wtf #3: the haters

This edition of wtfaz features Special Guests: The Much-Beloved Sheriff Joe Arpaio, one of his cronies, and Some Dumb Guy.


The Much-Beloved Sheriff Joe Arpaio presides over a good program: his office has toughened up big time on drunk drivers.  Big penalties and the like.  That's a good thing.  I'm not sure I like this part of it:

The whole "discouraging crime by making criminals wear pink because as everybody knows, only a gay would wear pink and you don't want to be a gay do you?" thing?  Well, that's much less good.  But that's not the really bad.


The really bad is the racism.  The Much Beloved SJA has become that, in part, because of his ass-kickin' tactics in the illegal immigration realm.  His office conducts these massive sweeps of brown people to ensure that they're all legals.  I suppose that's on the line...I mean, illegal is bad, right?  But then he makes comments like this:


When a reporter asked the sheriff how his deputies determined when to question about their immigration status during a news conference Saturday he replied, “Certain criteria -- no identification, look like you just came from Mexico, and they admit it. So that’s enough."


Wait...look like you just came from Mexico?  What does that look like?  This?  These guys look like they just came from Mexico...is that what his deputies are looking for?  Or maybe they're searching for this fella.


But since that was clearly some sort of misspeak, a reporter went to ask TMBSJA's director of custody to clarify.  He cleared it right up:


“I think you can tell people that are not from this country,” he said. "And I’m not talking Hispanics. Maybe someone from France looks a little different than somebody from Europe or somebody from England looks a little bit different than we do. It’s the same way that they can tell when an American citizen is in Europe."


Um...what?  Now, ignoring that someone from France is also somebody from Europe...xenophobic much?  "He's different!  Get 'im" seems to be the policy they're advocating.  And if he didn't like being singled out on his trip to Europe, maybe the Crony shouldn't have worn this shirt.


But don't worry...people are tiring of these hatemongerish comments and are beginning to rise up!  From a letter to the editor in The Arizona Republic printed a couple days after the above comments:


Having been in law enforcement, although some time ago, what is now called 'racial profiling,' we called 'good police work.' If it walks like a [furriner] and quacks like a [furriner], it must be a [furriner]. Sheriff Joe Arpaio is doing the job he is being paid to do and has my vote.


Again; what?  First, this phantom "[being] in law enforcement" thing...what the hell does that mean?  Was he a prison guard?  An inmate-turned-snitch?  Maybe he lived in Tombstone and got deputized to help Wyatt and Doc and the fellas run the Cowboys outta town?  But equating racial profiling with good police work?  That's a sweet one.  He might as well have said, "In my day, it was easy to know who the bad guys were--they were the brown ones."  


To sum up:


Cracking down on DUIs?  Good (+1)
Trying to make prisoners repent by making them look like homos?  Bad (-5)
Rounding up or harassing people who look different?  Very Bad (-1,000,000)


Today's TMBSJA final score: -1,000,004.  He's either a bad sheriff or a beyond-amazing golfer.  And yet I read today that his approval rating is something like 86%.


Eighty-Six Percent?  wtf, arizona?