Sheriff Arpaio - Still A Buffoon !

Maricopa County (Arizona) Sheriff Joe Arpaio is at it again -- proving that he is far more interested in publicity and posing than in any kind of justice. He just spent tens of thousands of dollars to serve a search warrant on a suspected criminal. And since this suspected criminal had a record, Arpaio pulled out all the stops. He brought a SWAT team in several armored vehicles. One of those vehicles was a tank (with actor Steven Seagal sitting on top of it dressed in army fatigues).

The vehicles rolled onto the suspected criminal's property and the tank ran through a wall of a building on the property -- crushing the building and everything inside it. What was inside it? Was it terrorist weapons of mass destruction? Not quite. It was 115 chickens, and the building was their home. But those chickens will never threaten the peace and safety of Arizona again, because they're now dead!

It turns out that the man they were after, Jesus Llovera, was suspected of engaging in cockfighting. And that record he had was for a single misdemeanor count of attending a cockfight. In addition, he did not have a history of owning any weapons or engaging in any violent behavior (and in fact, no weapons were found -- just chickens).

This was a ridiculous raid that did not need all the manpower and armored vehicles the Sheriff used. But then he didn't use them because they were needed. He used them because they looked good for the cameras. He was helping Seagal out by letting him go along on a raid, which would be filmed and featured on Seagal's "reality" series. I wonder how they're going to edit this to keep Seagal and Arpaio from looking like the fools that they obviously are.

If the sheriff needed armored vehicles and a tank to apprehend a person suspected of engaging in cockfighting, I have to wonder what he would need to apprehend a real violent criminal. But then maybe that's why he goes after cockfighters and undocumented immigrants -- because real criminals are just too dangerous.

When is Arizona going to realize just how silly Arpaio makes the state look and get rid of the buffoon?