By The Time I Get To Arizona, Part 12

Oh, this will end well.  I can feel it.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says he is ramping up his fight against illegal immigration and is calling on armed volunteers to do the patrols.

Sheriff Joe is always talking about his department’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration but now he wants to commission a posse whose only job will be to enforce illegal immigration and human smuggling laws.

The sheriff explains, “We have 57 different posses. I want 58.”

Arpaio says posse 58 will be devoted solely to illegal immigration. “I want a little specialized unit. I think it's time to do that.”

Details are sparse but, like the sheriff's other posses, this one will be made up of armed volunteers who will patrol rural areas looking for border crossers and human smugglers.

The sheriff explains, “I want to concentrate more in the desert, maybe that’s where our air posse helicopters can help out because a lot of smugglers are crossing the desert. I like to get to them before they get to Phoenix.”

Latino activist and Arpaio-foe Salvador Reza says Arpaio's announcement is meaningless because the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office already does sweeps and patrols. “He does this to create havoc and also to create fear,” Reza says. He says volunteer posse members who do not have full police training will likely make mistakes. Reza says, “The posse are just a bunch of inept people that are running around in sheriff’s marked cars.”

Because the best way to defuse a high-tension situation like this is to add more civilians with guns to the mix.  That'll help.  Nobody will get hurt here.  And you wonder why this clown is under DoJ investigation. 

Can you imagine what would happen if there were a black sheriff in Kansas or Oklahoma leading armed civilian posses on patrol?  What about a Latino sheriff deputizing folks in Florida or California?  What would America say about a Muslim sheriff doing the same thing in Texas?

I'm all for law enforcement, but I also believe it should be left to trained professionals.  What Arpaio has is goon squads meant to terrify the public.  Period.