Maricopa de la Norte Water Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink
The Island County sheriff’s office was holding a bipolar man for attempting to cash a $355 check, what we call identity theft. They brought him in and he promptly stuffed the toilet so that it overflowed his cell. The jail guards cleaned up the mess and decided to teach our boy a little lesson so they turned off his water. Turned the water off and left him for a couple of weeks without anything to drink. He died yesterday of dehydration.
Oh, I suppose some folks might consider this excessive. Medieval even. Cruel and unusual. The sheriff has been lobbying these past years for more money, what we thought might be used for additional deputies and staff, but now seems obvious will go toward racks and Iron Maidens and other torture devices since the jail is so bereft of funding all they can do is turn off a prisoner’s water. Until he dies. Maybe they just want to speed things up, I don’t know.
I do know Arizona’s got nothing on Island County for dealing with criminals in a firm manner. Abu Ghraib looks like a spa-resort in comparison. If they can execute a man for the high crime of attempting to cash someone else’s check for $355, you speeders better wise up, the full force of Island County law is going to come down on you like a nuclear bomb. Roadside justice! Maricopa Joe down there in Phoenix looks like a bleeding heart compared to our law enforcement officers. Swift and sure punishment, save the expense of a trial, not to mention the cost of food and water. These are hard fiscal times down at the cop shop and it takes a confident leader to make those calls.
This next few days should see the lawsuit for millions coming at the County. So much for that extra money for law enforcement. Or for social services. Or, well, for most everything. Maybe the folks down at the station haven’t been watching the news lately, maybe missed Baltimore and Ferguson and the others. Maybe they thought the public was too quick to blame the police in those deaths, they’d just knee-jerk some misplaced sympathy for the criminals. Shooting a suspect in the street is one thing, though. Killing him over two weeks is quite another. Where I come from, we call this murder in the first degree. And so far nobody’s been charged.
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