Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who recently survived a recall effort over his much-maligned and recently declared unconstitutional racial profiling programs (he's appealing), announced that he plans to become a poster boy against discrimination like he became the "poster boy for illegal immigration." The discrimination Arpaio plans to publicize? Age discrimination.
On the eve of his 81st birthday, Arpaio sat down with Fox 10 report John Hook to address constituent concerns that a sixth term might be one too many for the aging lawman. "As you get older, and I get very angry at people out there throwing my age out now, the last resort, they have to throw my age out there, that's disgusting," he said. "It is disgusting. What, they think I'm going to drop or something? That ain't gonna to happen. That ain't gonna to happen. I guarantee you guys," Arpaio added.
Instead, Arpaio said he planned to use those alleged attacks on his age to bring attention to rampant discrimination against elderly people. "I've been a poster boy for illegal immigration, I'm going to be a poster boy this time around for all the senior citizens out there, with discrimination against them, whether you wanna believe it or not, there's discrimination against senior citizens," Arpaio claimed. "And I'm gonna set the example that I can move forward, I am a senior citizen, and I'm proud of it."
Arpaio then began to wax a bit nostalgic about his youth. "But my birthday is coming up, as you get more birthdays, sometimes, you think of the past," he began. "My mother died when I was born because she refused an abortion, gave her life for me." Arpaio was born in 1932 in Springfield, Massachusetts, and abortion was still illegal at the time.
"So that's the way I look in the past," he told Hook, "because I am moving up there, in the age, but that's not going to stop me from doing the job. Never will."
Watch the full video, courtesy of Fox 10, below:
