Couldn’t resist a little bit of photoshop fun.
It’s not even directly a drug war story, other than the fact that the tactics are part of, and have grown from, the drug war.
If you haven’t read about this already, you owe it to yourself.
A man was suspected of cockfighting, so Sheriff Joe Arpaio got an arrest warrant, and showed up… with armored vehicles including a tank… and Steven Seagal. Then they killed all the chickens, so I guess Steven Seagal and Joe Arpaio won.
See Radley Balko’s first report and bizarre follow-up.
Watch the video. It’s unbelievable.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BxPjDCuqjg
Let me be the first to say here, “This is totally wacked.”
Sheriff Arpaio FTW!
Whaaaat?! Where do the police get a tank from?!?
(excuse my UK ignorance as most our police don’t even have guns..)
Jake, the police get tanks from the taxpayers (or other citizens, sometimes).
Jake,
The federal government, through the Pentagon, has had a program of giving away excess military equipment to police forces, which has included everything up to, and including, armored personnel carriers and tanks.
This is part of the reason so many small communities who don’t really need it have SWAT teams, and it’s dangerously added to the militarization of the drug war here in the states.
Once police have the equipment, they look for excuses to use it. Plus, they often end up parading it around at community events (parades, etc.) thinking it makes them look tough to criminals, when in fact, it adds to a sense of fascism.
Thanks Pete, I knew SWAT was bad across the pond and have seen the repeated carnage the teams cause… But I was honestly shocked that a sheriff has access to such heavy equipment so readily – it looks more like a national guard operation than police in the youtube link!! You’re right, once they have it, machismo cops will look for any excuse to use it. At long as the defence companies make their money…
At least the guy arrested didn’t sign the release form so it was all in fact a waste (in that the production company is unlikely to pay as they don’t get the footage) and will highlight to that counties citizens just how much of a tax-wasting rouge their sheriff is…
Comment by Psion:
“Steven, you self-absorbed, quasi-rapist loser! You and Sheriff Joe deserve each other, and hopefully you’ll both be sharing a tent and wearing pink undies soon.”
All I can say. Assholes!
I came to the post thinking “Is it April First?”. This had to be a joke, right? Is this serious? I am in disbelief…never mind the tank, they get those at Army Garage Sales. Where the hell did they get Steven Segal? What was his PURPOSE? Was he there as a Super-Action Hero backup for Sherrif Joe’s SWAT Team? Maybe they were Chinese Martial Arts fighting cocks, and the big, wooden-actor whoop-ass was there to kikc some bird-butt. Good thing they killed all those birds, after all, cock-fighting is inhumane. HOLY WTF! I’m not gonna watch the linked video, I am having too much trouble with the pictures generated in my head by reading the story….then realizing this ISN’T “The Onion”.
They killed the chickens to save them. Don’t you have any humanity Pete? Why do you hate chickens so much?
Man a Freudian psychiatrist would have a field day with me if he found out what runs through my head when someone mentions cock fighting. It’s even further into the realm of the bizarre when the imagery includes Steven Segal and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. I could have happily lived my entire life without having that imagery in my brain.
If you thought some of the interactions between local law enforcement and medical cannabis vendors and patients were into the realm of theater of the absurd just wait until somebody opens a dispensary in Sheriff Joe’s bailiwick. I’m expecting a friggin’ circus. He’s already stated that he’s going to keep a sharp eye on them.
Thanks abunch, Duncan. I’ve just been traumatized, thanks to you. Bad enough, I had pictures of Segal wading through a flock of angry fighting cocks in my head. Under my own power, I’d have NEVER gone there…
I think Seagull has been doing a lot of Cop TV. Arpaiho is a media whore willing to do anything if it gets his mug on the tube. I’ve never bet on a cock or dog fight. I’ve seen the chickens. Very colorful. In a dog eat dog world of animal euthanasia. Killing dogs by the ASCPA with gas or in a cage fighting their last fight to the death. Or between a Col Sanders chicken raised its entire life in a 1×1 ft. cage or strapping razor blades to their feet and battling it out in a ring. It may seem under the circumstances, that fighting is the more honorable way to go out. Going out is the operative word. Animals should be left alone to live in Peace.
Yeah, the terms “Steven Segal,” “Joe Arpaio” and “Cock Fighting” sure seem to concoct it’s own storyline, doesn’t it? LOL And an appropriate vision, I might add. You sort of envision a “Mine’s bigger than yours” scenario, huh?
“What about the chickens? Won’t you please think of the chickens.” We should trot this meme out every time they bring up “The Children.”