Joe Arpaio Lies, Insults His Deputies, Promises School-Posses with "Automatic and Semi-Automatic" Weapons
But for our semi-senile autocrat, if the deputies involved had more firepower, they (magically) never would have been shot. That's why, he promised, he would be arming "all my deputies with automatic, semi-automatic weapons."
So both the posse members and all of the actual deputies will have automatic and semi-automatic weapons. That's a situation Hartmann compared to Uganda at the end of its civil war, or the current anarchy in Somalia.
Hey, maybe Joe should have his own nuke? I mean, why not? Then he could protect us from enemy attack as well. Better safe than sorry, right?
As for his geriatric posse men and women, each reeking of old-person smell, why, they're the same as deputies, Arpaio contended, a comparison I'm sure his actual deputies love.
"My posse have been through the same requirements as regular deputies," Arpaio prevaricated. "Over 100 hours of training, and refresher courses."
This, of course, is complete bullshit. As I pointed out in a recent post, Arpaio's posse members are not certified by the Arizona Peace Officer and Traininng Board.
That means they are not peace officers and do not have the power of arrest.
They may wear uniforms nearly-identical to actual MCSO deputies, but they are not trained like deputes are. Far from it. I'm not sure what this posse "training" actually entails, as AZ POST Executive Director Lyle Mann told me that POST provides zero training to Joe's posse.
According to POST's website, law enforcement agencies enroll their trainees in a POST-certified academy, where they will go through "a minimum of 585 hours of mandated training," and "pass a Comprehensive Final Examination."
Which, I reckon, is a good thing. To compare a pear-shaped posse member to a sworn officer is completely ridiculous. As ridiculous as Arpayaso himself.
Sure, some posse members are former LEOs and ex-military. But even if they've been POST certified in the past, or certified in some other state, if that certification has been inactive for three years after separation from a law enforcement agency, they must renew their certification, or they cannot be re-employed as cops.
The AZ POST website spells out the trouble with acting like a cop when you are not POST-certified:
"A person who has inactive peace officer certification has no law enforcement authority. A person with inactive certification who takes action as a peace officer under certain circumstances may be committing the crime of impersonating a public servant. In order to perform the duties of a peace officer or exercise the authority of a peace officer, a person must have both active peace officer certification and be authorized to exercise that authority or perform those duties by the appointing law enforcement agency."
Arpaio is practically encouraging his posse members to commit "the crime of impersonating a public servant."
I mean, why not identify these posse members as posse members, instead of allowing them to wear uniforms and drive cars that identify them as MCSO deputies, when they are not?
This latest stunt by Joe is a disaster waiting to happen. But hey, this is what 50.7 of the electorate in Maricopa County voted for. And we have four more years of it to endure.
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