Arbeit Mach Frei
The Major League All Stars game… scheduled for Phoenix’s Chase Field next Tuesday is supposed to highlight professional baseball’s finest… although, being in Arizona, since the passage of the “Show us your papers” law, aka SB 1070, that could be a problem:
… 27 percent of MLB players are Latino, compared to 16 percent of the general population. Since its passage, SB 1070 has been condemned by civil right groups because they say it would lead to racial discrimination against Hispanics by police, who under the law are required to request identification from anyone that they have a “reasonable suspicion” is an undocumented immigrant. A federal judge has issued a preliminary injunction blocking this part of the law from going into effect.
but leave it to Sheriff Joe Arapaio to attempt to turn it into a showcase of Arizona justice at its most —I donno —Belsen-Bergenish Fuckedupish stone-cold friggin’ nazi-level insane!
The Arizona Republic reports a group of inmates from the sheriff’s holding area for suspected illegal immigrants will be on the chain gang with drunken driving offenders. All will be chained together and decked out in their striped jail uniforms.
Arpaio says it’s his way of sending a message about the perils of drunken driving.
So, if this is about the “perils of drunk driving,” what are the “suspected illegal aliens” doing on the chain gang? And, will those baseball players (assuming they show up, or the fans who are suspected of having a good tan) get the message that breathing while brown in Arizona is also perilous?
The Mex Files 
Rich, I think the initial idea to showcase drunken driving idiots is OK, but obviously using illegal immigrants is way over the top. That part puts the sheriff in his usual spotlight, it showcases why America has fallen over the past few decades in having public officials who pander to the wanna-be right wingers.
Combining “suspects” with “convicts” is offensive (uff!) in the extreme. A key tenet of US jurisprudence is “innocent UNTIL proven guilty”, yet Sheriff Azzhole is determined to parade suspects as though they were guilty …. Combining “suspected Mexicans” with drunks isn’t stereotypical or anything, is it? Why, that would be racist, I think.
Arizona has too long tolerated this rolling violation of human rights known as Sheriff of Maricopa County. At least the universe is now striking back in the form of enormous dust storms with clouds of dirt over a mile high hitting the area in the last few days. Of course, the evil sheriff has an air conditioned office, while the suspects are in fenced tents outdoors in the heat and unbreathable air.
Isn’t it about time for someone in the USA to develop a Richard the Lionheart complex and do away with the evil sheriff? I mean, as in removing him from his official capacity as Chief Racist of the County, not as in physical harm. Doesn’t the US Justice Department under Eric Holder maintain an Arizona office?
Still… stakes, rawhide straps, blistering desert sun frequently come to mind as a substitute for the corpulent cracker’s retirement home….