MCSO Insults our Intelligence

Are you getting tired of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spinning everything? In today's Arizona Republic opinion page, MCSO media spokesman Deputy Chief Brian Sands attempts to claim the Republic's Lori Roberts is insulting those deputies who participate in the MCSO's showboating "roundups." She didn't insult them, but that doesn't mean she can't be a target.

Here's my response to Sands' whining:

Out of these 898 arrests, how many convictions do you have? I would remind you that in the United States, you are innocent until --proven-- guilty. So let's see the conviction numbers before you take any credit for any success.

I also see you again skate the issue of the 41,000 outstanding felony warrants the MCSO is required by statute to serve. Bragging that the MCSO has in the last two years arrested 898 Class 4 felons while you allow murders, rapists, bank robbers and sexual predators run free is an insult to our intelligence.

The real insult to the MCSO deputies is their having to work for a boss who thinks his own media persona is more important than arresting 41,000 felons and 37,000 other criminals who really are making our community less safe. The insult is arresting people for the most minor of traffic infractions and then claiming you've captured "serious felons" when you know that the felony classification was an deliberate act by the legislature to make their being here sound worse than it is.

I will be so happy that come January 1, 2009 we'll have a new sheriff who knows what real crime enforcement means when Dan Saban is sworn in as the the Sheriff.