More on Sheriff Joe Arpaio and what is right

I am on a topic about Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. There is more on this in my previous blogs if you are interested, including video of his blatant abuses of power and the nasty situation his rule has caused down south because people are scared and angry and are allowing him and re-electing him in office to continue his abuse. A guy complained that, who cares about how prisoners are being abused in their county, they deserve what they got; people are after all, suffering with losing their homes, etc.

Here are his comments:

" Cry me a river. Good people are losing their houses because of the policies of corrupt politicians and youre worried about convicts living in a tent? They get food and medical, what about the family thats on the street. And if Im the one locked up, its my own damn fault for being stupid enough to not abide by societys rules. AKA due unto others..........." [Ellipses, people only three periods, four at the end of a sentence, okay?]

Here was my response, to be fair, I'm not going to edit my words below, this is straight from the posting I had made, so please excuse:

Well, that's the point isn't it? You too could end up in jail for having not broken any rules, that's half of what all this is about. And IF you are suddenly the one sitting in jail, wondering how the hell did I get here, and why am I being treated so miserably and people are looking in at you in their nice safe area outside the fences, they are thinking, shut up punk, you deserve to be in there, there are people like us, out here worrying about our jobs and mortgages, you suck, you shouldn't be IN jail! And you could only sit in jail wondering what the hell they are talking about and how you got in jail, wishing someone would take on your cause because, maybe you only pissed off some loser cop and you are now going to lose your job, your house, your family and maybe your life.

As for people in prison who belong there, they need to be given proper care, regardless, as they are now in the government's charge; this isn't about revenge, or even punishment. Its about correcting things that are broken (the people, or their orientation) but when the government is broken too, how is that a good thing? Then when these people get out, the idea is for them to not offend again, yes? Isn't that really the goal? What the hell is the use of just punishment (which is documented as working about as well as torture does in another arena,) and yes, this has been something that has forever been at issue in penal theory, but people like our beloved, fat little, joe-boy, are just making things worse. If there is also corruption involved with him, regardless of all this we are talking about, THAT is an issue that needs to be dealt with and HE needs to go to jail and his department dismantled.

By your way of thinking, I might argue that these people losing their houses were idiots to begin with for not setting themselves up for success. They should have been saving to keep themselves off the public dole, they should have gotten jobs that would support them through the bad times; they should have lived under their income not at the edge or over it or on credit; they shouldn't have refinanced using up all the equity in their homes. But that's not the point at this point, is it? We're there, they need help.
Now, if that gets your ire up, then you are right there with us on this Joe topic. However, if you can't see that, well, you're just blowing steam and that is understandable too. We're all pissed off, about something during these hard times. People are pissed, but they need to direct their anger at the roots of issues, not the people trying to correct things.

We need people that take care of things that aren't important to us, just as much as we need people who are fighting what we see to be, "our just causes".