Arpaio: Sharpton is headline-seeking charlatan
June 3rd, 2009 @ 6:06am)
by Bob McClay
Comments:35

Additional links• Read Arpaio's letter to Sharpton

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio fired off a letter Wednesday to the Rev. Al Sharpton, asking what happened to his promise in April to come to Arizona if the sheriff didn't resign.

"I'm telling Rev. Sharpton `I'm not resigning. All you do is talk, try to get your face on television. You never follow through with your actions,'" Arpaio said in releasing a copy of the letter on Tuesday.

The sheriff added, "Every day I get letters from people around the country, telling me not to back down. So now I'm going back and saying, `I'm not backing down.'"

It is the second letter that Arpaio has written to Sharpton, the president of the National Action Network, since April.

Sharpton demanded Arpaio's resignation at a news conference eight weeks ago, in which he condemned the sheriff's immigration policies.

"Any one of color is being pulled over and harassed. People are being made to carry their citizenship papers around and that's racial profiling," Sharpton said at that time. He said he would lead a march in Phoenix in May if the sheriff refused to step down.

Arpaio said Sharpton has no intention of coming to Phoenix.

"He's in hiding," he said. "He's now wiped Arizona off the map. He wouldn't know how to get here."

Arpaio said there are demonstrators outside his downtown Phoenix office all the time.

"ACORN, every day they're out there demonstrating. So, I'm telling him, if you're hooked up with ACORN, Reverend, come on down. See how they're doing since I'm sure it's costing them a lot of money for their demonstrations."

In Wednesday's letter, Arpaio said that "no knee-jerk emotional demands from anyone" are going to stop him from doing his job.

He called Sharpton a "blustering charlaan," who simply wants to make the national headlines.

"The Reverend only pretends to care about civil rights," Arpaio said. "All Al Sharpton really seeks is to see his name in headlines. His threats of bringing large numbers of protestors against me to the valley and forcing me to resign from office were completely bogus."

The sheriff added, "Every man is only as good as his word. Sharpton's word is worthless and so, too, apparently, is his ability to organize his followers to effect change. He's all talk and no action. He has literally disappeared fromt he radar when it comes to this issue."

A call by News/Talk 92-3 KTAR to Sharpton's office in New York City Wednesday reached voice mail. The call was not returned.


http://ktar.com/?nid=6&sid=1175488