in a bar that was then filled with tattooed, white hipsters and a handful of non-racist skinheads. Needless to say, he made an impression.
When Fleetwood contacted me many moons later, advising me that he had written a poem based — in part — on my writings concerning Sheriff Arpaio, I didn't know what to think. It was a gritty, colorful ditty. He told me he was going to set it to music. I told him to let me know when he did. I wasn't sure he ever would and whether it would be any damn good if he did.
A few more months passed, and Fleetwood, who now lives in Tucson, sent me a CD of his song. I was afraid it would suck and feared having to tell him as much. Man, was I grateful when I listened to it. Seems Fleetwood has a producer cousin who has worked with such greats as Prince and George Clinton. In the song, titled "Tent City," Fleetwood envisions himself as a latter-day Clevon Little, riding in on a white horse à la Blazing Saddles to a tune that sounds like it was made by a black Kid Rock.
The refrain, which features a chorus fashioned from one teenage girl's voice, is haunting. She sings of the inhumanity of Arpaio and asks, "What's going on with Tent City?" Fleetwood's urban-cowboy patter envisions Arpaio in panty hose and pink handcuffs eating a jelly donut. He raps also of the desert heat, hit-and-run victims "as common as drive-bys in Compton," Scottsdale divas, and how, "Apache Junction, I've never been there, yet. Neither has any Apache since Geronimo, I'll bet."
The result is timely, funny, and politically astute. Since it's essentially a novelty song, radio stations are hardly scrambling to play it, but they should. Anyway, you can listen to an MP3 of the tune here. Currently, Fleetwood and local radical videographer Dennis Gilman are collaborating on a music video, and I'll put that up on my Feathered Bastard blog when it's available.
"I'm a rebel with a cause," Fleetwood explained recently. "I'm not trying to be MLK. But I do want people to know they have rights, even when they're in Arpaio's custody."
