Joe Arpaio is that Arizona Sheriff who has advertised himself as ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’ and has been the center of attention in the whole controversy surrounding Arizona anti-illegal immigrant act.
He is quite a character as he has been accused of abuse of power, civil rights violations, financial mismanagement, racial profiling, and is currently the subject of some FBI, US department of Justice and Federal Grand Jury investigations. No less!
Highly criticized by amnesty International (among others), he has reinstituted chain gangs, even for juvenile inmates, as well as the use of stun guns, restraint chair, and has allowed ill-treatment of juveniles or use of excessive force.
He has even introduced a jailhouse program asking inmates to ‘have a heart’ and consider voluntarily signing up to give their own hearts (and other body parts)! Not a joke!
The San Diego noise pop act Crocodiles who played a great show this summer at the Echo in LA, has posted a song on Soundcloud, and the title cannot be more direct ‘Kill Joe Arpaio’ :
http://soundcloud.com/scemoburz/01-kill-joe-arpaio
It is not exactly a song, mostly some talk radio show in the background (talking about the anti-immigration law) mixed with their fuzzed guitars, no lyrics, hardly a melody, only a repetitive electronic part.
The Sheriff reacted to the song on KPHO, a local TV station:
‘I’m a little concerned about the music, where kids can get this type of music, I think it sends a bad message. I understand freedom of speech, but there has to be a line of threatening a law enforcement official.’
Yeah, I wonder who crossed that line.