Questionable publicity stunt?

Last October, I posted an article about Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s VOTER FRAUD PREVENTION VOLUNTEERS, a sheriff department sponsored program to suppress Latino voter turnout by stationing “racial profilers” at each voting center.   

In that post, I also mentioned Sheriff Joe’s “Prisoner Humiliation Program.”  In that program, he forces county jail inmates to wear pink underwear in order to reduce their self-esteem to its lowest human level.

Now, Sheriff Joe is trying out a new online program he calls his “Mug Shot of the Day Contest.”  This is apparently an attempt to extend his “Prisoner Humiliation Program” to those who are initially being booked into his county jail.

The practice of publishing the mug shots of arrested suspects on a publicly accessible website is morally, ethically, and legally questionable, because there is an implicit declaration of guilt by the arresting organization.  By making a mockery of the online pictures, Sheriff Joe is taking this to an even higher level of questionable legality.  

What Joe fails to realize is that, at the time that the mug shot is taken, the photographed person is not guilty of anything.  The concept of “Innocent until proven guilty” should be reinforced not denigrated by our local sheriff department.. 

Personally, I hope that one of the “Mug Shot” contestants will come back and sue Sheriff Joe Arpaio for $Millions after he/she is acquitted.