Joe Arpaio is one of the most divisive figures in American law-enforcement. A one-time federal agent who, here, boasts at some length of his early, all-conquering career of hindering the drug supply overseas, Mr. Arpaio has, for nearly 20 years now, been the controversial sheriff of Maricopa county, Arizona, a highly conservative region of the southwest particularly populated by undocumented workers up from Mexico and other Central and South American countries. Prone to flamboyant stunts like setting up tent cities in lieu of expensive jails, subjecting his prisoners to sweltering conditions he considers no worse than what American troops suffer when they fight overseas, Mr. Arpaio is a throwback to another time in which people paid for their crimes by learning from their folly through suffering and hard work. He is far from ashamed of his successes at slashing his prison budget to the bare minimum; he's proud, arguing that the only reason other sheriffs haven't followed his lead is political in nature.
It's hard to know if Mr. Arpaio's methods have been successful at driving crime down on his patch, but we know this much. A great deal can be learned about the morality of a society by looking at how it treats its underprivileged and its criminals. Poverty is the root of crime, not an inherent desire to be selfish and obstinate. Therefore, it is difficult to imagine how extending the suffering of the marginalized in the name of slashing budgets and returning to the 1950s American values of personal responsibility and personal culpability will help do much more than alleviate the symptoms of a grave disease.
Mr. Arpaio may not have a plan to cure the patient, but give the man this much. He has the courage of his convictions, acting in spite of ridicule from many corners, which is much more courage than his critics possess.
This is a decent, down-homy read, but it spends too much time on self-congratulations and not enough time on the problems that Mr. Arpaio boasts of attacking so strenuously. (3/5 Stars)
I want to apologize for this review. I considered deleting it outright, given how dated it is, but I believe in intellectual honesty. So, I'm going to keep it up and state, here, that Joe Arpaio has, for all appearances, proven himself to be a repugnant actor in the public sphere. I should have been more skeptical when I reviewed this book. I wasn't. If anyone bought this book because of my review, I apologize. I strongly encourage anyone reading this to not financially support this individual by buying his work. His outlook on the world is heartless and divisive.
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