Too much time with his head up Joe Arpaio’s posterior has deprived EJ Montini’s brain of oxygen.
Posted by: Donna
Oh man, EJ must have been hard up for something to write about for this morning’s column. You just know this dreck was regurgitated from a talking point Sheriff Joe’s publicity flacks faxed to him:
The gruesome passing of inmate Marcia Powell a few weeks back has proved that in Arizona it doesn’t matter how a convict dies, only where.
Powell would have been national and international news if she had died in one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s much discussed jails.
But she didn’t. She was in a state prison.
If the chain-link fence enclosure into which Powell was placed and left in the hot sun for four hours had been in Tent City instead of the Perryville prison complex, Amnesty International would have contacted the U.S. State Department about the worse-than-Guantanamo conditions. But there was no great protest.
If a mentally ill person like Powell had been subjected to the same treatment in Arpaio’s jail as she had been in prison, I have no doubt that the American Civil Liberties Union, and who knows what other human-rights organizations, would have been up in arms, raising a stink among politicians on every level.
But Powell died in a state prison, and there was no political uproar.
I don’t know why it hasn’t occurred to EJ’s keen journalistic mind why that might be. Seems pretty obvious to anyone with a functioning brain cell that Arpaio’s jails get the attention of the world because he has not only fully institutionalized the humiliation and deprivation of his inmates, but he boasts about it. I’m not defending Perryville for using those horrible cages in the least, but they did promise to end the practice immediately after Powell died*. Had it happened in the Maricopa County Jail, Arpaio would have blustered, denied any culpability, and ordered more cages. See? That’s the difference.
Really, what was the point of that article? It should come with a fire hazard warning, it’s such a strawman. Oh, and I love how toward the end of the article EJ remembers that he’s supposed to feign sympathy for the dead woman:
Instead, from the moment Powell’s death became public I’ve received comments from readers who say they aren’t sympathetic to her plight because she made poor choices in life.
Yet here we are, choosing to make less of Powell’s death, not just because of who she was but because of where she died.
More than anything, Powell’s death demonstrates that celebrity trumps circumstance. Without a name like Arpaio’s to serve as a lightning rod there is no public interest in her case.
Marcia Powell was 48 years old. Her mental disorders stretch back for decades. She was a prostitute and drug addict who wound up behind bars because prison has become the place we lock up some of the mentally ill.
That’s her excuse. What’s ours?
Hell, I still can’t figure out what EJ’s point is, never mind his excuse. Is he admitting that the conditions in Arpaio’s jails are horrible? And when he proclaims that “celebrity trumps circumstance”, is that his guilty conscience talking?
*Mmm, not quite.
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What’s your point, “Donna”? I think the facts are pretty clear. A human being died because of neglect while being in the custody of our government, be it local, state, or federal. That’s inexcusable. I always wonder why Republicans are so passionate about “spreading democracy” and “improving living conditions” in counties like Iraq, Afghanistan and you name ‘em, wasting trillions of our tax dollars, wrecking our economy and sacrificing thousands of US soldiers in the process. While in this country, we have homeless people dying anonymously in the streets; inmates croaking in a medieval prison system, and more than 18000 Americans dying each year prematurely because they could not afford health care. And Obama who is trying to fix this mess left by Bush, is being blocked by these Republicans all the way. And then they wonder why the approval ratings of the Republicans in congress are at an all-time low?
I knew Republicans are Machiavellian and are without any compassion, but that they are also stupid, that’s new to me.
Why are you putting my name in quotes, “Herman”?
My point was that EJ Montini is being a hypocritical Joe Arpaio bootlicker in his column. Of course what happened to Marcia Powell was horrible, and inexcusable. And I couldn’t agree with you more about Republican priorities. The only things they ever want to spend money on are blowing up brown people and locking up brown people.