In a post at BlackAmericaWeb, Tonyaa Weathersbee dismantles a plan by Arizona's controversial Sheriff Joe Arpaio to have armed posses patrol elementary schools, saying the idea can easily go awry. Arpaio is known for his anti-immigration stance and for touting Obama Birther conspiracies.
This doesn't smell right. In fact, it has the downright stench of opportunism.
Joe Arpaio, the anti-illegal immigration hardliner and Obama birther-conspiracy-peddling sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., has found a way to twist the tragedy of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre into an excuse to expand his police powers more than seriously protect children.
According to The Huffington Post, Arpaio now plans to have armed volunteer posses out patrolling areas around the county's elementary schools. They won't be posted on the campuses, however.
Unless they're prepared to stop white guys who are dressed in camouflage or military vests, or black trench coats, I can't quite see how that will work. Besides, that would be racial profiling, and that's wrong.
Besides that, Arpaio likes to detain Latinos, not white people.
And because he has been shown to be a guy who ignores facts if they don't jibe with his prejudices or his attempts at political opportunism — he insists that President Obama's birth certificate is fake — I don't trust him to use his posses to protect children as much as I suspect he'll use them to step up his harassment of people of color.
No matter that they've never shot up a school.
Read Tonyaa Weathersbee's entire piece at BlackAmericaWeb.Â
The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.Â