Fifty million dollars, and counting. That what Joe Arpaio has cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County so far. Personally, I think it is no more than they deserve for continually re-electing this corrupt, sadistic, racist to office.
Sheriff Arpaio will be 80 years old next year. Long past the age when most men retire. The real tragedy is that he will probably be allowed to do so, rather than end up in prison where he belongs.
Don't expect any objectivity from me on this issue. I admit it. I hate the man. I hate him with a passion. I hate his arrogance, his sadism, his racism, his pettiness, his blatant self-promotion, all of it at the expense of those least able to protect themselves. He is a mean-spirited bully, totally devoid of anything resembling compassion or empathy. To me, he represents everything that is wrong, not only with this state, but with this country. His efforts at voter suppression are the very definition of what is un-American.
Now, finally, things are beginning to unravel for him. He's run out of subordinates to throw under the bus, so there is little left between him and the consequences of his actions. Though I fear those consequences will end up being little more than an inconvenience for him. He had to know this day was coming, and I have no doubt he planned for it accordingly. Like any other unethical person with too much power, he probably has a number of things squirreled away somewhere, meant to ease his fall.
Pity.
The lesson? Sometimes evil wins. And there's not a goddamned thing we can do about it. At least, not without succumbing to that same evil. In the end, that's what separates us. I'd rather see him go free, than to become him.
Still, if there were true justice, he would spend the rest of his wretched existence wearing pink underwear, and eating green bologna.