You Go, Sheriff Joe!

You Go, Sheriff Joe!

Seldom does a local official have the testicular fortitude to stand up to the federal government when that government is acting wrongly.

Even more rarely does a local sheriff dare confront the feds when those feds blatantly and consistently fail to enforce federal laws and oppose the enforcement of Arizona laws passed to compensate for that failure.

Then, again, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona’s Maricopa County is a rara avis and not your typical local official.

Embattled and harassed for years over his penchant for law enforcement and his refusal to cave to Washington’s blind eye toward illegal immigration, Sheriff Joe also refuses to mollycoddle convicted felons.

He opts to treat them as what they are, namely convicted felons not entitled to kid gloves in his jail.

He once took flak for decking out his prisoners in pink. The soothing color may have offended the dignity of his inmates but served its purpose of soothing their tempers.

Ya got a problem with all that? So, too, does the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency which lauds itself as “a component of the Department of Homeland Security. . . whose mission is to protect national security by enforcing our nation’s customs and immigration laws.”

Nice, concise mission statement, ICE! Too bad you don’t abide by it and choose to ignore the massive influx of illegal aliens who for years have been flooding across America’s southern border and wreaking havoc on the populace with their guns and drugs.

Sheriff Joe is merely picking up your slack and doing what ICE is supposed to do.

“America’s toughest sheriff” has been the subject of a number of encomia on this blog, including, “Sheriff Joe Arpaio and His Enemies,” http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=885, et al. and he’s under attack once again.

His offense? The same ol’, same ol’, i.e., doing his job to the best of his ability.

That embarrasses the Powers-that-Be . . .

(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)