Big Tough Guy

This fella Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the big tough guy who brags about being America's toughest sheriff, is on trial defending himself in a class-action lawsuit brought by new Americans who are sick and tired of being harassed by Arpaio's deputies in Maricopa Co, Arizona, a place I pretty much can promise myself never to visit.

We've read about this guy for years, how he likes to serve substandard food to his prisoners, how he sends his men and women out to round up anyone who looks Mexican.  This current trial will be followed by a federal case against him for biased law enforcement.

Sheriff Joe swears to tell the truth in court, so I guess we have to figure he's being honest when he denies any prejudice against people of Mexican background.  "We don't make arrests based on skin color," he says in court.

All immigrants "exclusive of those from Mexico, hold to certain hopes and truths" is what he said in a book he wrote, handily titled "Joe's Law, America's Toughest Sheriff Takes on Illegal Immigration, Drugs and Everything Else that Threatens America."

Did you really write that, tough Sheriff Joe, he was asked in court? 

He said that was written by a co-author.

Outside the courtroom in Phoenix, a crowd gathered to counteract a group protesting Arpaio's violations.  They chanted a favorite motto of the unenlightened: "Don't believe the liberal media."

But you can believe what Joe writes in a book...unless he didn't write it.

By the way, you know what they say about Phoenix...how it might be 110°, but it's a dry heat?

Well, when Sheriff Joe speaks, it's a big steaming pile of bullhockey, but it's a dry steaming pile of bullhockey.