Head-Spinning Political Shit!

[apretty]

Originally Posted by GoddessJess

I love that guy in AZ that stuck them all in pink and made them work for a living!
I'm just sayin!

GoddessJess:

That "guy" in Arizona makes women give birth shackled to a hospital bed. His prisoners have died of the heat exposure, after requesting shade or water or after collapsing and being ignored. He supports racial profiling and his own people were recently caught smuggling drugs and people for Mexican drug cartel. If you care about women, or people at all--You'll educate yourself and rethink your support of Joe Arpaio.

Much more information found by googling phoenix new times sheriff joe (the new times is the local indie paper).

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by apretty

GoddessJess:

That "guy" in Arizona makes women give birth shackled to a hospital bed. His prisoners have died of the heat exposure, after requesting shade or water or after collapsing and being ignored. He supports racial profiling and his own people were recently caught smuggling drugs and people for Mexican drug cartel. If you care about women, or people at all--You'll educate yourself and rethink your support of Joe Arpaio.

Much more information found by googling phoenix new times sheriff joe (the new times is the local indie paper).

Having a sheriff like Arpaio seems like a fantastic idea--right up to the point where it actually exists. I understand the emotional catharsis of the sentiment "yeah! screw those criminals! They all deserve it, dying of heat exhaustion is too good for 'em!" Yet, that's all it is good for--emotional catharsis. From the moment I heard of Arpaio I knew he would become a folk hero because, as a nation, we are in love with bully figures. All Arpaio is is a bully with a badge and license to use deadly force. I wonder how many people who look at Arpaio as a hero would like to spend time in a Soviet-era gulag. I ask because what Arpaio is doing is constrained ONLY by the Constitution--imagine, if you will, what this man would do if there weren't that messy, messy, document standing in the way of 'good ol' fashioned brutality'.

I think that these types of characters are appealing if one cannot imagine oneself being on the business end of their nightstick. As a black woman I *can* imagine what would happen to me in Arpaio's district. One of his deputies might decide that I don't 'look' American enough and haul me in. I might be locked up and, if some Americans had their way, that would be all she wrote for me. No trial, if the cops pulled me over then I must've done *something*. No chance to defend myself--that's just a waste of time and money. No evidence need be presented--the cop said I did X so I must have done it. And if it turns out that they got the wrong woman but I've already died while wearing one of Arpaio's pink jumpsuits well, people are just so many eggs that one might have to break in order to make omelets.

Utopians--whether they are of the left or the right--create truly terrifying scenarios whether they realize it or not. The people who admire Arpaio and wish that our criminal justice system were informed by his methods are utopians.

Cheers
Aj