Arpaio Goes Shopping

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

It happened this past Wednesday, the same day Gabrielle Giffords walked into a Senate hearing and begged, in a gun-hobbled voice, for some brave national leadership on the urgent need for gun control. It happened this past Wednesday, the same day a 70-year-old shooter opened fire in a Phoenix office building killing one and wounding two others.

This thing that happened last Wednesday also occurred in Phoenix.   Joe Arpaio, America’s most repugnant sheriff, stepped before the microphones to announce that he was going to spend half a million dollars to purchase 400 automatic rifles for his deputies.  The octogenarian lawman said that he would pay for the weaponry through confiscated (RICO) drug monies – and he plans to have the rifles in the hands of his deputies by this spring.

Arapio said that he does not want his deputies to be outgunned by the bad guys.

The NRA and its overlords (gun manufacturers and sellers) say “thank you” and “ka-ching.”  The primary right that the NRA promotes is the right to sell arms.

Interestingly, Old Joe doesn’t present as overly eager to keep guns away from the bad guys.  He is busy making statements about how he is unsure whether he would enforce any new federal government gun regulations or not.  (Joe, as with a bevy of Arizona politicians, supports the 2^nd Amendment ardently – though none of them seem to understand it – while totally ignoring the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution.  They pick and choose from the Constitution like it was a smorgasbord from which they could create their own perfect lunch.)

Hey, Joe, if you have a half-a-million in pocket change just lying around, why don’t you put it towards the millions and millions that you and your department have cost Maricopa County and its insurers in court settlements over the years?    True, it would be just a drop in the bucket in relation to the dozens of successful claims against your department, but the taxpayers would probably appreciate the gesture.  I know I would.

There is a process underway to recall Joe Arpaio from office.  One of his flacks has been on the air this morning calling supporters of the process “sore losers.”   Old Joe probably feels that he has little to fear from this citizen initiative – just as odious former state senator Russell Pearce undoubtedly felt when a recall process was initiated on him a couple of years ago shortly after he had won re-election.  Pearce was ultimately recalled and removed from office.

Arpaio’s people are demanding to see a list of contributors to the recall process.  I am demanding to know where I can contribute!