Email
Print
by 
Chalk one more up for Maricopa, Arizona County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He's got hip-hop goon DMX in his clutches and wearing pink underwear.
According to Yahoo Music's Billy Johnson, Jr., in his "Hip-Hop Media Training" blog, rapper DMX is serving true hard time in Arizona's most famous penal system for animal cruelty, drug involvement and fraud. "Sheriff Joe" told Fox & Friends that he has had the policy of pink T-shirts, underwear and socks in place because inmates at the Maricopa County jail kept stealing the white underwear, so to prevent any future inmates from absconding with free underwear, Sheriff Joe dyed them pink.
DMX has reportedly said, "This is ridiculous, this is disrespectful. This is not where I want to be...it used to be, 'I'll go there, I'll be the life of the party, and ... it's nothing'." Sheriff Joe, showing no sympathy for the recidivist, responded, "Jail isn't supposed to be fun."
This is apparently not the first time DMX has seen the world through vertical steel bars. According to Johnson, DMX likes to talk about jail as if it is some sort of badge of honor. Johnson admonished DMX saying that talking about jail, "as if it is a hangout spot is not fine either."
Johnson and Arpaio are on the same page there. Hard time is supposed to be hard time. News reports have circled the globe multiple times over about Sheriff Joe and his chain gangs, tent cities and pink underwear for male inmates.
That DMX thinks it's somehow acceptable to spend time in jail just goes to prove how perverted and twisted society has become. Since DMX is involved with a sect of society that promotes all kinds of socially unacceptable activity, it is no surprise that he is in jail on drug and fraud charges. What is a surprise is that the ACLU hasn't swooped down on Sheriff Joe calling his hard time policy "cruel and unusual" -- especially considering DMX is black.
American prisons need to be more like the Maricopa County system. This reporter wouldn't be opposed to life prison sentences if those serving life prison sentences got a 10' X 10' battleship gray cell, three hots and a cot. But to give prisoners access to library materials, gym facilities and even television makes prison more like an extended stay at the Holiday Inn and not a deterrent to crime.
People like DMX who continually break the law, got to jail, serve their time and then come back out to pick up where they left off are an insult of the highest order to civilized society. Rapists, murderers, drug dealers and other thugs are given the same comforts of home even though they are supposed to have been removed from society because of their actions.
Sheriff Joe is right on the money when he says, "Jail isn't supposed to be fun." Jail should never be fun. Thugs like DMX see jail much the same way a Boy Scout sees an Eagle Badge -- as something to which they should aspire. Why? Because these morons know that they'll have a better life in prison than they would on the outside. What good is being in prison if it's the same as being a civilian?
It does not take a rocket scientist that the threat of jail is not a threat anymore. When this reporter was a child, the idea of going to prison was scarier than meeting Satan himself. Now, people go in and out of prison with such regularity that one has to wonder why there aren't revolving doors on the buildings?
Of course liberals will always BMW (bitch, moan, whine) about how the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment for crimes. They claim that denying the comforts of home to prison inmates falls under that moniker. These same people believe that if you grant prisoners access to the American educational system and give them an education that you have somehow "rehabilitated" the criminal and he will then be able to return to society and function in the capacity of an upstanding model citizen who no longer presents a burden but actually contributes to society. Yeah, right, and this reporter has a bridge in Brooklyn he'd like to discuss with you.
It's a good thing that DMX is serving hard time in Arizona for being stupid. Maybe Sheriff Joe's prison system will make DMX think twice about committing a crime in that jurisdiction again. But this reporter is a realist. It's not very likely that DMX will never commit a crime again, but it's very likely that he will never again do it in Maricopa County, Arizona.
If America would adopt Sheriff Joe's practices nationally, the crime rate would go way down. You don't need more than a 3rd grade education to figure that out.
Print
Report abuse
D.E., Can you please provide your readers a quote from a credible liberal that believes, "denying the comforts of home to prison inmates falls under that moniker." I know you have a nasty habit of telling your readers what liberals believe without ever providing any proof.
Additionally, suggesting criminals can not be rehabilitated by education is like spitting in God's face and calling him a liar for telling us, in the Bible, that people can be saved. There seems to be no room for repentance and behavior modification in your world view. Even though education has been proven to effectively reduce recidivism.
As usual, parts of your article is fairly objective. But than you go into your typical unfounded liberal bashing and you fall so far from the mark it's not even funny.
Personally, I have no problems with much of what Sheriff Joe does, including the pink underwear. But I do have a problem with you claiming to know what liberals believe when you consistently distort or promote outright falsehoods to further your extremist, radical right wing agenda.
Take for example this strange statement in your article, "What is a surprise is that the ACLU hasn't swooped down on Sheriff Joe calling his hard time policy "cruel and unusual" -- especially considering DMX is black."
First of all, what does the color of DMX's skin have to do with the ACLU going after Sheriff Joe? Didn't the ACLU help out Rush Limbaugh when he was dealing with his illegal drug problems?
Second, since I'm a card carrying member of the ACLU and in the name of honesty and fairness, the ACLU has indeed "swooped down" on Sheriff Joe a few times now. But, not because of pink underwear or anything BMX has to say. Actually for failing to provide the constitutionally required basic minimum human rights. Here is an excerpt from the ACLU on the most recent case they brought against the Sheriff:
"The ACLU will argue in U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona that deteriorating conditions within each of the jail's five facilities that house pre-trial detainees – people who have been arrested but not yet tried or convicted – necessitate federal court oversight to ensure that Arpaio and other county officials maintain safe and humane conditions and provide the thousands of pre-trial detainees held there basic levels of medical and mental health care.
"The failure of Sheriff Arpaio and other Maricopa County officials to provide adequate basic medical and mental health care exposes the men and women in their custody to needless and terrible pain, deterioration of their medical and mental health and risk of permanent injury or even death," said Margaret Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prison Project. "There can be little debate that detainees are being systematically denied access to the level of care mandated by the Constitution."
Pre-trial detainees at Maricopa County Jail are regularly given moldy bread, rotten fruit and other contaminated food. Detainees with serious medical, mental health and dental needs receive inadequate care, and they are routinely denied beds or bunks at intake, forcing them to sleep on the floor. Additionally, severe overcrowding in three of the jail's facilities has created extremely dangerous environments by significantly increasing the potential for violence among inmates."
What is important to note is that there is nothing about pink underwear or DMX in the ACLU's complaints against Sheriff Joe and his approach toward incarceration. So, D.E., why did you conflate the two and bring up DMX's skin color in that crazy statement of yours?