Legal Commentary

Our Brave Men in Law Enforcement

By Michael Froomkin

Sheriff uses tank to knock down part of house and arrest unarmed man…on suspicion of …wait for it…cockfighting.

Yes, it was crazy Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Pheonix, Arizona. The fact that they had a guy along riding in the tank and filming for a TV show had nothing to do with it.

But they did kill 115 chickens on the spot, so all that force might have been necessary: “We’re going to err on the side of caution.” a spokesman explained.

Video about the raid, and more about what I take to be the “tank” (pictured) — which looks more like an over-armored APC to my untrained eye — here.

You know, when Heller or Pynchon wrote stuff like this, I read it as surrealism, not clairvoyance.

(Spotted via Daily Kos.)

Full post as published by Discourse.net on March 23, 2011 (boomark / email).