Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
I thought this was a headline from The Onion when I first saw it, but sadly it is from the AP (which is not satire, but frequently is also not real). Calling The Daily Show: Steven Seagal says he may run for Ariz. Governor:
Action-movie star (sic) Steven Seagal says he is considering a run for Arizona governor.
The "Marked for Death" actor told KNXV-TV that he is considering a shot at the state's highest office and has had a talk about the bid with the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America.
The 61-year-old made the comments while talking about his newly released reality series "Steven Seagal — Lawman: Maricopa County."
Seagal teamed up with Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio for the show that was shot in Arizona and airs on cable TV's Reelz Channel.
So crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio's cartoonish side-kick and bad movie actor Steven Seagal is thinking about running for governor. Why God? Hasn't Arizona suffered enough already as the laughingstock of the nation?
I thought, surely the Phoenix New Times is all over this latest development, but the New Times is reporting on that godawful cable reality TeeVee show that the AP somehow glossed over. Joe Arpaio Hyping "Controversial" Episodes of Steven Seagal Show to Air on Obscure Network:
The Steven Seagal: Lawman show, which was filmed for two seasons in Louisiana and aired on A&E now has a "lost" third season. This one was filmed with the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and is set to air starting tonight on a channel most people probably haven't even heard of.
Arpaio's press team has been circulating a flyer promising "controversial" episodes for this season featuring Seagal and Arpaio's boys in beige.
Seagal's presence has indeed been controversial, and you don't need to see a TV show to tell you that.
First off, Seagal came out to Arizona after resigning from the Jefferson Parish (Louisiana) Sheriff's Office, as he was facing an internal-affairs investigation there.
This IA investigation stemmed from a lawsuit from Seagal's then-assistant for the show accusing him of sex trafficking and creating a hostile work environment. (The complaint eventually was dropped).
That scandal apparently was no problem for setting up season three under the, um, leadership of Sheriff Joe Arpaio.It wasn't long before another lawsuit came about, this one after the MCSO set up the dog-and-pony show — with tanks and all — to bring Seagal along on the arrest of a single cockfighting suspect.
The lawsuit contains claims of an absolute circus taking place in the made-for-TV arrest, including a claim that Seagal barged into the property on a tank, crashing through a gate. That moment actually may be included in a trailer for season three that we found on A&E, which decided to suspend the show before the final season aired.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge after Llovera got rid of his attorney and gave up.
Anyway, the show will finally air on a channel called Reelz. If you have Cox cable, you don't have the Reelz channel.
It reminds us of Arpaio's last foray into reality TV, a three-episode run of a show called ""Smile . . .You're Under Arrest," on the Fox Reality Channel, which doesn't exist anymore.
Add a federal judge's effectively banning Arpaio and MCSO's racial-profiling practices and the several multimillion-dollar settlements paid out thanks to Arpaio and MCSO's tactics, and we sure don't need a TV show to see "controversial" MCSO practices.
The Arizona Republic recently opined in America's most expensive sheriff:
The media-savvy sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, likes to tout himself as the country’s toughest sheriff.
There’s not much evidence to support the title. So about a new one: America’s Most Expensive Sheriff.
The bills for the sheriff’s publicity stunts continue to mount.
Tent City, pink underwear and green bologna may have made the sheriff popular, but what they did most effectively was distract attention from multimillion settlements with the families of inmates killed or severely injured in Arpaio’s jails.
Next came more than $17 million in settlements with Arpaio’s political enemies — the ones he and Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas targeted in their supposed campaign against corruption. Every allegation they served up was laughed out of court. Thomas was disbarred. But Arpaio remains in office, kept there by the very taxpayers whose money he treats like a blank check.
And now the next bill is coming due: $21.9 million over the next 18 months to comply with a judge’s ruling that Arpaio’s office engaged in widespread racial profiling. The profiling occurred in service to the “toughest sheriff” story line. If we had a sheriff who put law enforcement ahead of his image, it’s $21.9 million we wouldn’t have to spend now.
* * *
Every extra dollar the county appropriates to comply with the court’s ruling is a dollar unavailable for other county services. That is one affront Arpaio should not be allowed.
To date, he has had to pay nothing for his abuses. Thomas was disbarred and former Chief Deputy David Henderschott lost his job. Innocents caught in his crime sweeps were handcuffed, detained and had to hire attorneys. Fear spread through entire communities. Public officials targeted for nonexistent corruption lived through hell.
* * *
Unbelievable. Arpaio is a burden on the taxpayer, needlessly costing this county tens of millions of dollars.
The residents of the state of Maricopa are to blame for crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. He is to blame for Steven Seagal.
Stephen Lemons of the New Times has more on crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio's cartoonish side-kick and bad movie actor, Steven Seagal. Joe Arpaio's Fake Lawman Steven Seagal Slammed by Ex-MCSO Lawman Brian Sands:
[E]x-Deputy Chief Brian Sands supposedly is rankled by ham-actor Steven Seagal's high-handedness and egocentric antics in dealing with actual sworn lawmen of the MCSO. This, while Seagal played at being a member of the sheriff's posse for Seagal's defunct series on A&E, Steven Seagal: Lawman.
In an interview with Channel 12's Joe Dana, Sands related an incident where Seagal supposedly berated a sheriff's deputy after a member of the bloated, decrepit action hero's entourage was stopped for speeding in Cave Creek.
MCSO flack Lisa Allen countered that she had spoken to Seagal who denied the allegations. So, of course, Seagal, the has-been movie star, is right, and the MCSO deputy is wrong.
Cat scratch fever: Watch Sands dis Sheridan in this Channel 12 piece.
Sands also told Dana that Seagal refused to get required posse training, even though he wanted to be the first through the door on certain occasions.
"The SWAT Team complained to me that he was trying to make entries as the lead officer going inside the door, which is something that is very high-risk," Sands told Dana.
Posse members are not certified by Arizona's Peace Officer Standards and Training Board. Basically, they can act in support roles, though the MCSO has been known to skirt this line.
Not only is Seagal not POST-certified, he came to the MCSO with baggage, having resigned his reserve position with the Jefferson Parish, Louisiana's Sheriff's Office — onetime host of his canceled A&E show — rather than return to face internal affairs questioning over allegations involving a sexual harassment claim.
Seagal ended up in Sand Land, riding shotgun with Arpaio's forces, as they obliged Seagal's producers by laying siege to a farmhouse where hundreds of roosters were being raised, allegedly for cockfighting. Notable was the use of a tank to roll through a fence.
The footage has since been acquired by a cable channel called REELZ, which the MCSO has been helping to hype.
Why does the MCSO bend over backwards for Seagal?
A mutual interest in publicity surely is one factor.
Sands suggests another — that MCSO Chief Deputy Jerry Sheridan's wife "brokered the purchase of a home for Seagal," according to Dana's piece.
Allen denied there was a conflict of interest, and stated that Seagal asked for the help of Sheridan's wife because Seagal trusted her.
The residents of the state of Maricopa need to just make this stop.
h/t Phoenx New Times photo