For all my peoples incarcerated, for those who ain’t make it

This is just a touch dated, but I’m on a Sheriff kick today. (And, I was just reading an old Phoenix New Times piece about this guy which reminded me I wanted to write something about him.)

All that was just a lead up to me saying that Joe Arpaio, darling of the modern day nativist movement, is a bad man.

In case you haven’t tracked this one, Joe Arpaio is a sheriff in Phoenix, Arizona. He’s known best for dressing inmates in pink underwear, making them sleep in tents and feeding them green ham. He also—and this has more currency—has instructed his underlings to ask residents “about their immigration status, particularly if they speak only Spanish and wear certain clothing, including jeans and shirts that officials consider characteristic of south of the border.” (So says the NYT.) A practice that, unsurprisingly, has led to lawsuits.

A couple days ago, the Phoenix New Times sued his office for a copy of a video of the final moments of Juan Mendoza Farias’ life. Farias died after an altercation with 11 of Arpaio’s guards while incarcerated in 2007.

Like I said, a bad man. A man so bad he’d make medicine sick.

I guess Sheriffs are one for one today.