CONTROVERSIAL "SHERIFF JOE" COMES TO TOWN

"You want a scoop?" controversial and colorful Sheriff Joe Arpaio of
Maricopa County, Ariz., said Saturday, sitting in the lobby of
Bakersfield's Doubletree Hotel.

He said he has a plan to fight the Mexican thugs that are bringing
violence and drugs to the United States, oftentimes the latter on the
backs of illegal immigrants.

Arpaio, known for setting up tent-city jails in sweltering desert heat
and requiring inmates to wear pink underwear, said he'd send U.S.
border patrol and military personnel into Mexico to help that
country's police and Army fight the fight. It's the kind of
undercover, gun-battling work he said he did as a Drug Enforcement
Administration agent stationed in Argentina, Turkey and Mexico.

"People are gonna say it's too dangerous," the 78-year-old, five-term
sheriff said. "But we have military in (similarly perilous)
Afghanistan and Iraq."

Scoop or no, it was one of many prescriptions for the southwest's woes
Arpaio shared in a wide-ranging chat hours before he spoke at a
conference of the California Federation of Republican Women.

First some fun stuff.

Arpaio had never been to Bakersfield. When he was taken to Wool
Growers for lunch, patrons went gaga over him. After committing to
speak here he was asked to attend an event in Phoenix with Tea Party
favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., but stuck to his plans.

And Arpaio was terribly disappointed not to be greeted by protesters
or lots of television news cameras.

"Nobody reads newspapers," he quipped.

Arpaio gave an update on his new "Operation Desert Sky" in which armed
volunteers in fixed-wing aircraft spot smugglers traveling from Mexico
into his county. He said the first night netted 115 arrests, including
of 80 illegal immigrants and a ton of marijuana.

"California, a sanctuary state, should send me an award," he said.
"Most of the people (human and drug traffickers) coming across
Maricopa County are coming to California."

An activist group reportedly may ask President Obama to ground
Arpaio's posse. But he, pulling out one of his many one-liners,
dismissed that:

"We may have a no-fly zone over Libya but you can't tell me not to fly
airplanes in Arizona."

Arpaio similarly shrugged off the fact a federal grand jury has been
investigating him and others for alleged abuse of power. He noted he
just won a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union that
sought to stop enforcement of a voter-approved measure denying bail to
illegal immigrants arrested on felony charges.

Arpaio has long been controversial for what some consider the harsh
way he runs his jails, which also includes serving unappetizing food,
implementing chain gangs, airing classical music and educational
programming and denying access to pornographic magazines.

"He's a backwards neanderthal," said Bakersfield defense attorney Kyle
Humphrey, arguing it's just plain wrong to treat people badly and it's
"hard enough to lose your liberty."

"We've tried zero-tolerance, get-tough-on-people things since the
1960s and now all we do is spend every penny building prisons and
incarcerating people and the (inmate) numbers keep growing."

Arpaio said he's a big proponent of rehabilitation, too, highlighting
his jail drug programs, high schools and an initiative in which
incarcerated mothers record themselves reading books for their
children to hear.

"Is it cruel because I make them wear pink underwear? Is it cruel
because I took away their porno?"

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said he's frequently asked about
Arpaio and his tactics and why he doesn't implement them here, such as
housing inmates in the desert. There are practical, constitutional
reasons he does not, said Youngblood, who did not attend Saturday's
function.

"I think that what Sheriff Arpaio does in Arizona may work well for
him but California is controlled by a Democratic-controlled
legislature and the tactics he uses would cause the state to close my
jails," Youngblood said. "I'm told how many calories each inmate eats
per day. If I built tents, California would close my jails. It
dictates what you do and don't do."

Asked whether he'd implement some of Arpaio's ideas if he had more
freedom, Youngblood said he hesitates to answer "what if" questions.
He said he'd have to take a closer look at Arpaio's operations.

Arpaio was asked to speak because the conference's theme was
immigration and the Republican women's group was eager to hear about
why he's done some of the things he's done on that and other issues,
said Shirley Mark, central division president of California Federation
of Republican Women.

She praised the Arpaio jail initiatives she's read about. When asked
if the fact he's the target of federal investigations gave her pause,
Mark said she didn't know a lot about that.

"I don't believe and go along with everything someone says, no matter
what party they're from," she said. "I don't believe in everything
they do.

"A lot of the things he does are not inhumane. He eliminated things of
no value, that didn't help the person in prison. He replaced those
things with something beneficial. He doesn't want them there."