JOE MUSINGS
It's maximum-security time: Indict, indict, indict! What doesn't Joe Arpaio understand about breaking the law ("Indictment Time," The Bird, Stephen Lemons, September 23)?
His nativist supporters always are asking everybody else what don't they understand about the word [illegal]. Now it's Joe Arpaio's turn.
We need to make sure that he is not let off the hook and serves his time like the rest of us would have to: in a maximum-security prison and not in some country-club federal pen.
Leonard Clark, Phoenix
Arpaio must be perp-walked: To think that Joe Arpaio is innocent in all this is just crazy, but that's the way he and his little boy, Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, are spinning it.
The reason Arpaio sent the Chief Deputy David Hendershott, et al., mess to Baboon is that he knows it will get whitewashed that way.
Baboon will come down hard on the likes of Hendershott and Captain Joel Fox (they are the fall guys), but he will rubber-stamp the idea that Joe was bamboozled by these evil men.
Who knows the extent of the details Joe knew about going after various political enemies? But he certainly endorsed the activities, set the wheels in motion, and backed his men when they carried out his desires.
I could see from a statement that Baboon made on TV the other night where he was going with this: He assured a TV reporter that he would thoroughly investigate the case to help Joe find out what's really going on in his department (see the video attached to "John Hook to the Rescue," September 28).
He's already saying he's letting Joe off the hook — just as he did with that deputy of his, Louie Puroll ("Pinalcchio," Paul Rubin, September 23, and "The Big Spin," in this issue).
I pray that the Justice Department investigating Arpaio's corruption won't buy into this pure bullshit and give this evil top dog a pass.
Arturo Uriarte, Phoenix
Joe's not even a real cop: The MCSO sheriff is not a cop. He is only an elected official in Maricopa County. He doesn't hold AZ P.O.S.T. certification as a peace officer and never has. He can't be a "top cop" if he isn't one.
Rather, he is one of 15 county sheriffs in Arizona. One of many hundreds, if not thousands, in the United States. He's a relatively insignificant person, actually. Just another old goat in Arizona.
Tommy Collins, Phoenix
Sniffing out Joe's political corpse: I smell blood in the sand. I think Joe's day may soon be over. Finally. New Times, keep calling bullshit on this old fool. He's on the ropes.
Jim Holtz, Tempe
Um, God put Arpaio in office: Truly we must acknowledge that Joe should have known what was happening in his department. Yet he placed confidence in someone he trusted [David Hendershott], and this man was found not loyal to the best sheriff in the United States.
Look at the big picture and give Joe the respect that he should have. Pray for Joe, as the Bible states. People are in a political position because God put them there. Think about pleasing God.
Laurence Hurd, city unavailable
Stephen Lemons does it again: Lemons hit it on the head again. Great job!
Anthony Wesley, city unavailable
Where's our federal protection?!: What is becoming painfully obvious is the simple fact that our federal agents are just as inept and lazy as those we wish the feds would come down on.
While the level of corruption here in Arizona is now blatantly obvious, what is becoming most disheartening is the simple realization that we really don't have federal protection here in Arizona, other than what is meted out by the federal courts.
Law enforcement and intervention by the feds in Arizona for corruption of state officials is simply nonexistent, and we'd all do well to face up to that fact.
So what about the soon-to-be-decided next state attorney general? If Tom Horne wins the election, will he also prove just as inept as the feds have been?
Or will he remember how Arpaio vehemently backed that worthless piece of shit [former County Attorney] Candy Ass Thomas for AG?
Name withheld
He's a corrupt charlatan: Much of the current controversy surrounding Arpaio and the MCSO is an apples-and-oranges conundrum:
Point 1: Arpaio and his underlings have destroyed the MCSO from within (and ripped off taxpayers) by years of intimidation, corruption, and self-serving publicity stunts. The victims of this mafia are not just the current and past employees, but other politicians and private citizens who have had the audacity to cross The Regime.
Point 2: The illegal-immigration issue is just another of [Arpaio's] stunts. He has twisted this matter to curry favor from a crime-weary citizenry that is understandably upset with the federal government's failure to aggressively enforce the law.
His tough-on-wetbacks shtick is actually an insult to those who want real enforcement and reform, and it has done nothing but pick fights with the feds, which of course allows him to act even "tougher."
I am all for tough, non-politically correct enforcement of the immigration laws. I am not for a sheriff who makes political hay out of a serious subject such as this just to get his name in the headlines — while simultaneously and purposely deflecting real attention from the years of criminal and financial misdeeds within his own organization.
Arpaio is the furthest thing from a true professional law enforcement leader. He is a charlatan, and a corrupt one at that.
Name withheld
He's a flatulent threat to safety: The shurf is:
A) a senile bag of flatulence.
B) a short, overweight, corrupt flaccid old fool.
C) a threat to public safety, and a drain on taxpayers.
D) all of the above.
Name withheld
Montini calls Arpaio a Model T: Lemons, you said it all! If anyone read [a recent] E.J. Montini column in the Arizona Republic, he describes the Flaccid Fool as a Ford Model T. That is quite true.
Montini goes on to describe Pinal County Sheriff Paul "Mr. Clean" Babeu as a Chevrolet Corvette. When hell freezes over, the PCSO sheriff will be a Corvette. He has corrupt deputies who fake their own shootings in his department ("Pinalcchio," September 23).
Terry Goddard is too much of an idiot to indict the senile old fool and his lackeys.
Now if [U.S. Attorney Dennis] Burke can grow a pair and get this threat to public safety out of office, he'd be doing everyone a favor.
I also learned [in Montini's column that Senate Bill 1070 author] Russell Pearce is going to be Arizona Senate president and may consider a run for governor, as well as MCSO sheriff. We're all in trouble if that happens.
Name withheld
Right, it's all the media's fault: If there is enough information to indict Joe Arpaio, then do it. Otherwise, find someone else to smear in your liberal writings. Joe has done more for law enforcement than any of the puppet chiefs in Phoenix and Mesa.
Joe does not support breaking the law by harboring illegals. Can that be said for the big cities protecting them? There is no true journalism today, only politically motivated smear writers.
Name withheld
More like an awful police agency: If I understand anything about the law, it is only this: There is a big difference in accusing and indicting an individual with a crime and accusing and indicting a lawful police-enforcement agency. The ground rules have to be different.
My question is: Stephen Lemons, do you have access to the files and actual testimonies of the accusers? [Are] you privy to information that a grand jury would have? Or are you being fed information (perhaps illegally) by someone in the Justice Department?
Is that why you expect to see a federal indictment, which might make you a grand jury witness. Unless this is your bias against the MCSO or any law enforcement agency that is at odds with your political viewpoint!
Name withheld
