We Need a (Better) Hero

I’m just a plainspoken Colorado criminal defense lawyer, but the way I see it…

Vice President Mike Pence calls disgraced former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio “a tireless champion of…the rule of law.”

Sheriff Joe was certainly tireless in the racist policies and practices against Latinos, homosexuals, and most of all Latino homosexuals, that he embraced (the polices and practices; he would never embrace a Latino homosexual) as sheriff.

He was tireless in locking up people on suspicion of being Latino.

He was tireless in refusing to obey court orders to stop locking up people on suspicion of being Latino.

He was tireless — and remains tireless — in insisting that the last American President not elected to office by the Russians was merely a Kenyan poseur.

He was tireless in repeatedly violating the constitutional rights of the inmates under his charge. Tireless in refusing them medical and mental health care. Tireless in making their physical conditions as miserable as possible, literally stacking them in holding cells, feeding them spoiled food, dressing them up in pink underwear (never mind what dressing them up in pink underwear says about Sheriff Joe’s sexual fantasies). Tireless in setting up a self-described concentration camp for his jail overflow he called Tent City where he boasted of temperatures inside the tents of one hundred forty-five degrees Fahrenheit.

He was tireless in his refusal to investigate rapes of teenage girls, and of numerous other sex crimes, often because the victims were children of immigrants.

He was tireless in harassing and jailing, without evidence, investigative reporters who wrote stories about all these things. No wonder Donald Trump rushed to pardon him for a criminal conviction a judge didn’t even have time to sentence him for.

“I’m honored to have you here,” said the Vice President.

Yes, he probably was.