Joe Arpaio And Steven Seagal Will Crush Your Cockfighting Ring With Tanks And Robots

What is America to do about the epidemic of cockfighting that might be undermining our liberties at home, maybe?

Well, if you're wondering, Arizona's Joe Arpaio, Sheriff of Maricopa County, has set the standard of cockfight confrontation. And it basically involves being utterly hysterical and deploying as much manpower and armaments as can be mustered against an unarmed dude with a bunch of chickens.

It all went down in Phoenix, three days ago, where in "a massive show of force...the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office executed a search warrant and arrested the homeowner, Jesus Llovera, on charges of suspected cockfighting."

How massive? Exactly this massive!

West Valley residents in the neighborhood are crying foul after armored vehicles, including a tank, rolled into their neighborhood to make the bust.

Neighbor Debra Ross was so worried she called 911 and went outside where a nearby home had its windows blown out, was crawling with dozens of SWAT members in full gear, armored vehicles and a bomb robot.

"When the tank came in and pushed the wall over and you see what's in there, and all it is, is a bunch of chickens," Ross said.

But how many of those chickens were actually bombs that needed to be fought to the death by Joe Arpaio's battlebots? We may never know.

Or at least, we won't know until these events are depicted on a forthcoming episode of A&E's Steven Seagal: Lawman:

[Llovera's attorney Robert] Campus said he believes the entire scene was basically a stage, to help actor Steven Seagal's TV show, "Lawman."

Seagal was riding in the tank.

The Sheriff's Department has entered into a contract with Seagal and part of that contract gives Seagal carte blanche to go along with the sheriff as he arrests people.

All of this comes courtesy of Radley Balko, who will soon be bringing his game to these pages. As highlighted in his post, Balko has done some great writing exploring the nexus of police work and reality television, so click over to get a preview of coming attractions.

According to the report, "Thousands of dollars in damages were made to the property and 115 birds were euthanized on the spot," so, hooray! Joe Arpaio is the undisputed king of cockfighting!

Adam Serwer has more.

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Comments

[Hvacrpro]

12:15 AM on 04/07/2011

Cops can get away with anything, they lost their respect for society themselves as whole. wheres the mental fitness test for being a public servant or is it public nuisance liability ?

[Joeman84]

10:38 PM on 04/01/2011

This from a man whos own wife was an illegal immigrant until she married him since her work visas had expired and she was unable to apply for more. Who figured he be wasteing tax dollars for his show. Better look at home when looking for those illegal immigrants with the posse

[Michael Kinsley]

01:46 PM on 03/28/2011

BEFORE YOU JUDGE....Understand you know ZERO about the intel on this case to decide what use of force is necessary for this raid. Better be safe than sorry- or would you rather have cops killed? Typical press- they know zero about real law enforcement and what they do other than what they see on TV. All I will say is- its not how it appears on the surface or how it reads my fellow sheep readers/reporters.

[Balzac]

02:31 AM on 03/28/2011

Seems like a bad deal.

[jokamachi]

07:12 PM on 03/27/2011

Steven Seagal: @ss clown

[freedom1947]

10:25 AM on 03/27/2011

double down Joe Arpaio seems to want his own reality spot. Say it isn't so Joe.

[Jone]

10:49 AM on 03/26/2011

Awww, c'mon Stevie, love your movies baby but this is just fowl!

[philko]

09:43 AM on 03/26/2011

Once again, money rules (although ego definitely comes into the picture here).

We're going to see more of this cr@p as budgets get cut and police departments start having "creative" ideas about how to make up for it. And now that America's used to copcams-as-entertainment, the market will more and more reward spectacles such as this.

A race to the bottom is on its way and civil liberties be d@mned.

[Joeman84]

10:39 PM on 04/01/2011

thing is its the taxpayers who are paying for this publicity stunt.

[AuntInAZ]

04:47 AM on 03/26/2011

What a stupid story! While I would not be lining up behind Sheriff Arpaio with my support, cock fighting is not a joke, and some of the posters here seem to be treating it as such. It is animal abuse, plain and simple and should not be allowed.

[argved]

01:15 AM on 03/26/2011

I thought Seagal was the Cockpuncher.

[ydnas639]

06:18 PM on 03/25/2011

Sheriff Joe ran over chickens with a tank - and he took Seagal along to make damn sure people noticed. You just can't make stuff like this up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEoCzfhF-lw&feature=related

[TitaniumAvatar]

05:17 PM on 03/25/2011

Anytime you get two male egos of that magnitude in the same room a cockfight will breakout.

[Whinger]

04:38 PM on 03/25/2011

Well, I say, I say boy, you drove that ol' tank right over three of my hens....

I demand, I say boy, you listening to me, I say, I demand compensation....

Ya can't go riding roughshod over Foghorn Leghorns hen house in such a careless manner!

[Harvee Wallbanger]

08:31 PM on 03/25/2011

I said pay attention, son, pay attention...

[sy49ers]

04:37 PM on 03/25/2011

cocks, tanks and robots. Does it get any better than this? Yes, in Africa.

[LiberalLee]

03:54 PM on 03/25/2011

Must be some scary hens these people keeps.
Bet Joe and Stevie'll look FAB-ulous with egg on their faces