Saturday, September 03, 2011

"Sheriff Joe": An Idiot

What is it with Arizona LEO's, anyway?

Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio and actor Steven Seagal, filming his A&E reality show "Lawman," used a SWAT tank and other armored vehicles in a residential neighborhood to bust a man accused of cockfighting.

As a "Lawman" crew filmed the raid Monday, deputies serving a search warrant blew out the suspect's windows and leveled his gate, frightening neighbors. Jesus Llovera, who was convicted last year of attending a cockfight but has no record of owning weapons, was arrested on charges of suspected cockfighting, Phoenix TV station KPHO reported. He was unarmed.

A bit more from Forbes:

The story of Steven Seagal accompanying Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s raid on an Arizona man suspected of cock-fighting seems almost humorous. Almost, that is, until you think about police driving into your own home with a tank and killing your dog, which is what happened when Seagal drove a tank into Jesus Llovera’s house.

Seagal told a local radio station that animal cruelty was one of his pet peeves, and since the bust was an animal cruelty bust – which apparently requires the use of several armored cars, a tank, and dozens of sheriff’s deputies in full riot gear – Seagal decided to go along for the ride…and kill hundreds of roosters and a puppy in the process.

Ooooh. That's classy.

And, of course, the famous next step:

Llovera is now finally fighting back, filing the notice of claim as the first step toward a lawsuit that his lawyer says will seek $100,000 in damages and “a formal written apology” from Seagal to Llovera’s children for killing their puppy.

"B" movies, "B" brains.

6 comments:

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Let's call the cards here. I like Arpaio, but this is a monumental screw up and he has to own it. Segal is a dim-witted Hollywood guy who doesn't know any better. The sheriff OTOH DOES know better and allowed this to happen. If I were the county, I'd be looking at firing him.

Dad29 said...

Well.

Arpaio has done some good things, yes. But the libertarians are very unhappy with him (see, e.g., "Hit and Run" and search Arpaio..

He's displaying the "I've been in office too long" syndrome, as you observe.

Headless Blogger said...

Segal is sworn member of Sheriff Joe's Posse. I'm not making this up - Google it.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

@Headless: Even worse.

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Dan said...

Z movies, z brains.