In case you need any more reasons to boycott Arizona, here’s another one. Sheriff Joe Arpaio – a poster child for why Latinos shun Republicans - is salivating at the thought of putting armed posses in Arizona’s public schools. Naturally, Fox host Eric Bolling likes the idea.
Arpaio appeared on Your World yesterday to discuss his plan. There was not a word from guest host Bolling about Arpaio’s record of hate mongering, including a federal discrimination suit against him. I don’t know about you but even if I wanted an armed posse at my kid’s school, I’d think again if it involved a guy like Arpaio. As the Los Angeles Times reported:
He was one of the state’s most vocal supporters of SB 1070, which requires law enforcement officers to check the papers of anyone they suspect is an illegal immigrant. The Supreme Court struck down other provisions of the law, but ruled that the so-called “show your papers” provision was constitutional. Immigrants however, are not required to carry their immigration papers on them at all times.
“I would like to get together with the Latino community, but they scream at you and I just can’t sit down” with them, Arpaio told a local NBC affiliate in Arizona on Tuesday night. “We’ll let them get their senses, we’ll talk and I’ll let them know what I do… I have to get back to the Latino community without them screaming and yelling and we can talk about it.”
Arpaio’s career is apparently coated in Teflon, with his candidacy surviving a federal investigation into corruption, a lawsuit into civil rights violations, and findings by Maricopa County investigators that his department misused $99 million in jail funds.
Does this sound to you like the kind of guy who will show restraint and even-handed judgment in a crisis? To Bolling – and to Fox News, which is ever sympathetic to Arpaio – he does. Bolling introduced him as being “known for defending America’s borders” and said Arpaio now wants to “defend America’s schools” in the wake of the Newtown school slayings.
Arpaio told viewers that he’d use the school posses the same way he uses posses now to go after “illegal immigration, hookers, I could go on and on.” He added, “I don’t just talk about it like politicians do after this massacre. We’re going to do it within a week.”
Arpaio said his posse would “take any action necessary in case there’s any suspicious activity.” To me that suggests Arpaio’s gang will shoot first and ask questions later (if at all). But Bolling gave the whole thing a thumbs up:
Wayne LaPierre from the NRA said that the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is have a good guy with a gun in the way. We tend to agree with that, Sir.
Apparently, it's a given that Sheriff Joe and his merry band of armed posses are part of the good guys.
Arpaio said he now has 3,000 posse-members and he plans to recruit more to “help fight this problem that we have in our schools.”
Not everyone can afford a nice car or a big house or a college education or Knicks season tickets, but don’t all people deserve those things?
I believe that if you applied your argument to any of those situations, your republic, conservative attitude would lead you to a different conclusion than the one you are spouting.
Also, this guy’s posse consists of armed volunteers. Who wants a bunch of amateurs with guns at a school?
Tuition
Our President is entitled to all the security he can afford.
Of course, when one is that stupid, we may be expecting the impossible.
3,000 Posse members at, let’s say a minimum of 30k per year = 90 Million per year. That would put about 1 armed ‘posse member’ in each of Az’s K-12 schools. But then no posse for the other Arpaio concerns. So…..if he needs an additional 9000 people at even that ridiculously low wage, we’re talking at least another .3 Billion in additional costs….paid for by the state.
Yeah, the crazy retirees in Az are gonna go for that.
The man is a complete ass, desperate for attention.
